Thursday was a bad day, we started off asking for blood donations for a 2-year-old little girl in need of O pos. About three weeks ago, the local insurgents decided to fire-bomb the house of one of our Iraqi soldiers. The only people that were home at the time were his young wife and two little girls, ages 8-months and 2 years. All three were badly burned as a result. But the 2-year-old was the worst of all three. We were told that she would be alright after some skin grafts and time in our hospital.
However, we just received word that she only had a few days left and that the parents should be notified. We are all saddened by the news, but must stay focused. The mother had declined to stay in the hospital, even though her burns were severe, because in their culture every day in the company of other men is disgraceful.
Children, as I've said before, are often targeted by the insurgents. There was recently a RPG attack on an elementary school. I think this is the hardest part being here, the fact that the innocent children must endure so much. I really don't understand such cruelty.
One of my ongoing concerns has been the attitude of a lot of Americans here in Iraq. Later in the day, I overheard a fellow sergeant briefing a group of soldiers, and he actually said that "If it comes down to shooting an animal or a person, shoot the person. It's cheaper for us because we don't have to pay for future revenue the cow might bring and plus there's no body to file a claim."
Now a lot of this is just more fools talk and bravado, but I still see it as a reflection of attitude.
This is the truth, we have the power of life and death over those people outside the wire and a good deal of people are just drunk with power. They/we seem to enjoy the use of it. This same person soon thereafter berated one of our Iraqi soldiers for throwing away some MRE food, I really didn't feel it was needed. But we don't want to challenge each other in front of those we are here to help.
Earlier in the day, some of the guys, including the sergeant mentioned above, ran a convoy outside the wire and had to use their weapons to get a man in a vehicle to stop. The rule here is "WE OWN THE ROAD" all people in this country have been told to pull over, stop and let us pass, or else.
In this case "or else" meant shooting out one of his mirrors. The perceived threat is that a vehicle in motion can accelerate and collide with our convoy. If it's a VBIED,(Vehicular Born Improvised Explosive Device), untold numbers of soldiers will be killed as well as bystanders. So,the gunner makes the call in a fraction of a second and deals with the aftermath.
I should mention that the Sergeant above used an interpreter to get his message to the Iraqi soldier because after being here a year he still can't speak the language. This is true with the majority of military personnel here. The attitude is that learning to speak the language just isn't important, we've got weapons and power.
I disagree with the whole concept and have been learning as much Arabic as possible. Listen to this example what of not knowing the language can cause.
While having breakfast recently I ran into one of our medics serving in my former company. We started to talk about our different missions, and I asked him about his experience thus far. Well, he told me they've been doing a lot of "Presence Patrols." These are nothing more than a show of force and letting the locals know who's in charge.
I asked how he liked all the children and he said he didn't. This really took me by surprise, since all my encounters were pleasant. He went on to tell me that large numbers of small children will walk right up to them point and say "F--- you." I asked if he was sure about that and he said "Yes, I know what I heard. Their picking up English somewhere, that's for sure."
I didn't know how to react, could I be wrong? Are all these sweethearts just fooling me? Something wasn't right.
A few days later while studying my Arabic, there it was "FUK-OO," what did it mean? It's an Egyptian term for "Can you please spare some change?" I got a good laugh out of it, as did many of my peers, but I must say how sad it is that we are so unconcerned with learning the language. We have been deployed for training here now eight months and 98 out of 100 soldiers can't say "Good morning" "Sabaa alheigh" or "Do you need help?" "Teh taj musa ada?"
By the way, the Rumor Control killing of an Iraqi really did happen. His crime was that he was out digging near the road after dark and ran when told to stop, so the order was given to kill him. The theory is that he could have been preparing a place for a roadside bomb. He was in a location of prior bomb placements, as is the MO, bombs are always replaced. I wasn't there so I don't know what communication was attempted, if any, other then our standard "Keff!" "Stop."
I do know this though, this area is ripe with farmland and we've been told that many a farmer will tend his fields by moonlight and also avoid daytime heat. Like I said, I wasn't there and I'm only concerned about so many people having the wrong attitude.
That's all for now. I hope this grunt's perspective shows you what CNN and Fox can't. If I miss a few days please be patient, hopefully I'm on a short mission.
