The heat here is really starting to pick up,last week we hit a hundred and fifteen degrees and expect it to reach one-thirty eventually. The insurgent activity is definetly on the rise with an obvious increase in roadside bombings.As a simple Infantry Seargent this is very frustrating because we know almost exactly where we are going to get hit,the area anyway,and almost every other day.So I don't understand why we can't catch these guys in the act.There is one specific method that the Infantry can do and to my knowledge we almost never,if at all, perform it.I can't get into specifics on the technique itself but suffice it to say from all the people I've talked to outside the wire we just don't try it.I think that part of the reason is fear of U.S. casualties and lack of experience on the part of the National Gaurd leadership.People forget that for most of the last thirty or forty years National Gaurdsmen were famous for being ill prepared and unskilled,hence the term "weekend warrior".
And I want to be clear it's those "leaders" that have been around thirty or more years that lack the experience.This might sound like a contradiction in terms but it's not.Longevity is not, in itself,an indicator of experience.

I will say that we are far too dependent on technology and the push button warrior.We rarely want to move more than a few hundred meters from our armored cocoons and lack the physical ability to pursue those that would attack us.I know this because in the four monnths of "Combat readiness" training I went through to get here in Iraq I was only required to excersise three times,most of the six hundred people I trained with could not pass the Army physical fitness test,yet here we are getting attacked on a daily basis.And with the situation getting more active I hope we do something soon rather than just wait to get hit,as we seem to be doing.

As we prepare to let the Iraqi Army take over I can't help but wonder when we are going to rally go after the insurgents like we mean business.I know up north where the Marines and active duty units operate the tempo is very aggressive and that's one of the reason I wonder what the hold up is here.Unfortunatley this operation here in Iraq is being run in the press and that was one of my biggest fears coming here.I know and understand that the last thing anyone wants to see is a repeat of the "Somalia" incident.If we get bolder at going after these guys we will have to take some risks and too many politicians are wearing Army uniforms for that to happen.So what in turn happens is we die from a thousand cuts very slowly,it's nothing new it was done in many insurgent and guerilla type actions throughout history.It's just shown on the Internet in minutes and people can't handle the truth.But what can we do other then live day to day and adjust accordingly,politicians make war and soldiers fight them.

This brings up another concern of mine.I often times here that we are at "WAR" and that we are on "Battlefields",it all sounds very dramatic and definetly stirs up strong emotions,but from my gunners view I don't see it that way.This is a very violent place and death comes daily,but this is an insurgency not a "WAR".The biggest reason is that there is no National objective or standing military to defeat.
What we have here are terrorist cells and extremist groups that want to destablize the current Government.It just so much more effective politically to say we as a nation are at war.And the Generals can get so much more from politicians.If we start calling it what it really is
,a counter-insurgent operation,memories of Vietnam come into play.Sorry,but that's apples and oranges and the comparison need not be made.But because the unenlighted will make that jump we say we're at "WAR". I also want to be clear here,I FULLY support or efforts here in Iraq and am prepared to lay down my life for the hope of tomorrow,I just wish people in charge had their act together.

I'm fortunate to work and live with some of the greatest people on earth,American soldiers and just want us all to come home after a job well done.To drive down the MSRs and wait to get hit is not what we deserve,we need to go get these guys and stop worrying about photos turning up on the Internet and our hands getting tied by political reactions from Military politicans.