I would like to thank everyone for the support they have given me since I started this blog.
There have been many changes here over the last few weeks: New teams in, old teams out. New people in charge, new way of doing things, and as for our team, we are wrapping things up and getting ready to come home.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading the blog, I wish everyone the best, and most of all, I look forward to getting back home.
Thanks again for all your support.
Jim
Courtney E. Martin wrote an interesting article for The American Prospect; below is a copy of the link. Please read this intelligent young woman’s article before reading mine.
The Military’s Overlooked Brain Trust
This is how she summarizes her article regarding communication inside of the US Army being a “top-down” affair.
“They[soldiers] deserve to be encouraged, not just in lip service but also in real life, to contribute to a dialogue about our military policy. Putting one’s life on the line, after all, should include some very deep forethought and spiritual reckoning, not just fear or adrenaline. These soldiers deserve an opportunity to analyze the big picture. Instead, they are broken down by hoarse drill sergeants, trained to scream, “Hoo haa, I want to kill somebody!” as they stab their bayonets into old tires, and conditioned to follow orders instead of their own moral compass. Where is the “creative and critical thinking” in that?”
Ms. Martin,
I am currently in Baghdad, a city of 4,000,000 plus residents. I work with an 11 man team and patrol the streets and surrounding neighborhoods of this busy city on a regular basis. So I ask you to put yourself in my situation:
Imagine yourself in Baghdad, unable to move through a traffic circle because it’s rush-hour. Every person walking down the street is a potential threat. You don’t know who wants to kill you, but you know some of them do. Will they be brave enough to throw a grenade at your vehicle, or will they keep on walking? Imagine that someone has planted an IED on the side of the street and somewhere someone with a cell phone detonator and a video camera is watching you, deciding if they are going to kill you, or wait for a better, more news-worthy target.
While you’re looking through heaps of trash and crowded streets doing your best to determine what looks “normal” and what looks like a threat, imagine that a car filled with 500 pounds of explosives, neatly packed inside 120 mm shells, inside the trunk of a car stuffed full with nails, glass, ball-bearings and several 5 gallon jugs of fuel racing at you at 40 MPH. The weight of the explosives causes the car to ride on its tires, the driver, staring directly at you, refuses to acknowledge all the signals you are giving him to stop driving at you.
You have to make a choice:
Or
2. Think about your moral compass.
You have two seconds: GO!
Training for soldiers today in the US Military, as it has been for the last couple of hundred years, is designed to make soldiers react, without thinking, in the most stressful and dangerous situations, because it saves lives. It saves lives of civilians, it saves lives of fellow soldiers, and it may even save their own life. However, much more is demanded out of today’s soldier because of the asymmetrical war we are fighting and the instant, world-wide, media coverage that an incident can have on the success or failure of the war.
Soldiers are required to make more decisions in shorter periods of time in more stressful situations. That training is successfully provided by the drill sergeants. Those drill sergeants, most of them combat veterans, create a stressful, realistic, combat environment because soldiers need to learn how to make a correct life or death decision in a stressful environment without thinking. Not everyone wants to kill for the sake of killing, but in war, death is part of the business in which we work.
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” Like in any society or work force, we are not all created equal. Not everyone can be a CEO, manager, or supervisor, and in the military, not everyone can be a General or a Command Sergeant Major, but everyone has the opportunity to work as hard as they can, get a good civilian and military education and be as successful as they are motivated to be.
Soldiers are often encouraged to ask questions. As someone who has been both Enlisted and an Officer, I have seen both sides. I have been a follower and a leader. I have voiced my opinion, I have raised questions, and I have followed my share of orders that I didn’t agree with because maybe I don’t understand every single widget that may be moving that requires me to take care of my piece of the action. Sometimes, just knowing that my small part may make or break the success of a mission is enough to do my job and when it’s all over, I can ask “why” and have it explained to me gaining valuable knowledge to make me a better future leader.
Regardless, this is the military, it’s voluntary, and we all signed a contract and made a promise to our country and our respective branches of service essentially saying that they would do what we were told.
To balance it all out, soldiers are taught “moral compass” basics that many kids don’t get at home or in school: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. Each branch of service has their own lessons in morality that are catered to their individual mission.
Where does it all come together? Do we want soldiers that think freely and question every order given to them or do we want soldiers to obey orders and perform without thought? I think we can have both, as long as we have hoarse drill sergeants breaking soldiers down and building them up to meet the Army’s needs.
Army MOS 46Q: Public Affairs Specialist (Journalist). If you’re interested, contact your local recruiter and tell them Major Jim Gafney sent you.
As I rifled through the many reports, emails and hyperlinks that I am requested to go through each day, I came across one that linked me to a compilation of “major” news events coming out of Iraq.
As I scrolled through the pages, most of the stories were about the findings of a report where the British Army as a whole was blamed for the death of a group of Iraqis held in a detention facility. Scrolling further to the end were the final three sentences:
ABC News with Charles Gibson: No news broadcast about Iraq.
CBS News with Katie Couric: No news broadcast about Iraq.
NBC News with Brian Williams: No news broadcast about Iraq.
Yesterday, I went to a remote area just south of Baghdad where a ceremony was being held for the opening of a new health center, community center and farm bureau office all built within the last 6 months. Although it may sound small, it shows that there is a sense of community, pride and determination to a better life in this small village. Many Americans and Iraqis lost their lives over this piece of land and finally, after six years of war, a small local government, in conjunction with the United States, succeeded in securing their future. This is a victory; it’s not sexy, it’s not dangerous and it’s not tragic, but it’s still a victory.
There was Iraq media coverage which, of course, won’t make it to the States and will most likely not make it on Iraqi news. There was military media coverage, which, unless you read a military paper or watch military news on AFN (Armed Forces Network) you won’t see it.
As I watched the ceremony take place, all I could think of was how good the enemy was at the media war. There is no doubt in my mind that when it comes to using the media as a weapon, they are really good at it and they are winning. The enemy knows what to say to the uneducated masses to sway them toward their side. When the top guy on the other team makes a statement (just like the recent one from Bin Laden to Germany) everyone listens. When our top guy makes a statement, it’s only used to show the opposite opinions within our own ranks (Obama and McChrystal) which makes it appear that there is some kind of dissention between our military leaders and our government (Which there may be, but does the enemy need to know that?) and it eventually gets turned into some kind of drama fit for E! Entertainment News.
And so, the honeymoon between the Main Stream Media and the war in Iraq is over. The marriage is now sexless and the MSM is turning its head to the younger, sexier stories like our faults in Afghanistan and our flawed political system, and storylines of political sexual deviants.
…and in other news, the enemy kidnapped a 10 year old boy and demanded $100,000 dollars from his father who is employed as an auto mechanic. When his father only had $10,000 dollars, the last thing he heard from his son was a voice of terror, “Daddy, please give them the money!” Two days later, the 10 year old boy was delivered to his father without a head and without his hands.
ABC News with Charles Gibson: No news broadcast about Iraq.
CBS News with Katie Couric: No news broadcast about Iraq.
NBC News with Brian Williams: No news broadcast about Iraq.
Stars and Stripes: Iraq Edition: Front page news.
So, you would think that the title of this story would lend itself to some basic common sense. But here in Iraq, where common sense isn’t the lay of the land, I watch with open-mouthed astonishment as events I have witnessed in the past year unfold before my eyes.
One of the Generals that we follow around has an eight year old son. His son sports a little Iraqi uniform, wears the rank of a General, and acts like he runs the division. In short, he is a little shit that mirrors the behavior of his father.
When the General is in a meeting, his son is attended to by the guards standing post at the entrance of the building. The guards patiently tolerate the shin kicks and stomach punches that the pint sized dictator likes to hand out. After all, his father is the division commander and no one wants to end up in jail.
As we follow the General on his combat patrol, his son jumps in the back of an up-armored SUV next to his dad and straps himself in for a day of war. The thought of such bonding brings a tear to my eye. The SUVs armor is thick enough to stop bullets and small IEDs but is not really designed for combat operations. There’s nothing quite like risking the life of you and your son.
They patrol the streets, go to sheik meetings, inspect check points and on occasion, they stop for ice cream. Really…stop laughing. Imagine 30 Iraqi and American Humvees surrounding the Generals SUV while the General and his son by a couple of ice cream cones.
After a day of patrolling in the hot son, Junior follows us into our office and graces us with his presence. Sitting in a case on the conference room table is a chrome-plated AK-47 machine gun. He barks orders at us in Arabic which none of us understand. When we give him the, “what the hell could you possible want from me” look, he walks over to the AK-47 and takes it out of the case. Our lesson begins.
As he makes gestures with this left arm indicating that it was blown off, he grabs the AK-47 with his right hand, lifts his foot and puts it on the charging handle, cocks the weapon and, “Voila!” With your arm blown off, you can now kill the Infidels. Ah, youth.
With the lesson complete, I escort the young war fighter out of the office back to his keepers. The Jinood (Iraqi Soldiers), roll their eyes and a couple of them scurry away. As I leave, the little General sneaks in a sucker punch to my gut and tries to run away. I grab his arm, pull him back, and pick him up over my head.
He freaks. Apparently, heights are his Kryptonite. He calls the names of a couple of the guards. It was almost cartoonish: Something bad happens, no one cares, everyone turns around, puts their hands in their pockets and whistles a tune.
I put him down; he yells something in Arabic and runs inside. The Jinood giggle, say something to me, laugh. I shrug my shoulders and walk away. Is it wrong to feel good about that?
Me: Maj. Gafney how may I help you?
Him: Yes, this is Maj. XXXX. I’m looking for a checkpoint.
Me: Ok.
Him: It’s on XXXX Street.
Me: Well, Baghdad is a big city and I don’t know all the streets. Do you know what area it is in?
Him: I’m not sure.
Me: Ok, well, let’s narrow it down. Is it east or west of the river.
Him: To the left.
Me: Um, ok, well do you know what area to the left of the river it is.
Him: It says it’s check point XXXXX.
Me: That doesn’t sound right. Checkpoints aren’t numbered that way.
Him: Are you looking at the map?
Me: Yes.
Him: Ok it’s where the green part ends.
Me: Really? My map probably has a different “green” area then your map. Do you have a grid or something to get me a little closer.
Him: (silence)
Me: Ok, well, if you can get me a grid to the “green” area, I might be able to help you out. Even get me the name of the suburb of Baghdad and I might get you close, but I can’t go ask the Iraqis about the checkpoint in the “green” area.
Him: Um, ok. I’ll try and find out more and email you.
Me: Ok.
