Miltitant Missives

• Yeah, when Americans kill in battle it's always with a sense of duty and self defense- no joy or pride in killing his enemy! This clip is from Afghanistan. Here, you'll see a couple of roadside bomb emplacers get blasted by gunships after a strike called by US Marines. The LRAS site mentioned is a long range advanced surveillance system. The PEQ site mentioned is a rifle mounted laser that has a long range and can be used to pinpoint targets for air strikes and coordinate ground fires.




• "i doubt there's even ONE virgin who would sleep with that mess, and good luck herding the other 71 sheep into their pens." comment on a page with a very graphic pic of dead suicide bomber.




• Apache engagement of insurgents in Iraq. Initials are given with persmission to fire in touchy situations in case of an incident.




• Why call fights engagements? Is this an effort to sanitize conversationally killing? No, part of the reason the term is: engagements can be anything from ground directed air strikes, direct rifle fire, hand to hand combat or even talking to people. If you say, "I engaged", it might also have the connotation of you not knowing whether or not people you shot at where killed or even wounded (and maybe didn't even care one way or the other) - you wanted them to stop what they were doing.




• One night late in my tour after a post of guard duty I walked home instead of waiting for the truck to carry me back after getting relieved. Several of us did this often- it could save you some time if the truck spent a lot of extra time dropping off guys at other posts and was actually a nice way to wind down although it was discouraged since it was so close to the wire and no one would have any idea where you were if you got hit. On my way I heard movement to my left that involved multiple sources and one seemed to run in front of me and stop to block my movement. I hurriedly jacked a round in the chamber of weapon and dropped to one knee in time to see and hear that I was surrounded by a pack of wild dogs who were nearly as surprised as me by our mutual presence in that God forsaken place.




• All I could think on the way to the tent was,"Good God- everything I've survived and I nearly got eaten by a pack of dogs?!"




• I took my chances in the truck more often after that night.