4 APR 05: A Powerful Question!
So my buddy asked me the other day do I feel like I am wasting my time here in Iraq?
Wow! What a powerful question. On the surface of that question you could look at your little cubicle job that resembles the movie office space and ground hog day in almost every aspect and answer it with a resounding; yes! But when you really think about the lives you are affecting at just the levels below you. You have to come up with a different answer all together.
For examples I do administrative, logistics and battle tracking of all the Liaison officers that are attached to the Multi National Corps Iraq’s coalition partners. For those of you who do not know the military jargon it means that we have soldiers attached to the Divisions that are lead by other countries like the British, the Polish, and stuff like that. So yeah when you think about what I do all day long you think yeah this sucks. What a waste of an infantry man. Here I am a trained killer and proud of it, capable of leading Americas best into any situation and leave the enemies of our country crying because we hurt them and broke their toys. So yeah you are a lot disgruntled working in a hostile work environment. It sucks does not even begin to explain what it is you do every day. But when you get a call from the some of your guys up north telling you that their team has not had access to their supplies, mail or money for the camp they live in; your little team springs into action.
So sure I do all the grunt work. Stuff like setting up meeting after meeting with other staff sections, so we can basically all get together and argue about what needs to be done. When you already know full well what needs to be done. After we argue we sleep on it for a week because the only people that attended the meeting are at the worker bee level. We all report back to our staff sections to get approval for decisions we have had made for us from our respective bosses. Then we do another round of meetings to argue about what the bosses want to do. The second meeting is like negotiating with car salesman. Every one has a certain thing in their head but no one comes out and says it. So we negotiate it until all staff sections are happy or as happy as can be then we make courses of action (COA). It is at about this point that I want to beat my head on the table and pull all the hair on my head out. So now you know why I really shave my head it is for my own safety. Then we present the COAs to the bosses that make the decisions that will have to be supported by one of the divisions. Then the boss decides which COA will work best. By this time if you are the guy working on the problem you are usually ready to choke something or someone or anything because your stress level is so high. Then the guys down on the Fragmentation order (FRAGO) writers cut an order to a unit to execute the mission. Even though all this happens in less than three weeks you are still frustrated with the whole process.
But then you get a phone call from one of your guys up there in the north and they are like “hey dude the convoy just got here with our food and water and other supplies.” Then while talking he says “oh yeah and the mail and finance chopper has been on the ground for about and hour.” The job you are doing that you think usually sucks is suddenly worth doing. My dad calls that “little victories”. I swear to God every year old I get the smarter that man becomes. Funny how that works.
Another cool thing you get to see is the effect of the election. See most Iraqis are so used to empty promises from countries that they really thought that the USA was here to occupy them. To the Iraqis the USA was just another form of Saddam. Then one day their little fledgling provisional government guys come around and start putting up ballot boxes. Of course those Iraqi G men are being guarded by US troops. Then in the next week you see the Iraqi G men putting up more ballot boxes and talking to people about the elections and now they are being guarded by the new Iraqi police and Iraqi army.
Then Election Day comes and people turn out in droves to vote. They put up with being searched and guarded all by Iraqis. The terrorists here try and stop them but the Iraqis still vote. Even better the Iraqi police and army guys stop the terrorists sure they give the
“last full measure of devotion” to ensure that their Iraqi people get the chance to vote and then it suddenly starts to work.
Now the Iraqis see their own people forming a government and the Iraqis are now beginning to turn on the terrorists. For example a group of terrorists got turned into the Iraqi police a few weeks ago. The terrorists were hog tied as we say out in Oklahoma and badly beaten. There have been incidents of Iraqi neighborhood watch programs that have just eliminated the terrorist cell while the terrorist cell was moving into the neighborhood.
So yeah to see that and be a part of that on any level is history. This war is every bit as important as WWII. This war will shape the world for decades to come.
“War is chaos.” German saying
“The Americans are so good at war because they train in absolute chaos no matter what they do.” Soviet army on the U.S.
This is dedicated to my buddy BEN
Wow! What a powerful question. On the surface of that question you could look at your little cubicle job that resembles the movie office space and ground hog day in almost every aspect and answer it with a resounding; yes! But when you really think about the lives you are affecting at just the levels below you. You have to come up with a different answer all together.
For examples I do administrative, logistics and battle tracking of all the Liaison officers that are attached to the Multi National Corps Iraq’s coalition partners. For those of you who do not know the military jargon it means that we have soldiers attached to the Divisions that are lead by other countries like the British, the Polish, and stuff like that. So yeah when you think about what I do all day long you think yeah this sucks. What a waste of an infantry man. Here I am a trained killer and proud of it, capable of leading Americas best into any situation and leave the enemies of our country crying because we hurt them and broke their toys. So yeah you are a lot disgruntled working in a hostile work environment. It sucks does not even begin to explain what it is you do every day. But when you get a call from the some of your guys up north telling you that their team has not had access to their supplies, mail or money for the camp they live in; your little team springs into action.
So sure I do all the grunt work. Stuff like setting up meeting after meeting with other staff sections, so we can basically all get together and argue about what needs to be done. When you already know full well what needs to be done. After we argue we sleep on it for a week because the only people that attended the meeting are at the worker bee level. We all report back to our staff sections to get approval for decisions we have had made for us from our respective bosses. Then we do another round of meetings to argue about what the bosses want to do. The second meeting is like negotiating with car salesman. Every one has a certain thing in their head but no one comes out and says it. So we negotiate it until all staff sections are happy or as happy as can be then we make courses of action (COA). It is at about this point that I want to beat my head on the table and pull all the hair on my head out. So now you know why I really shave my head it is for my own safety. Then we present the COAs to the bosses that make the decisions that will have to be supported by one of the divisions. Then the boss decides which COA will work best. By this time if you are the guy working on the problem you are usually ready to choke something or someone or anything because your stress level is so high. Then the guys down on the Fragmentation order (FRAGO) writers cut an order to a unit to execute the mission. Even though all this happens in less than three weeks you are still frustrated with the whole process.
But then you get a phone call from one of your guys up there in the north and they are like “hey dude the convoy just got here with our food and water and other supplies.” Then while talking he says “oh yeah and the mail and finance chopper has been on the ground for about and hour.” The job you are doing that you think usually sucks is suddenly worth doing. My dad calls that “little victories”. I swear to God every year old I get the smarter that man becomes. Funny how that works.
Another cool thing you get to see is the effect of the election. See most Iraqis are so used to empty promises from countries that they really thought that the USA was here to occupy them. To the Iraqis the USA was just another form of Saddam. Then one day their little fledgling provisional government guys come around and start putting up ballot boxes. Of course those Iraqi G men are being guarded by US troops. Then in the next week you see the Iraqi G men putting up more ballot boxes and talking to people about the elections and now they are being guarded by the new Iraqi police and Iraqi army.
Then Election Day comes and people turn out in droves to vote. They put up with being searched and guarded all by Iraqis. The terrorists here try and stop them but the Iraqis still vote. Even better the Iraqi police and army guys stop the terrorists sure they give the
“last full measure of devotion” to ensure that their Iraqi people get the chance to vote and then it suddenly starts to work.
Now the Iraqis see their own people forming a government and the Iraqis are now beginning to turn on the terrorists. For example a group of terrorists got turned into the Iraqi police a few weeks ago. The terrorists were hog tied as we say out in Oklahoma and badly beaten. There have been incidents of Iraqi neighborhood watch programs that have just eliminated the terrorist cell while the terrorist cell was moving into the neighborhood.
So yeah to see that and be a part of that on any level is history. This war is every bit as important as WWII. This war will shape the world for decades to come.
“War is chaos.” German saying
“The Americans are so good at war because they train in absolute chaos no matter what they do.” Soviet army on the U.S.
This is dedicated to my buddy BEN
posted by Vick at 6:26 AM
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