Why Marines kick ass.....

[5-90]

http://cofreedom.blogspot.com/2006/01/thank-god-for-united-states-marine.html

I think we all know the answer to that one. Politics. In order to win hearts and minds, you don't flatten areas with artillery and shoot everyone who runs out.

I think that for the most part our guys detonate bombs in place. Whether or not they send in an EOD guy depends on where the bomb is located.

Thanks for the link. Something about "Great Acts of Defiance" has always appealed to me - probably my inner non-conformist at work again...

I know the idea of "Winning hearts and minds," but it stopped working in Vietnam about 1968, and it hasn't worked in the Middle East at all. So, I just think it's time for another plan - "Grab them by the short and curlies, and their hearts and minds will follow."

Call me cranky, but I agree with Einstein - "Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing the same way, yet expecting a different result."

Warfighting doctrine isn't elastic enough these days, we always seem to be a war or two behind. We tried to fight in Vietnam according to WWII doctrine - set-piece battles and the Geneva Conventions (from which the Law of Land Warfare is derived - along with the Hague Accords.) Modern warfare isn't going to obey these sets of rules, and neither are modern enemies. So; why, still, do we? We're not "Globocop," and there's no reason for us to be - so we should stop. If the UN wants to play Globocop, then they can raise their own army and play by the rules - but there's no real reason for us to continue doing so when it keeps putting us behind the eightball...

5-90

 

[Gil BullyKatz]

Forgot to ask - does anyone have a copy of the pic? Snopes has, naturally, censored theirs, and I'd like to keep a copy alongside "The Last Great Act of Defiance" (a mouse flipping off a stooping hawk...)

5-90

All the copies I've found googling have that "omaha world herald" watermark...

Would make for a nice permanent addition to the pic collection...

Bueller?

 

[5-90]

dragonland2001 AT yahoo DOT com - ask for the "Defiant Marine" pic, so I know what everyone's talking about. I saved a copy, just in case the other link don't work anymore...

5-90

(Even with the OWH watermark, it's still a nice pic. My copy has that, and I suspect everyone else's will as well. If you find a copy without, I might want one - but I'll send out copies of the one I have, if it's not online anymore...)

 

[burntkat]

copies of the pic are available from the OWH archives department.

 

[burntkat]

also, a google image search for "Michael Burghardt" will show the pic as well.

 

[919Chief]

Guys, this is what my unit did in Afghanistan.

We try to disarm and exploit them for many reasons.

One, they are evidence.... from each one we learn more about how they build them and how we can have countermeasures, as well as accumulate evidence on who is building them.

Another is that blowing in place will damage the roads that we use.

A third is that yes we are trying to stay nice with the locals.

That said, we did blow most in place after collecting the important parts for review elsewhere.

 

[Semper Fi]

I was in the Marines from 1983 to 1993 and I'm now in the National Guard. Something just doesn't sound right about this story. A Marine in the ARMY NATIONAL GUARD???? Isn't going to happen, he is either a former Marine in the National Guard or he is a soldier in the National Guard, which is it??? In the Army National Guard an E-7 is called SGT or SFC not "Gunny". If you refer to a SFC in the Army as a "Gunny" they get pissed off. If this story is true than all I can say is SEMPER FI!!!! If someone made it up, well...... I in no way intend to take anything from this story, I as a former Marine and current soldier, would like to have the record set straight.

 

[burntkat]

FTFA:

he was ASSIGNED TO the guard unit. As in, in a supporting role.

happens all the time. He IS a Marine, he is a Gunny, and it is absolutely true.

I was in the Army Infantry for 6 years- served in Gulf 1- we had elements of the Air Force and Marines attached to us. This is why they call it "Joint Operations"

 

[lost1]

^x2, very common occurence lately. Hell, my next-door neighbor's coming home next week from a 6-month stint with an Army unit in Iraq.

 

[Jonnyjpr]

There was more than luck for that guy.

 

[boise49ers]

Concur. Fully.

Considering Iraq is, as I recall, a country where pretty much everyone is armed, having the indigs help out can only accelerate the withdrawal of the United States forces there (or is it "UN Coalition?" I just don't recall right now - and I only really care about US personnel anyhow...)

Failing that, just take all this arty and ordnance we aren't using (and just why not?) and set up killzones around known insurgent nests. Then, like RichP said, start pasting the area flat, shoot anyone that runs out, and make sure there's a good deal of information on EXACTLY WHY we're doing it!

I can't see spending personnel when bombs are rather cheaper and readily available. As far as civilian casualties go: 1) It's wartime. War is not surgery, it's not precision, and it's messy. 2) Technically, the insurgents are also civilians, unless and until a warring power claims them as their own (which just ain't gonna happen.) Therefore, all "legitimate" kills are going to be civilians, and any prisoners taken will have NO protections under the Geneva Convention or the Law of Land Warfare - again, unless and until a belligerent power claims them as their own (and therefore declares a state of war with the United States, and we can bomb them right back into the Stone Age as well.)

I'd like to see them take live Rockeyes hostage - THAT would make for some good news footage, y'ask me. Put A-10's to work doing "Special Delivery" and use 105m/m and 155m/m for "short range" work - anything under, say, five miles or so.

While soldiers are trained to fight, fighting is not first on the list. There's no reason to risk lives when it's easier to send in special "care packages" to do the job - and I see no reason why we don't do so. Public Opinion be damned - war is messy, and should be prosecuted as violently, bloodily, and viciously as possible, in order to get it over with more quickly. Make anyone wanting to go after us understand that declaring war on us is little more than a one-way ticket to Hell, and you'll see it drop, I think.

No reason we can't paste to Beka'a valley and locale while we're about it, which should see to all those "Islamic Jihad" groups. Good testing ground for "dirty" neutron bombs, I think. Full kill potential with minimal lingering radiation.

5-90

Yeah and we are there to help the Iraqis , Bush tells me so. Oh and Develope a Democracy in the Mideast. Yep a nuke should bring that along just fine. Funny how things have changed back and forth over the last 4 years. Killem, Helpem,Killem, Helpem. How about just fuckum and come home ?hasta

 

[5-90]

Yeah and we are there to help the Iraqis , Bush tells me so. Oh and Develope a Democracy in the Mideast. Yep a nuke should bring that along just fine. Funny how things have changed back and forth over the last 4 years. Killem, Helpem,Killem, Helpem. How about just fuckum and come home ?hasta

Nah - my opinion hasn't changed much. For the last 15 years or so, whenver I've had the words "Middle East" flash across my mind, they were followed by "radioactive parking lot."

5-90

 

[boise49ers]

Nah - my opinion hasn't changed much. For the last 15 years or so, whenver I've had the words "Middle East" flash across my mind, they were followed by "radioactive parking lot."

5-90

Maybe in your case. But a whole lot of my co-workers have repeatly said we need to just Nukem and start all over. Then when you try and have an intellegent argument about why we shouldn't be there they use the Democracy and we are Helping them card. It makes you want to scream "Make up your fawking mind".

 

[Trailbst]

Here's a link to another Marine that kicked ass.

http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/THISWILLMAKEYOUPROUD.HTML

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/chontosh.asp


Hoo Rah Marine!

 

[XJ_Vikings]

The EOD guys are fucking crazy, theyll drive up, grab an unexploded mortar, toss it in the back and speed away without even blinking.

 

[Darky]

What the hell is this crap?!? This is not the picture included in the story. Whichever one of you assholes changed it should be shot!

Calm down lil buddy...its probably a bandwidth thing. Whatever site decided they don't want they're bandwidth used.

 

[Glenn B]

What the hell is this crap?!? This is not the picture included in the story. Whichever one of you assholes changed it should be shot!

Grow up. You are acting like a noobie on the internet and accusing the Admins/Mods here of messing with your post, when in fact you decided to hotlink somebody elses pic. That is not cool to steal somebody elses bandwith, so they got you. And it seems they got you good. :speepin:

 

[JCS JP]

Being from Montana and in the Corps, the only thing about this story that makes me mad is that they call him a Sergeant in the end. This is not the Army (sorry)!!!!! We are not all Sergeants. They can call him Gunny or Gunnery Sergeant Burghard. This is how we do it. There is no other way like moms house (my way or the highway). I am glad to see alot of people support the people in the military even if they hate what we are doing. If i have upset you then grow thicker skin and let it bounce off of you!
:wantyou:atriot::explosion

 

[RichP]

The EOD guys are fucking crazy, theyll drive up, grab an unexploded mortar, toss it in the back and speed away without even blinking.

And whats wrong with that sometimes you piss off the neighbors if you blow in place.

 

[buschwhaked]

The EOD guys are fucking crazy, theyll drive up, grab an unexploded mortar, toss it in the back and speed away without even blinking.

I agree, but I think the Iraqi Army are just as crazy or, in their case, stupid. We had a possible IED we were cordoning. An IA Plt showed up. The IA PLT LDR sent out one of his joes to "investigate." His investigation method included walking over there, poking it with his AK, and then giving it a good solid kick. We kept telling the IA PL to call his guy back, but he insisted. Thankfully, it was just some UXO someone had sat off the road. A couple 50's era 81mm mortar rounds. The IA just grabbed 'em up and drove them back to our COP.

And then there was the 7 live 107mm rockets set up in a field. The IA was with us and we set up a cordon. We told the IA that we had called EOD and they would be here in about 45 minutes. The IA PL then said "I am already taking care of it" and we see a couple of IA soldiers walking to the rockets. Before we can say anything, they're yanking the wires out the back that run to the timer. We said, ok, well, um....thanks, but EOD needs to come out because they're too unstable to move. He gets on the radio and calls his soldiers at the rockets. They start picking them and carrying them back to an IA truck that had moved closer. Needless to say, we stayed very far away from that truck till we got to our COP. I saw things there I never thought possible lol.