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Rebuilding Afghanistan

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 987 ✭✭✭diverdriver


    Ha, the moderator's away. We can go mad and say what we like. Things like, hmm............well let me think about it.

    But seriously, MM does play down the whole thing, sitting in his office, eating lucky charms, building model tanks and hiking around the hills and valleys acting as if the the most dangerous thing he does is face down an overexcited contributor to this forum. But Afghanistan is still bloody dangerous and he doesn't carry around that M4 so he can look cool in photos.

    Meanwhile the most dangerous thing I do is driving to the airfield before and after a day's flying. The flying bit isn't even that dangerous, (though it has it's moments).

    Good luck to him, no I'm not crawling to the mod, well maybe a little.:)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,494 ✭✭✭citizen_p


    But Afghanistan is still bloody dangerous and he doesn't carry around that M4 so he can look cool in photos.
    i think he does a little....:)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Mousey- wrote: »
    i think he does a little....:)

    He doesn't need an M4 to look cool, he has Nessy:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,195 ✭✭✭goldie fish


    Mousey- wrote: »
    i think he does a little....:)

    If he needed a rifle to look cool, He'd bring his FAL.:cool:


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    I spent today with my top half and the M4 out the roof hatch of a VBL. I was so cool, that the lake we drove around froze over.

    VBLs are bloody tiny. Standing with my feet on the floor, I've got bruises on my upper thigh where the roof armour kept bashing into my leg as the vehicle threw me around over the rough ground.

    NTM


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Example.

    ntminvbl.jpg

    Yes, my feet are on the floor. The fourth chap in the vehicle basically sat on a cushion on the floor with his legs bent and feet against the far wall.

    They love the vehicle, but it's not one for large crews.

    Got invited to lunch. We in the US Army are doing something wrong when it comes to chow halls. Even their plates had their regimental insignia on them.

    frenchchow.jpg

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    Hmmmmmmm looks like Radar needs to be moved from the 4077th to MM!

    He would sort out the transport and food!:)(also nylon stockings,$5 Ladies and bootleg!:))


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 21,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭helimachoptor


    Manic are you the ranking officer at the table?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,779 ✭✭✭Ping Chow Chi


    Victor wrote: »

    not seen this list before - its very very funny :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Manic are you the ranking officer at the table?

    If you're asking is he the eh.... large Captain, he's doesn't have that much padding. Manic Probably took the photo;)


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Manic are you the ranking officer at the table?

    Not even close. There were at least two majors, two LTCs and one full colonel.

    NTM


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Not even close. There were at least two majors, two LTCs and one full colonel.

    NTM

    But you're Irish, so you are the ranking PERSON:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    Ha, I saw Manics profile before he was a mod,He,s actually a hippie type:pac::pac::pac::)

    MM hope You keep posting whatever photo,s You can.
    it helps bring the reality of Afghanistan to life for us!

    Cheers and stay safe!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    ynotdu wrote: »
    Ha, I saw Manics profile before he was a mod,He,s actually a hippie type:pac::pac::pac::)

    MM hope You keep posting whatever photo,s You can.
    it helps bring the reality of Afghanistan to life for us!

    Cheers and stay safe!

    Lol, Not many hippies would be happy being compared to a Gun toting US Cavalry Officer:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    Lol, Not many hippies would be happy being compared to a Gun toting US Cavalry Officer:D

    Good Point!
    Now that MM has given up dropping acid,licking toads backs,and is ALMOST off the weed,but most of ALL because He carries a gun,best call him SIR:D


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Attrition continues. Sometimes it's the unavoidable facts of life: One trooper had his baby born at 26 weeks. I don't know the outcome of that one, but he's gone home. Sometimes it's just odd: One guy tried suicide (He had been found out as a thief), another two or three had pre-existing injuries which acted up. Sometimes they just swap out with a Fobbit, man the radios or whatnot.

    And, sometimes, the enemy has a hand. We've lost a couple more MRAPs to bombs, with yet two more people out due to broken bones in one of them, and one possible spinal injury, and in the other, the guy's front teeth got shoved up into his gums (and back a bit) when his head met the .50 cal coming up, but the other guys seem to have suffered just concussions and should return. None of this batch were my guys I brought from Yerington, though.

    One of my Lieutenants isn't working out, though. Had to pull him from the PL position, we need to work on him a bit. We'll give him another crack with another platoon in a month or two, if that doesn't work out, his career in the Cavalry will be over. Not everyone who comissions is cut out for this work.

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,494 ✭✭✭citizen_p


    you never really here about the wounded in the news :(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    Mousey- wrote: »
    you never really here about the wounded in the news :(

    How very true Mousey!

    post traumatic stress disorder often leaves even the physicly uninjured a wreck for life!

    When the UK&Argentina went to war over the Island(to be diplomatic:))
    More Argentines commited suicide over time than lost their lives in battle.:(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭iceage


    ynotdu wrote: »
    How very true Mousey!

    post traumatic stress disorder often leaves even the physicly uninjured a wreck for life!

    When the UK&Argentina went to war over the Island(to be diplomatic:))
    More Argentines commited suicide over time than lost their lives in battle.:(

    That definately applied to the British Troops that fought there, at the minute there is a major campaign to address this sad fact. It is the case that more british troops who returned from the Falklands have topped themselves than were killed in the War. A terrible fact which some high profile indivduals are trying to do something about it.

    I wasn't aware of the Argentinians finding the same results. But I am not surprised if this is the case, again a sad state of affairs that these guys are not offered some sort of support. PTSD is so widely accepted now that the supposed stigma of counselling for men that fought was thought to be a sign of weakness and the old adage of the stiff upper lip and "don't mention the War" should sort everything out...what a load of twaddle.

    Lets hope that this is being addressed properly and these guys get the treatment and support they deserve.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,798 ✭✭✭Local-womanizer


    There was a good Dispatches programme on Channel 4 a few weeks back called Battle Scarred I think.

    Basically it tried to delve into the mind of British soldiers who returned from combat.The show talked to families of soldiers who committed suicide after returning from overseas.Tragic stuff and the Army would try and cover it up as best it could.

    One soldier killed himself because of Alcohol,or so the army claimed.The soldiers friend was summoned to give evidence at the inquest and basically told them that they were chatting BS.He was seriously depressed.Still think the Army put it down to alcholism.Offered no support to the family even after the death.

    One soldier,who was involved in an IED attack was offered councilling only because he recieved physical wounds,whearas the driver of the vehicle who was very nearly killed but received no wounds was back on duty 3 hours later along with a few others.The emotional trauma suffered is far greater that the phyiscal trauma this soldier said,yet the Army fail to see this.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭iceage


    missed that one Local, those programmes as vital as they are only tend to wind me up lately.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,798 ✭✭✭Local-womanizer


    iceage wrote: »
    missed that one Local, those programmes as vital as they are only tend to wind me up lately.

    I know what you mean,I came away from that really pissed.Young men are taking their lives mainly down to the lack of support in place,then their families are left to pick up the pieces,again mainly due to the lack of support.

    EDIT: Promo for it,cant find the actual show:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U0Ohjr8ae8

    "they told us to get pissed,fight,get it out of our system":mad:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,018 ✭✭✭✭jank


    Just came across this now. Afghanistan is a lost cause. The US should get out and let china have a crack at it! The elections themsevles are a joke. Even right wing commentators are starting to admit the place is un governable.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,497 ✭✭✭Poccington


    jank wrote: »
    Just came across this now. Afghanistan is a lost cause. The US should get out and let china have a crack at it! The elections themsevles are a joke. Even right wing commentators are starting to admit the place is un governable.

    Afghanistan isn't a lost cause.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,018 ✭✭✭✭jank


    LOL you really fill me with confidence with that comment.

    Tell me lets just forget about all the problems for a moment but can you tell me and end game scenario?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    iceage wrote: »
    That definately applied to the British Troops that fought there, at the minute there is a major campaign to address this sad fact. It is the case that more british troops who returned from the Falklands have topped themselves than were killed in the War. A terrible fact which some high profile indivduals are trying to do something about it.

    I wasn't aware of the Argentinians finding the same results. But I am not surprised if this is the case, again a sad state of affairs that these guys are not offered some sort of support. PTSD is so widely accepted now that the supposed stigma of counselling for men that fought was thought to be a sign of weakness and the old adage of the stiff upper lip and "don't mention the War" should sort everything out...what a load of twaddle.

    Lets hope that this is being addressed properly and these guys get the treatment and support they deserve.

    Hi,ya Iceage(sorry i've copied your entire post,when i try part quotes or multiquotes i usually make a balls of it:))
    I did not know that the UK had the same experiance with suicides&PSTD,but i'm glad to hear something is being done about it!
    I also agree with you that any request for help is stigmatised,it is an abuse of people who risked ALL for their Country,and really shoddy treatment by their Govts.
    Those who stigmatise are the cowards,not the ones who risked their lives,got injured,or saw sights that others can only imagine:(

    i'd like to mention the disgraceful treatment of the Ghurka's,who gave so many of their own lives,and saved the lives of so many of their comrades but were being refused as much as a passport:mad::mad:
    as i say just a mention,anything further would be a new thread.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    What was supposed to be the crowning glory mission of our stay here got cancelled by higher.

    There is a theory that it's because people higher than us didn't like the fact that a National Guard battalion had the umption to go and arrange its own three-nation multi-battalion operation without the Active Duty brigade telling us to go do it.

    I'm not entirely sure I agree with the theory, but I can see why it is being proposed.

    In addition to the three killed by the weather referenced in the other thread, the French had a VAB roll off a cliff the following day. One more killed, four injured, one seriously. They're not had a very good week.

    The opposition have also become a lot more ballsy. Whilst the Afghan security forces basically took Ramadan off, the opposition consolidated and have started a bit of an offensive of their own. They've made travel up one particular road quite risky, with the loss of three MRAPs in more or less the same place in the last month. They tried a small-arms attack on our base here (got up to the wire, but not inside), and left rockets on a timer at a different location. Kept us up all night, the buggers. Fortunately, they can't shoot for love nor money.

    Getting a little too cocky though. They had a crack at engaging one of our dismounted patrols in that same MRAP-killing area this morning using small-arms and RPG. Didn't work out too well for them. As they tried to disengage, (They usually shoot at us from the other side of an impassible terrain feature, in this case a river... but they forgot that the water's running a bit low right now) they ran into another of our patrols, which also happened to have helicopter support (OH-58s). Two confirmed dead, maybe a third. No injuries on our side. Should give them a little pause for thought.

    NTM


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 21,666 Mod ✭✭✭✭helimachoptor


    Manic just a (probably stupid) question. I presume you are active service in charge of the National Guard or are you NG aswell?


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    I'm a Guardsman. There is no active duty cadre in the same manner as in Ireland, everyone in the unit from the lowest private to the Major General in command of a National Guard division is a Guardsman, unless gaps in the structure get filled in by active duty personnel. (eg the unit doesn't have quite enough medics, so they need to borrow one from another unit). Some Guardsmen are hired on a full-time basis to keep the wheels ticking over in the unit when it's not on a training weekend.

    We have heard reports that the chaps we danced with yesterday were vacationing from another part of the country. Apparently, after seeing what happened to his buddies, a third guy said 'sod this, I'm going home' and took off for Helmland.

    NTM


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Kill tally from incident now reported as four. This should help us retake the offensive in this part of the province.

    My kill tally on ACUs is two. One, the crotch completely blew out when dismounting a HMMWV, the other I tripped, fell, and gashed out the knee.

    ACU trousers have a really poor reputation for ruggedness, this isn't changing things. I'm told there's a new set of ACUs being designed, with super-reinforced material, and buttons vice velcro on the leg pockets.

    NTM


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Final score. 3 dead, seven wounded to some extent.

    Opposition in the neighbouring AO had quite a good PR day today. I can't release yet the final tally, but a notable number of US dead in an attack on a small outpost. Two B1s ran out of bombs supporting the fight, plus all the other aviation that was used. Sortof a 'broken arrow.' God knows how many opposition were killed, we've not gotten to that stage yet.

    Suffice to say, the opposition's propoganda campaign will have excellent pictures in the morning. We were abandoning the place anyway, so there wasn't much left to burn/destroy, but of course, that's not going to be mentioned on the news.

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,497 ✭✭✭Poccington


    Did any troops make it out of the Outpost MM?


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Yes, the majority unharmed. Between aviation and reinforcements, the battle was a tactical victory. It's the PR aspect which will be damaging. I'll not be surprised if it's in the news in the next day or two.

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,497 ✭✭✭Poccington


    Is this the same attacks you spoke of MM? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,559741,00.html

    RIP to the 8 soldiers.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Yep, that's it.

    We dropped over 18 tons of bombs on them, plus other ordnance. (To include a score of 105mm rounds from an AC-130). We have little doubt that we have seriously depleted the opposition's numbers, but there's also little doubt about the PR victory they've scored.

    It says something that losing less than a dozen soldiers in a single fight is considered a horrendous and shocking figure these days.

    NTM


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,494 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Society's / the media's ability to deal with casualites is inversely proportional ot the square of the number of casualties.

    Why is "broken arrow" used with two distinctly different meanings?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Arrow
    Broken Arrow may also be:

    * An accidental event that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear components but which does not create the risk of nuclear war, known as a Broken Arrow in United States military terminology.
    * The United States code for calling in all available aircraft or artillery for an airstrike and/or artillery strike very near a friendly position which has been overrun by the foe, and therefore creating a high probability of 'Blue-on-Blue'. An example of this use was shown in the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers, a true story during which a Broken Arrow was called in by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore in 1965 while leading his men through the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭iceage


    A major scrap by the sounds of it. Thoughts and condolences are with those guys familys and mates.

    RIP.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 471 ✭✭pmg58


    RIP to the lads.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Been looking up some more of the figures. The number of 155mm rounds fired is in the triple-digits.

    NTM


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭iceage


    The contact finally hit Sky News last night.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,267 ✭✭✭concussion


    Victor wrote: »
    Society's / the media's ability to deal with casualites is inversely proportional ot the square of the number of casualties.

    Why is "broken arrow" used with two distinctly different meanings?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Arrow


    Wiki is wrong on one of them - Broken Arrow is used to get priority air support for a position which otherwise would be over-run, not one which has already been overrun. As for it's use for nuclear weapons, I have no idea.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    U.S. pullout from Afghanistan not an option: Gates

    Mon Oct 5, 2009 8:49pm EDT

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    By Matt Spetalnick
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday ruled out any consideration of a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's sweeping strategy review of the increasingly unpopular war there.
    "We are not leaving Afghanistan. This discussion is about next steps forward and the president has some momentous decisions to make," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a television program taped at George Washington University that will be aired by CNN on Tuesday.
    Gates said the Afghan and Pakistani governments should not be "nervous" about the U.S. review as Obama prepared to brief congressional leaders and to convene his war council again this week on how to deal with the deteriorating security situation.
    "I don't think we have the option to leave," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. "That's quite clear."
    Obama faces pivotal decisions in the coming weeks after the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, presented a dire assessment of the eight-year-old war effort.
    Earlier, Gates urged military advisers to speak "candidly but privately" but defended McChrystal, who has been criticized for appearing to lobby in public for his position that more troops need to be sent to Afghanistan.
    "Stan McChrystal is exactly the right person to be the commander in Afghanistan right now," Gates said. "I have every confidence that, no matter what decision the president makes, Stan McChrystal will implement it as effectively as possible."
    The debate within the Obama administration is now over whether to send thousands more U.S. troops, as McChrystal has requested, or scale back the U.S. mission and focus on striking al Qaeda cells, an idea backed by Vice President Joe Biden.
    'OUR INABILITY'
    Gates suggested that the failure of the United States and its allies to put more troops into Afghanistan in earlier years -- a period when former U.S. President George W. Bush invaded Iraq -- had given the Taliban an edge in Afghanistan.
    "The reality is that because of our inability, and the inability, frankly, of our allies, (to put) enough troops into Afghanistan, the Taliban do have the momentum right now, it seems," Gates said, although he declined to discuss what options Obama may be considering.
    As the strategy debate in Washington gathered steam, Afghan election authorities began a recount on Monday in the disputed presidential election held in August.
    Allegations of fraud in what Gates called the "flawed" election are among the reasons U.S. officials have cited for launching the review of policy toward Afghanistan.
    With U.S. casualties on the rise, American public opinion has turned increasingly against what Obama's aides once hailed as the "good war," in contrast to the unpopular war in Iraq that occupied the focus of Bush.
    There also have been increasing calls from the anti-war left and foreign policy critics for a U.S. pullout. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the White House on Monday, and a few were arrested when they chained themselves to the gates.
    Seeking to shore up support, Obama invited senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers to the White House on Tuesday to discuss the future course of the war. He is due to meet his national security team on Wednesday and Friday.
    The Obama administration already has almost doubled the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan this year to 62,000 to contend with the worst violence since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban rulers in 2001. The U.S. invasion was launched in the weeks after the September 11 attacks carried out by al Qaeda, which had been given a haven in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
    McChrystal has warned in a confidential assessment that the war effort would end in failure without additional troops and changes in strategy.
    But signing off on the 30,000 to 40,000 troop increase that McChrystal is said to have requested would be politically risky for Obama due to unease within his own Democratic Party and fatigue among the American public after eight years of war in Afghanistan and six in Iraq.
    U.S. forces in Afghanistan suffered their worst losses in more than a year when fighters stormed remote outposts near the Pakistan border over the weekend. Eight American soldiers were killed on Saturday after tribal militia stormed two combat outposts in remote Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan.
    (Additional reporting by Peter Graff and Sayed Salahn in Kabul and Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed in Washington.

    Also a 'military strategist' said on CNN that he fears the USA may make the mistake they did in Vietnam.That is to say reponding to increased levels of attack,pro-rata rather than a deciscive troop presence to "finish the job"
    in the same report the Afghan minister for defense said he wanted more troops to train his troops.


    p.gif?u=86.44.141.192-2002939872.30033443&a=idUSISL51222220091006?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,779 ✭✭✭Ping Chow Chi


    I remember watching a BBC documentry a couple of years ago and it looked like the afgan army was held in high regard by the locals but their view of the police forces was that they where worse than the taliban, I wonder if this has changed any?


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    No.

    NTM


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,494 ✭✭✭citizen_p




  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    No, there were several hundred involved. The '40' is the claimed kill tally for the operations which resulted from the attack. The actual attack itself is supposedly on the order of a hundred enemy dead. Apparently there have been a lot of funerals in that part of the country the last two days. (It's a far more realistic way of telling than counting bodies)

    NTM


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,779 ✭✭✭Ping Chow Chi


    No.

    NTM

    Thats a shame to hear, I hope that they are trying to sort that out.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Lip service only, I'm afraid.

    The ANP are basically a paramilitary. We teach them how to fire an AK-47 and shoot people, not how to conduct criminal investigations. They are incredibly badly paid, bribery of the ANP around here isn't about greed, it's about survival. There has been very little effort by anyone to train the police on police tasks.

    On the other hand, there is also little requirement for them to do so. Afghan solutions for Afghan problems is a bit of a catchphrase over here. Tribal Justice works rather well, all things considered. If person A feels he has been wronged, he takes it up with the tribal leadership, and they generally get the problem resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Oftentimes delegations between two villages or tribes will work out inter-tribal problems. (Though occasionally they work it out with AK-47s). ANP are generally only called if there is the impression that civil issues cannot be worked out amicably without external interference.

    NTM


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,465 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    War is hell.

    The clasp broke on the wrist-strap of my watch. Said watch is currently being held in place on my wrist by way of a pipecleaner from my rifle cleaning kit.

    Some of our lads found the opposition this morning, yet again, they made the mistake of shooting at us. 56 rounds of 120mm, 3x 500lb bombs, 200x .50 cal and 13x 2.75" FFAR later (plus small arms and MG from the troops in contact), I believe we have again made our point that it's really not the safest occupation in the world to take potshots in our direction. (The unofficial regimental motto is 'Find the bastards and pile on.' We take this to heart, we only want to fight them once if we can help it)

    One of the problems with this job is the whole "I know something you don't know" issue. What's the point in knowing a secret if you can't tell anyone? Some amusing snippets of information crossed my desk today. Maybe by the time the tour is over, I might be able to tell you. Remind me at the end of the thread.

    NTM


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,798 ✭✭✭Local-womanizer


    Are you enjoying your time over there Manic?(between the shooting that is)

    What is the general feeling among the Afghan people towards yourself and the other ISAF forces?

    Do you feel your presence is making a difference?


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