Oerdin's Iraq thread. - Page 17

PLATO · April 27, 2004, 23:36

Good Luck Oerdin. You are in my prayers. Be safe.

Ted Striker · April 27, 2004, 23:38

Good luck dog

Barinthus · April 28, 2004, 01:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Bloody Monk

But, and thankfully, as Oerdin said, this is selectively enforced. So, let's not give anyone reason to come down on our friend.

Monk

I wholeheartily second that and I'm sure everybody else agree.

Ted Striker · April 28, 2004, 01:49

Alright already damn I already edited the post sh1t

East Street Trader · April 28, 2004, 06:22

Having an income of any kind at all is good news in Iraq at the moment.

Before the war the country had a population of just under 25 million and a work force of 6.5 million 6% employed in agriculture (it is the world's largest producer of dates), 13% in industry (oil based) and 81% in the service industry. Gross national product per capita is $2,300 and women expect to bear four or five children - so an income of $600 a month might still leave a typical family a bit below average.

At a guess, though, a substantial chunk of the GDP will be concentrated in the hands of a limited number in which case $600 per month would be likely to take a typical family well above the mean.

Iraq's economy was first hit (very, very hard) by its 8 year war with Iran. Then by the fiasco of the Kuwait invasion. Then by sanctions which caused GDP to drop a lot and now it has had the invasion to contend with.

If oil production can be brought back on stream it will recover quickly. But protecting the oil installations once the insurgents start to target them will be a bit of a nightmare. I know the Israelis have had lots of trouble with their pipelines over the years. And God knows to what degree restoring oil production will benefit the population at large. It is not labour intensive.

Quite apart from its other troubles the country lies in a region already being affected by global warming which is causing the desert to advance and degrading agricultural land. Saddam Hussein also went in for drainage projects which have wrecked the habitat which previously sustained a stable population of marsh arabs. It is difficult to imagine much of a future for that particular group.

They are a hardy folk with deep roots. But I don't suppose anyone there expects an easy time of it for a while.

Making money from the invader is an ancient enterprize - taken to the level of an art form by the Maltese (and the denizens of Ankh Morpork I think). But it does tend to be regarded as collaborating with the enemy at first.

OneFootInTheGrave · April 28, 2004, 11:25

whoaaaa...

I haven't visited poly in a while, and just came to late to say

Goood LUCK!!!

Man take care, and hope we here hear more from you after Najaf...

That idea about making Sadr Shiite-Shiite problem it the best ever, I just hope someone in the chair makes the same decision and is able to execute it properly.

Hopefully the people of Najaf can nail him down.

Other than that...

maybe you can suggest Iraqis to pray for peace and prosperity Inshallah

Sirotnikov · April 28, 2004, 15:11

take care

Oerdin · April 28, 2004, 15:39

Sis: $600 per month is good by Iraqi standards but at $7200 per year it isn't much by international standards. What's more how many people have the Ba'athists attacked who didn't get a nice cushy job like this? Still, I'm glade something was done.

Everyone else: I'm in Tikrit now and will be leaving for Baghdad in the morning. We swapped out our old humvee for a newer regular humvee which has "balistic doors". That means atleast the doors are bullet proof though everything else is just sheet metal. Talk to you later.

Arrian · April 28, 2004, 15:40

Hope to hear from you soon, Oerdin.

-Arrian

Oerdin · April 28, 2004, 16:20

BTW this is only a rumor but one of the Captains in my company HQ here in Tikrit said our replacements will be doing the site survey (where a small group recons the AO) in July and that they will be going through Fort Bragg in early September. That would mean we could be going home in late September or early October.

That of course assumes the military doesn't hold both of the units here to assist with operations.

Spiffor · April 28, 2004, 18:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
That would mean we could be going home in late September or early October.

Stay safe until then

East Street Trader · April 29, 2004, 04:58

If I just had a few sheets of Chobham armour handy I'd ship them.

Although maybe it is protection from blast that is more important than from bullets?

Might be an idea to keep a hard hat on inside. If it is not too hot.

Oerdin · May 1, 2004, 07:55

EST: You always wear your body armor and helmet where ever you go.

Everyone else: I'm currently in Baghdad and will be here until the rest of the convoy to Najaf assembles in the next day or two. Last Thursday I spent the night at our radio station in Baquba and it was the first time I'd visited since right after the attack a month and a half ago (see previous post). I met a few of the new employees who filled in for the civilians who were killed and I got to say hi to a few old friends. All in all it was a somber night. The tower for the radio antenna is 1000 feet tall which is just a few feet shorter then the Empire State building in New York; I never really noticed it before but even though the tower is arrow straight the optics are such that when you stand close to something that tall and look straight up is seems like the tower is leaning towards you a bit. Like I said the tower isn't leaning but it's strange the way the optics of the eye work.

Today was a R&R day for me. I got to relax and wonder around in the Green Zone and at our nearby base at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). There is a very nice Chinese restaurant in the green zone and it wasn't until I went in that I realized I hadn't had anything but Iraqi or Army food for the last four months. I was wonderful to have a change of pace even if it was only for a day.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do another update tomorrow but I'm doubt I'll be able to send anything after that for some time but rest assured I'll send updates as often as I can.

Locutus · May 1, 2004, 08:34

Good luck, Oerdin, and stay safe

Agathon · May 1, 2004, 08:38

Hey Oerdin. When you come back you can start a protest movement and pretend to throw away your medals. Then you'll stand a good chance of being elected president in 30 years time.

Chemical Ollie · May 1, 2004, 10:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Agathon
Hey Oerdin. When you come back you can start a protest movement and pretend to throw away your medals. Then you'll stand a good chance of being elected president in 30 years time.

Let's hope he doesn't get any medals. At least not of the purple kind.

Kropotkin · May 1, 2004, 11:54

Yeah, purple is just so gay!

debeest · May 1, 2004, 14:34

Oerdin, stay safe. I think of you often and want you to get home.

Sirotnikov · May 1, 2004, 16:55

Be safe man,

Tell me, do the soldiers know of the recent headlines on world media about picutres of alleged torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners?

How are you guys responding to it?

How are the Iraqis?

And how are the higher military authorities dealing with it?

Ted Striker · May 1, 2004, 17:08

He actually posted about it in the thread about the torture.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...1&pagenumber=4

Chemical Ollie · May 2, 2004, 09:55

This is post number 500 in this thread so I guess Ming will show up soon.

I've cut and pasted the essential parts of this thread into a word document. It's 40 pages long - Oerdin, you could write a book!

I have put in Oerdins story and relevant questions from us others but removed all spam and unrelated comments.

Oerdin · May 2, 2004, 09:57

It looks like I will be leaving Baghdad tomorrow and we expect the convoy to be rough. The last group that convoyed down got hit with a number of IEDs and they ran into a two mile long ambush from Iraqis firing small arms and RPGs. The whole convoy ran through it firing as they went then when they were in the clear the Bradleys & the Abrams turned around and went back to take a second wack at the bad guys. The Arabs had thought the convoy had fleed and they didn't expect them to come back so they were surprised when the tanks opened fire on them. From what I understand the armored vehicles pretty much mowed down every armed Arab they ran across plus they destroyed several buildings the Arabs were firing from.

So any way we've been trying to get ready for our deployment to Najaf by reading all of the SitReps (operations reports) from the various companies in the AO, loading up 2 months worth of supplies into our little trailer which we will tow behind our humvee, and rerigging all of our gear in our new humvee. The humvee isn't armored but it does have armored doors so it is something of an improvement. The one downside is that adding 1500lbs of steel plating has slowed down the vehicle considerably. Still slow and armored is probably better then slightly fast without any armor.

Talk to you later.

Oerdin · May 2, 2004, 10:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Tell me, do the soldiers know of the recent headlines on world media about picutres of alleged torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners?

It's frustrating that 17 people out of 200,000 US service men & women in the middle-east commit a crime and then we see leftists come crawling out of the wood work blamming everyone in uniform for what happened. Yes, it was terrible. Yes, the people who did it should be punished but it is wrong to try to tar everyone here with that brush. The difference between us and Saddam is that we will go after everyone who breaks the law even if the purpatraitors are on our side; Sadam wouldn't have even cared.

I hope I won't have to read any more rants by lefties claiming the US is no different then Saddam.

Quote:

How are you guys responding to it?

EVeryone is shocked and disappointed but the authorities are dealing with it sternly. I think the corrective action will be applied and we should be glade that we have a displinary system which helps remove the bad apples.

Quote:

How are the Iraqis?

They are angry but most of them realize that this was not systematic behavior and those guilty will be punished. The anti-US folks are of course trying to make propaganda value out of this and networks like Al Jazeera are taking the pictures and showing them without any context so it will hurt us.

PLATO · May 2, 2004, 10:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
This is post number 500 in this thread so I guess Ming will show up soon.

Request to Ming and the Owners: Can we leave this thread open in order to maintain a complete record of Oerdin's experiences in Iraq?

Ming · May 2, 2004, 10:30

Quote:

Originally posted by PLATO

Request to Ming and the Owners: Can we leave this thread open in order to maintain a complete record of Oerdin's experiences in Iraq?

Oerdin PM'ed me and asked for me to close this one when it hit 500 but start part II.

So...

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...hreadid=114080