Frustrations abound...

Nothing particularly exciting going on lately. That's a good thing I suppose. It's also frustrating. We keep having our brethren down in Falcon come through and tell us what is going on with them and what they're doing. To say the least they're actually doing the job of the infantryman. While we up here continue to police a bridge. I suppose we'll get to run around a bit more when we do a mission change, but until then it's generally slow and frustrating.

So what's so frustrating? Generally policies we have to abide by. Mainly because they hamper our ability to do our job effectively...but they make those higher up and back in the States "feel good" about our safety. Problem is, we've reached a major point of diminishing returns. In the infantry we've always preached speed = security. Apparently Congress doesn't agree. They think more armor = security. Armor's all well and good until you get down behind cover and can't move anymore. The very basics of our job is fire and maneuver. We're quickly moving towards becoming static firing positions. The amount of armor they want us to wear makes any elongated maneuver on an enemy next to impossible and proper use of our weapon due to the amount of side armor they have us wear makes it cumbersome at best.

And that's the tip of the iceberg here. Things that shouldn't matter in a war zone, things that you look hard at while in garrison in the States, they're even tougher on here. If we still wore black boots, they'd have to be shined to mirror finish.

I've been reading a book called "The Devil's Secret Name". It's about an ex SF guy from the Vietnam era who works for Soldier of Fortune Magazine and tells about all the places he had to go for stories. When he visits Israel he notices something interesting things. The soldiers, although some of the best in the world, look in shambles. Long, unkempt hair. Unshaven. Boots and uniforms dirty. But their weapons are immaculate. They were worried about the things that mattered for the job at hand. Tactics. Training. Weapons handling. They didn't care about a good outward image...they let themselves shine on the battlefield. And it was said by them that if they killed 20 Palestinians before dying, then it was a waste. They were more important than those 20. That's the way it should be.

In the meantime, we'll sit here in the Green Zone where you can be fined for smoking too close to a stone and marble palace. And listen with envy as our A Co brothers come through telling of firefights and raids.