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Thread: Iraq, 2005-06 and 2010 Birth of a "Democratic" nation, or Beginning of a Civil War, or Rumblings of Isis. Or Biggest waterless beach... ever

  1. #1

    Default Iraq, 2005-06 and 2010 Birth of a "Democratic" nation, or Beginning of a Civil War, or Rumblings of Isis. Or Biggest waterless beach... ever

    So, a little background. I am a country boy, from a country town, in a country state. Born in west Texas and sorta toured the southwest united states as a child. Bought in to the feel good propaganda and do gooder talk and all that jazz about grenades n tanks n such probably didn't hurt any in my choice to join the U.S. Army. At the time I guess you could say that I was one of those Merica, Fux Ya people. So before getting on the plane my psyche was awash with all the kick ass, nationalist patriotism that you could think of. From my Republican family, to all the 9-11 business, to a lifetime of reading Warhammer 40,000 and various other war themed games, movies, books and media, I was ready to go kick some badguys ass for real! Fast forward to my vacation to Iraq...

    Iraq is hot, very hot. I,ve been to some pretty hellish places. Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, Guadalupe Mountains, HOUSTON TX. Iraq comes in second only to Qatar. Qatar is a whole other story! Remind me sometime and perhaps I shall share. I left Colorado with a stopover in Bangor Maine in March. It was definitely snowing/blizzarding and miserable. When I stepped off of the plane in Kuwait it was 94 Degrees Farenhiet... at 3:00 A.M.! July in Iraq Proved to be outrageous in intensity. 135 Degrees F.. The hottest temperature on record is in Lybia. It was 136 Degrees... So for a short while I was located on one of the hottest places on Earth. Wearing 120 Lbs of gear. The surface of the sand can reach 212 Degrees and the "breeze" feels like furnace wind. If any metal is left in the sunlight and you touch it without gloves you will get severe burns! Oh yeah at night time the temperature drops by up to 60 degrees. From 130 down to 75 Degrees... Hilarious watching tough soldiers bring out jackets and beanies in August.

    Iraq literally crawls with life! Being such a severe desert and all you would think that life would be pretty sparse but alas... no. I made the mistake of taking a nap under my Armored Personnel Carrier out in the western desert one time. Right on the sand... Terrible idea let me stress! Never sleep directly on the sand! I awoke with 10,000 little red buggies in every nook and cranny just nibbling away at me. Another time I saw what Looked like an American King snake crawling up a wall. It was about 8 ft long and shiny black and not to aggressive much like the King snake. Well my country ass up and caught that thing and put it in a footlocker as a pet. I fed it mice and rats that I caught in a warehouse us soldiers turned into a barracks. Well, my leadership decided to do a health and wellfare inspection and found the damn snake. We aren't allowed to have pets by the way. So my First Sgt. come to me and says WTF am I thinking?!? He asked if I knew what kind of snake I had in my possesion. So I says a King Snake of course. He shakes his head and reminds me that Iraq is not Texas. My friends that thing was an Asiatic Black Snake. A cousin of the King Cobra with very similar venom. That was the last snake I caught over there. A neat thing was that there are huge amounts of Hedgehogs around southern Baghdad! Got in trouble for domesticating a few of those as well. Woke up with a camel spider warming itself in my sleeping bag another time. Hate creepy crawlies!

    So, I was there for the Initial Elections. That just seemed to start off a civil war. Now keep in mind that I was just a grunt going on foot patrols, raiding houses, searching for IEDs and other misc. soldiery things. I couldn't tell you what the bigger picture was or even what Americans or the world was being told by news agencies. You get pretty Isolated when deployed. We were supposedly there to stabilize the country after the invasion so that we could come home heros and get oil or some I didn't pay attention to the politics. But, the leadership was harping on about hearts and minds or something so we were supposed to play nice, not disrespect any local customs and just generally be helpful liberating Americans. Well, we did all of those things but mostly on even days{bad Joke} on odd days, we would do things like drive around town playing Death Metal music on Long range Acoustic devices at maximum volume. I mean, I could go on and on and on but it will only upset me and derail any conversation and maybe garner a visit from the ABC organizations of the various governments of the world...

    Let me just say this. Research these if you want, they are only ballpark figures

    over 50% of iraqs populace is under 14 years old.
    3000 Iraqi civilians were dieing every month for the entirety of the war.
    Depleted Uranium Ammunition has radioactive decay for 10,000+ years
    5,000 Yezidi Women and Children taken by Isis into sex slavery forced soldiery from the Sinjar Mts. Most of them have still not been rescued.


    Any good that I accomplished over there was erased the day that ISIS rose. I'm not judging anyone just... damn. It sucks ya know? It isn't a very proud thing when people call me a hero for serving. I don't feel like a hero. I did get one thing out of it though. Now I don't take my blessings for granted and boredom doesn't exist for me. Being alive in a place that gives me some semblance of stability to step back and take a breath and enjoy the view is magical. Untold millions of our brothers and sisters around the globe never experience that. I'm just trying to start some conversations is all. Sometimes the things that people are discussing and examining at great length aren't as important as we once thought. Don't forget that there is a whole world out there away from the computers and distractions we fill our lives with. Some people live in the real . Hug your friends and family and dog and say thank you!

  2. #2
    AqD's Avatar 。◕‿◕。
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    Default Re: Iraq, 2005-06 and 2010 Birth of a "Democratic" nation, or Beginning of a Civil War, or Rumblings of Isis. Or Biggest waterless beach... ever

    Any photo or guide for safe route? There are still some remains not destroyed by ISIS yes?

  3. #3
    Prince of Essling's Avatar Napoleonic Enthusiast
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    Default Re: Iraq, 2005-06 and 2010 Birth of a "Democratic" nation, or Beginning of a Civil War, or Rumblings of Isis. Or Biggest waterless beach... ever

    See https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/iraq which advises against all travel to:
    Anbar province
    Ninewah province
    Salah-Al-Din province
    Diyala province
    Tam’mim (Kirkuk) province
    in Erbil province, south of Road 80, and within 10km of the border with Ninewah province between Road 80 and Road 2
    The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the rest of Iraq, including the remainder of the Kurdistan region.

    In conclusion not a sensible thing to be thinking of in the near future.
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