MetaFilter posts tagged with Iraq and army

How An American Soldier Is Made

Effigy2000 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:29:03 -0800

This is how an American soldier is made. A fascinating photo essay that details 27 months in the life of new US Army recruit Ian Fisher. It chronicles his recruitment, induction, training, deployment and finally, his return from combat.

“There’s culture shock, and then there’s the culture shock of moving to a country that started a war in your home.”

wander — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:49:47 -0800

"The war has uprooted 4.7 million people from their homes. So where are they?" With the election of Obama and the economic crisis, the topic of Iraq has fallen by the wayside. As hard as things may be right now, Iraqis have been going through far worse for years now. If you're curious about what they have to say, hear them tell it in their own words. Iraqi Refugee Stories. Lest we also forget the war's toll on soldiers: The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce. If you're asking, "What can I do about any of this?" Go here. And if you feel you can't manage to do any of that, then be good to yourself, and your neighbors. Go out of your way to do one nice thing for someone, or challenge one of the preconceptions you might have about someone else. You don't have to save the world, but you can at try least make it just a little nicer than it was. If you know any Iraqis affected by the war (or have worked closely with them yourself), or even know of some through someone else, encourage them to share their stories here.

to take brass and fire into his mouth

batmonkey — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:21:09 -0800

Army reports highest rate of soldier suicides for three decades in 2008. Even the up-and-coming are at risk. Stars & Stripes mentions that leadership may bear some blame. Will twice the money for family programs help? [title: line from "Eulogy", PFC B. Miller 1980-2004]

Team Lioness - Female Soldiers in Combat in Iraq

nooneyouknow — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:49:13 -0800

Team Lioness is the name given to a group of female soliders, (and the documentary about them) who were some of the first women in modern American warfare to engage in frontline combat — something that is officially forbidden by the military. "The female support soliders were assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion and they were recruited to accompany Marine units during raids. Originally, the female soldiers were there to search and detain any women they came upon and to guard the unit's Arabic interpreter. Over time, however, as the situation in Ramadi deteriorated, the Marine units transitioned into a more offensive role, baiting insurgents into firefights in order to draw them out. Until officers higher up the chain got spooked over the possibility of a female soldier killed in combat and quietly disbanded the unit, members of Team Lioness were often right in the thick of things, including some of the fiercest urban firefights of the Iraq War."

The Downward Spiral

empath — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:36:16 -0800

What killed Sgt. Gray? "He survived the war only to die at home. An exploration of his death and his combat unit's activities reveals what can happen to soldiers who feel the freedom -- or the pressure -- to do things in war they can't live with later." -- An American Radioworks documentary.

Battlemind

Rumple — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:28:56 -0800

Battlemind: Armor for Your Mind is a U.S. Army website designed to help, in part, families deal with deployment, including a series of cartoons and videos intended for children whose parents may be sent to or be returning from warzones. Part of the Army's Behavioral Health program, these give intriguing insight into military culture. Cartoons featuring Mr. Poe & Sgt. Drew are oddly juxtaposed with the harrowing account of a Golden Gate suicide survivor: Thus, I ended up leaping off that bridge and at the moment of free fall, I said God, please save me, I don’t want to die. And I always used to say to me, Kevin you are in two feet of water and you are drowning, stand up. If you are in two feet of water right now stand up, walk forward, it’s okay to ask for help.

Abu Ghraib Interrogator Becomes Conscientious Objector

dbarefoot — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:58:07 -0800

A riveting ten-minute interview with playwright and former US Army interrogator Joshua Casteel. He discusses how a particular interrogation with an Iraqi prisoner--and an exchange of views on Islam and Christianity--motivated him to leave the armed forces and become a conscientious objector.

Meeting Resistance

homunculus — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:13:33 -0800

Know Thine Enemy. "In a video Op-Ed by documentary filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors, Iraqis explain the roots of the insurgency." Another Op-Ed on Iraq, written by 12 former Army captains: The Real Iraq We Knew.

Left of Boom - The struggle to defeat roadside bombs

srboisvert — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:08:51 -0800

Left of Boom - The struggle to defeat roadside bombs. [washpo - flash & flash video]

The killing of Jamie Dean

homunculus — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:25:26 -0800

The killing of Jamie Dean. "Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq."

How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits

knave — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:58:30 -0800

How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits: His deafness, memory problems and depression caused were not caused by a rocket attack he survived in Ramadi, but by a pre-existing personality disorder. Well, according to the Army medical staff, that is. (via)

US Army Counter-insurgency manual

wilful — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:57:30 -0800

So, you want to run a counter-insurgency? (Large .pdf of the current US Army counter-insurgency manual.)

A soldier speaks out

A189Nut — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:07:56 -0800

Chief of the General Staff General Sir Richard Dannatt has given an interview to the Daily Mail in which he says that the presence of British troops makes the security problems in Iraq worse . The General won the MC aged 22 in an action in Northern Ireland, so he presumably knows a thing or two about insurgency, never mind courage. Mr Blair has agreed...

The Sandbox

srboisvert — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 03:21:52 -0800

The Sandbox A Doonesbury driven non-partisan non-policy community blog on the details of being human in a global war on terror.

Middle Eastern troops at Hadrian's Wall in the early fifth century

greycap — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:05:51 -0800

Iraqi peacekeepers sent to the Scottish border... 1600 years ago. The Notitia Dignitatum, the Roman equivalent of an organisation chart for the imperial bureaucracy in the fifth century, contains a reference to soldiers from the Tigris stationed at Hadrian's Wall. More on the Notitia here; more on Hadrian's Wall here, including a 3D tour of a fort near the Wall, and tablets discovered at another fort (including a request by a commanding officer for "more beer").

...another less attractive but probably more realistic version of modern warfare in Iraq today ...

amberglow — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:31:40 -0800

Pentagon to Soldiers: Don't Post those Trophy Videos Online ... another said it made him feel good to bring the gruesome reality of a soldier's life in Iraq to those living safely behind their "clean, white picket fences at home". ...the taking and posting of trophy video served as some kind of relief from the psychological stresses of serving as a soldier in such a violent and acutely dangerous place. ... and from PBS' Mediashift: Your Guide to Soldier Videos From Iraq

I Love the Smell of Sim-Napalm in the Morning

digaman — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:35:09 -0800

The Smell of War -- the Institute for Creative Technologies preps Quake-happy teens to become first-person shooters in the non-virtual war on terror. Now in Odorama.

What it's like to lose a son in the Iraq war.

ND¢ — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:31:01 -0800

Never Coming Home is about the families of five young men killed in Iraq. Slate presents a short documentary that focuses on the bereavement of the parents, or in one case, a brother. This portrait of grief and sacrifice is brought to life through the use of still photography and the recorded voices of family members.

"playing" America's Army

amberglow — Tue, 30 May 2006 07:11:37 -0800

In Memoriam and in Protest --why not use an online deathmatch as a pedestal for speaking out against a war? Artist/Professor uses US Govt-developed America's Army (...placing Soldiering front and center within popular culture and showcasing the roles training, teamwork and technology play in the Army. ... ) as protest and art space. DeLappe's homepage (and jpgs) here

Not your soldier

IronLizard — Sat, 13 May 2006 20:20:58 -0800

An interesting anti-war animation (flash). (via) Another one. More.

Lazy Ramadi

ColdChef — Sat, 13 May 2006 12:30:45 -0800

Lazy Ramadi

Gen. McCaffrey: We can (and should succeed in Iraq) -- though it will take 10 years.

shivohum — Wed, 03 May 2006 19:53:11 -0800

"Do we have the political will, do we have the military power, will we spend the resources required to achieve our aims [in Iraq]?" writes retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey in a memo addressed to the heads of the social science department at West Point summarizing his findings after a week-long fact-finding trip in Iraq. It will take ten years and billions of dollars, but the McCaffrey Memo claims that to leave Iraq prematurely would risk "a ten year disaster of foreign policy in the vital Gulf Oil Region." Fred Kaplan thinks the costs are too high.

DisCHARGEd

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:39:40 -0800

Dear First Lieutenant Rebrook: Thank you for your service to your country. Here's your medical discharge, and here's a bill for $700 to cover the loss of the armor you ruined by bleeding all over it when you got shot.

Marching orders

rob511 — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:33:07 -0800

He wasn't asked. He didn't tell. Now he's out — and discharged. Eye-opening tale of Jeff Howe, courtesy of Raw Story. After 9/11, feeling personally unfulfilled and wanting to serve his country, Howe enlisted at the age of 29. Knowing he was gay but realizing that Army guidelines forbade his kind, he re-entered the closet, underwent basic training, and was shipped to Iraq. After a two-year stint on the front lines, with five commendations, he returned stateside. Then he was stop-lossed, shipped back to Iraq, and started writing a blog. That began a chain of events that, through no apparent fault of his own — or loose lip-flapping — led to Jeff Howe and the Army parting company.

For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'

zouhair — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:58:14 -0800

His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities
...
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
...