Michael Totten has a first rate report out of Ramadi;
The Provincial Security Forces are a “national guard” of sorts controlled by the tribal authorities in addition to the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in the area. They resemble a militia in some ways, but they’re a legal branch of the Iraqi security forces, authorized and paid by the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad.
“An ice truck dropped off its ice at a checkpoint,” he continued. “The truck behind it in line exploded. Everybody was killed. For a five or six hour period we weren’t sure the PSF would go back to work. But eight hours later they were back in business. They are 100 percent committed to anti-terrorism and anti-sectarianism.”
“What’s the worst thing you’ve seen here?” I said.
He wasn’t sure what to say and had to think about his answer for a few moments.
“The worst thing I’ve seen, I think, is the aftermath of a VBIED,” he said.
A VBIED is a vehicle-born improvised explosive device. In other words, a car bomb.
“I’ve seen that about ten times,” he continued. “Some people are turned, literally, into red blotches. Some are just vaporized. Their families will never see them again, not even their bodies. And the smell…there’s this awful car bomb smell, the acrid stench of homemade explosives and diesel fuel. Nothing else in the world has that smell. Most of the VBIEDs were intended for civilians, but the Iraqi Police usually stopped them first at the checkpoints. So they were the ones who usually got blown up. The driver of the VBIED would panic because he was caught and then kill everyone at the checkpoint. Nevertheless, the Iraqi Police kept bravely manning the checkpoints and replacing the police who were murdered. I’m telling you, they aren’t doing that for 310 dollars a month.”
That’s just a taste, Be sure to read it all.
On my first OS mission outside of Canada, as a young Lt., i was sent as part of a fact finding mission in the Golan, and had after a period of time a chance to visit Israel proper for 2 days..
While i was sitting in a cafe(i won’t say where..but it was a small town near the border..) chatting with friends i had made, a car bomb exploded not more than 75 metres from where i sat..i can tell you the first thing you feel is the overpressure, before you even hear a bang..then comes the most godawful sound you’ll ever want to hear..it’s like a combination of a metallic crash sound combined with a crunch and a wooshing sound..and then silence..
…that lasts for about 20 seconds..then all hell breaks loose..the screams are what gets you, and i can still see in my minds eye a young girl walk past me, with one of her arms just hanging by the tendons, the fingers touching the ground..blinded by glass and calling out in an Arabic dialect for her mother..or help..maybe both..
I have seen a lot of bad things in my military career, but the things that stay with me the most are the civilian deaths..military deaths are occupational and unavoidable..but ramming a car packed with explosives into an outdoor cafe is just sheer homicide…
I walked through the streets hours afterwards,partially deaf and they have special teams there, that collect every single scrap of a person, (and i mean every one..) before they go home..even if it takes them 2 days..
I remember reading that a women, a few days after the attack called to say she had found a finger in her purse, and wanted to turn it in..
Gruseome, true, but this is what people have to deal with day in and day out in some places in the world..
I applaud you kirsk, Trotten and all our brave men and women on the frontline. It’s heart wrenching and sickening that people can be so incredibly ugly. Call me naive, although sheltered is probably a better word, but the atrocitites of the human race is truly mind boggling.
“but the atrocitites of the human race is truly mind boggling.
Posted by: kelly at September 25, 2007 2:04 AM ”
No. The atrocities of leftards,Islamofacisits,Dippers,and other various assorted nutcases are evil.There is nothing mind boggling about it. Evil is as evil does.
It is against this back drop of car bombs and fingers found in purses that the Columbia decision to let Amadine-jihad speak is best viewed.
These men must be defeated wherever they are found.
“What’s the most important thing Americans need to know about Iraq that they don’t currently know?” I said.
“That we’re fighting Al Qaeda,” he said without hesitation. “[Abu Musab al] Zarqawi invented Al Qaeda in Iraq. The top leadership outside Iraq squawked and thought it was a bad idea. Then he blew up the Samarra mosque, triggered a civil war, and got the whole world’s attention. Then the Al Qaeda leadership outside dumped huge amounts of money and people and arms into Anbar Province. They poured everything they had into this place. The battle against Americans in Anbar became their most important fight in the world. And they lost.”
The Democratic Party leadership is determined to prevent the American people from seeing that fact. It’d mean most people would realize that President Bush was right all along and the Democrats were dead wrong all along. The Democrats would be seen for the myopic, unpatriotic, power-hungry swine that they are.
They’re losing the war.