Ask an Iraq war Vet

[MuresanForMVP]

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Good thread, OP. Thanks for posting this and answering our questions.

BTW in one of the videos I saw a marine (?) firing an AK-47. Is that common to switch your weapon to a non-US-issue one?

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you can use them after taking them from an enemy combatant, but it's important to make sure that you've actually seen it being fired previously. I've heard that the insurgents will take Dragunov sniper rifles, drill holes in the buttstocks or other places so that when it's fired, fragmentation is thrown into the face of the operator. they'll then leave them lying around in the hopes that a US troop tries to use it and there goes their vision

[4drugmoney]

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Were a lot of your fellow marines 'hungry' to kill? ie bloodlust beyond the want to do their duty? Was this weird to be around?

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Not really. But again I wasn't infantry. Also, alot of people would talk about how they wanted to get some action, get in a firefight ETC. Alot of those same people piss there pants when the [censored] goes down,

[4drugmoney]

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Good thread, OP. Thanks for posting this and answering our questions.

BTW in one of the videos I saw a marine (?) firing an AK-47. Is that common to switch your weapon to a non-US-issue one?

[/ QUOTE ]

you can use them after taking them from an enemy combatant, but it's important to make sure that you've actually seen it being fired previously. I've heard that the insurgents will take Dragunov sniper rifles, drill holes in the buttstocks or other places so that when it's fired, fragmentation is thrown into the face of the operator. they'll then leave them lying around in the hopes that a US troop tries to use it and there goes their vision

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Yeah this is pretty much correct. It's def not the norm. Also FWIW besides having stopping power AK-47s pretty much suck. The are extremely inaccurate.

[Blarg]

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Were a lot of your fellow marines 'hungry' to kill? ie bloodlust beyond the want to do their duty? Was this weird to be around?

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Not really. But again I wasn't infantry. Also, alot of people would talk about how they wanted to get some action, get in a firefight ETC. Alot of those same people piss there pants when the [censored] goes down,

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FWIW, Paul Fussell wrote a memoir about his experiences in WW2, and said pissing your pants is dirt common and plenty of guys did it regularly, some every battle; and it didn't seem to be directly related to observable cowardice either.

Maybe if you don't piss your pants sometimes when you think you're gonna die, either you have an empty bladder or might be screwier than most.

[4drugmoney]

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I've read some of the thread but not all of it so if you've covered these questions already, feel free to ignore.

How widespread is opposition to the war amongst soldiers on the ground in Iraq? Is it a taboo subject to talk about?

Was there any effort by the Corp to teach marines Arabic?

Did your Iraqi translators keep it a secret that they worked for the U.S. army? I have to think that it would be pretty dangerous for a translator and his family if word got out that he worked for the Americans directly.

Were you in contact with any Kurds? I'm an american and have spent a fair amount of time in Syria and the Kurds there love us. Similar phenomenon in Iraq?

Do you think the Kurds may ty to secede, at least in a de facto sense?

Thanks for your time in this thread.

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I've addressed this a little already. It's kind of hard to explain, I think at this point everyone has accepted the fact that we are eventually just going have to pull-out and let the chips fall where they may.

There are Marines who go to school for years to learn Arabic. They are usually in the Intell/ counter intell field of work. And they teach everyone else some very basic stuff.

Yeah alot of them can't even visit there families for fear of being killed. It's a very dangerous job.

I didn't have contact with any Kurds.

I don't have a good answer for this. I always just wondered why Iraq couldn't just be split into three different countries for the Shiites,Sunnis,and Kurds. Maybe that's a stupid idea, Im not really sure.

[4drugmoney]

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Did you get any training in peace keeping operations before your first tour?
Was your training focused on conventional combat operations against an opposing army or did it include counter insurgency training?
What were you expecting to happen after the initial conflict against the Baathist regime was won?

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No we didn't really get any peace-keeping training. We did a lot of MOUT (Military operations in urban terrain) training, which consists of learning to fight against insurgents who fight with gorilla tactics.

After the "major combat operations" were over. Everyone was kinda like, "uhh.... so what de we do now?" I don't think the guys up top thought it out very well. I'm still not really sure there is any kind of real "plan".

[TNUC]

Did you ever mingle with the british troops out there? opinions on them as soldiers / people ? gread thread btw just read it all

[TNUC]

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Did you ever mingle with the british troops out there? opinions on them as soldiers / people ? great thread btw just read it all

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[Blarg]

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I don't have a good answer for this. I always just wondered why Iraq couldn't just be split into three different countries for the Shiites,Sunnis,and Kurds. Maybe that's a stupid idea, Im not really sure.

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Turkey. The turks would invade immediately and I'm not sure anything that isn't nuclear could stop them.

[4drugmoney]

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Did you ever mingle with the british troops out there? opinions on them as soldiers / people ? gread thread btw just read it all

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I didn't work with any of the British guys in Iraq. I did do some training with them in 29palms California. They were all very cool, and very well trained. Before I met them I had a baseless preconception that they would be untrained/uneffective fighters. This was quickly proven wrong. They worked had and partied even harder. I had a great time going out and drinking with them