modern war

As a sergeant once told me, 'after the cruise missiles, artillery, aircraft, tanks, APC's, mortars, ugls and everything else has been thrown at them, someone has to go charging in to stick a knife in the pink mush at the bottom of the trench, at least, that's how it's supposed to work.'

 

Well said. I'll have to remember that.

 

Modern warfare from the U.S. standpoint has, in my opinion, been on a degressive slope for the last 10 +/- years. It's become a lot more impersonal than it used to be and there are too many considerations to be made and kept by the public and politicians that hamper the soldier's plan for victory. Soldiers have to keep in mind too much B.S. that would otherwise be the job of politicians and diplomats. This makes for a hard fought and high priced victory.

 

Interesting way of looking at it, not sure what political deals your soldiers have to deal with, ours just have to avoid breaking the law. The rest is stuff they have been doing since the 70's in NI so I guess we are a bit more used to it.

 

Agreed Stefan. The British army has had an advantage in interaction with various scenarios. We have learned a lot from the Brits experience. In the 90ies the French had serious trouble in the Balkans, because they had become so unpopular. They ended up with removing the Tricolour from their uniforms. That worked for a few days, then the locals knew that the only ones without national emblems were the French.

 

Sadly it looks like these bastard insurgants are successfully ruining the 'hearts and minds' battle. A friend of mine (who got back from Iraq last week) was talking about 'pulse operations' which began as simple hearts and minds stuff, a bunch of soldiers turning up at a school during the day, distributing text books, rebuilding water pumps, repairing eating facilities, painting and so on. Now they have changed in character, three warriors will rock up after the kids have left, drop off a box of books etc, leap out, paint a wall quicker than you have ever seen in your life whilst their comrades cover them, leap back in and drive off. They can't do it during the day because when the insurgants started attacking them they were killing kids, on one particular operation the Iraqi police turned up, got to within 100m, took off their berets, pulled on balaclavas and opened up on our troops with RPG's. Unfortunately for them a landrover is no match for a 30mm cannon with a chain gun coax, so they didn't come off well.

Seriously though, how can you fight a war like that?

 

That is the magic question. We are there not as occupation forces but to ensure victory the campaign needs to be conducted as occupation forces. I say establish military zones of occupation around key areas such as oil fields, ports, airfields and such. Leave the cities to the Iraqis. The insurgents may claim victory in taking cities but they will have to attack the military camps to get us out. Then, the military can open up with everything. The current operations are playing into the hands of the insurgents. This is another vietnam/Afghanistan.

 

Stefan, good idea, but as you know, Sir is used, because it has to be, seldom is it used becuase its meant.

As old Slim once said, Its good for the soldier to see a dead general now and again.....to which a soldier responde, yeah and it doesnt really matter from which side.

 

That's for sure Urqh, after a (very short) time with a regular infantry battallion last year I found myself using the patronising pronoun quite often .

As someone once said, 'you will stand in front of your men, that simple fact alone should motivate you to do well by them.'

 

We have not heard from Kerem in a long time. I guess he did not survive Turkish bootcamp.

 

He's probably too busy polishing things, ironing other stuff and oiling whatever is left

 

You guys are right, it's been several months now. I remember he said that after his drilling he would go to Cyprus. I hope he'll be back soon.

 

Well, I am back. In fact it has been several months that my service ended. I was busy looking for jobs etc.

Thank you all for your concerns, I almost did not survive the boot camp because of the cold weather. Seemingly south of Turkey is not a place as you would imagine.

And then I went to Cyprus promoted to sergeant and assigned to 39th Mech. Inf. Div., 50th Mech. Inf. Brig., 1st Battalion, 2nd Company, 3rd platoon, 2nd squad, squad leader. Our company was a Mechanized Infantry Company and we had AFVs. This is how those vehicles look like.
http://www.fnss.com.tr/admin/img/photo/ACV-S IFV25.jpg

That vehicle goes like a bastard. Especially when the driver pushes the pedal to the metal on harsh terrain, it makes you sick. Ours had a different turret than this one. It had a 25 mm cannon and a 7.62 mm machine gun (MG-3 to be exact). It was a great experience to be a soldier if only for a while.

 

Thanks slipdigit. Things have changed here since I left for my trip to "Invaded E.U. Riviera". I am glad to see such new members contributing to the forum.

 

Welcome back Sergeant Kerem!

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Welcome back, Kerem, I hope all is well with you. It's a pleasure having you again, after standing watch against the Asiatic Hordes

 

Hey look who's back!!!!

Excellent!!

 

Welcome back Kerem, glad you made it.

One comes, one goes, I'm off to Sandhurst Saturday, hope I survive as well as you have.

 

It is really nice to be back, I wish you good luck with your duty Stefan. I have found a few interesting photos about Cyprus.

The first photo is a very interesting scene from Nicosia, Cyprus by Michael Toft Schmidt. The upper side of the wall is the Turkish side, and the lower part is U.N. buffer zone, the picture is however taken from the Greek side.

The second one is taken from the Turkish side by Lex Luthor, the flag of the Turkish side printed on the mountains. You can also see it on google earth.
35°16'50.38, 33°22'37.74

The last one is the photo of a mosque taken by Nazim Usta. It was built as a church in 1209, then in 1571 when the island was conquered by Ottoman it was converted into a mosque.

I had the chance to visit all these places when I was in Cyprus.