Blackhawking Down into the Dustbin of History

Posted by 2R on October 05, 2007, 07:21 PM | #

The BlackHawk Down situation caused a lot of changes in the US Military.  I served from 1999 to 2003 as an Infantrymen in the US Army.  In 1993 when this happened, is was a common understanding that you never used armoured vehicles in urban combat.  It wasn’t until Operation Iraqi Freedom that the military realized how useful Tanks and Bradley’s were in Urban Combat.  Before the war, there were some contacts with the Israelis and Russians on how to use heavy armour in an urban environment, but this information never made it down to the small unit level. 

Because of the battle of Mogadishu, as soldiers, we were always reminded about “topping off” our water and bringing our Night Vision Devices no matter what time of day it was or climatic condition.  In fact, they even would say things like “you all know what happened in Somalia.” 

The military, as an institution, always waits until disaster strikes before making changes.  My company’s HQ’s platoon rode around in Humvees without doors during the invasion.  Some soldiers in support units even wore the Vietnam era flak vests.  Luckily, during the invasion, the use of IED’s hadn’t started yet. 

Despite it bad reputation, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle preformed very well.  The mortar fire we came under would have easily killed us had it not been for the BFV.  The only negative experience I had regarding the BFV was having to sit in it for 25 straight hour on our way to our first objective at Nasiriyah.  Nothing was more miserable than having to keep my knees bent for that long. 

Overall though, the US military is a pretty competent organization.  The only problem I have is with the generals who won’t say when things are going bad or admit that the military can’t bring stability to people who are incapable of the institutions we enjoy in the West.  The same “Can-do” attitude can be a negative as well as a positive.

Had it not been for my military service, I doubt I would have ever became racially aware.  Seeing places like the Balkans and the Middle East, along with living alongside blacks and mestizo’s, made me realize that I definitely prefer the company of other White people.  The conventional wisdom about being more tolerant by living in a diverse environment ended up being the exact opposite for me.  While growing up in an all White suburb, I was appalled by the idea of “racism.”  Four years in the military, along with four years of college has made me realize that multiculturalism in an dangerous enterprise and that tolerance is suicide.

Posted by Robert Reis on October 06, 2007, 06:10 AM | #

Thanks for your comments.
RER

Posted by Fred Scrooby on October 06, 2007, 09:27 AM | #

“Thanks for your comments.”  (—Robert Reis)

Seconded.  That was a very interesting post by 2R.

Posted by Slavyanski on October 06, 2007, 10:53 AM | #

Being in the Balkans made you prefer the company of whites?  That ought to teach you a lesson about “whiteness”, given the propensity for women trafficking and prostitution there(run by white Bosnians, Serbs, and Albanians).  Tell me, did you rape any white girls in the brothels there?  Many “whites” have and still do. 

Incidentily, if the author had read Blackhawk Down a little closer, you would have found that there were actually two black rangers in the group; though it is not clear whether one of them took part in the battle.  So if anything the movie shorted them one black guy- betraying any idea that there is some kind of politically correct message in this film.

Posted by 2R on October 06, 2007, 03:50 PM | #

Slavyanski said:
“Being in the Balkans made you prefer the company of whites?  That ought to teach you a lesson about “whiteness”, given the propensity for women trafficking and prostitution there(run by white Bosnians, Serbs, and Albanians).  Tell me, did you rape any white girls in the brothels there?  Many “whites” have and still do. “

The Balkans experience was where I first started realizing that multicultural empires can only work if run by a dictator.  After learning the history of the area, along with spending hour after hour talking to people in the region, I came to understand that there was no hope of making people “just get along.”  The people there even hated dogs that wandered from parts of town that they suspected were not their own.  No one was capable of ever admitting that their “side” was ever responsible for anything as everything was always in retaliation for something else.  I found this very similar to the attitude we find in blacks.  Just like the Jena Six, blacks do not have the ability to understand that they have no right to assault people just because of some history that happened 200 years ago. 

Anytime there’s a breakdown in order in the Balkans, people usually end up getting thrown into holes in the ground in large numbers.  Anytime there a breakdown in order in the US, it becomes open season on Whites. 

As far as preferring the company of Whites, this had more to do with the living conditions I had to endure.  There’s nothing like trying to sleep while the blacks insist on playing domino’s, which meant they had to scream at the top of their lungs.  In the morning, these same blacks would be the last ones out of bed.  When someone would ask why they didn’t shine their boots or shave they would bitch and claim they were being picked on for racial reasons.  They had the whole night before to shine their boots but played domino’s instead.  One good thing about being in the infantry was it had the least amount of blacks.  Special Forces is even better, they’re almost 97% White (the 3% being mestizo’s or Asians).  The regular infantry is about 90% White, so not bad compared to the combat support units. 

As far as any brothels being there, I didn’t see any.  If we would have seen such a thing, we would have shut them down.  I don’t where you’re from or who you know but American soldiers don’t go around raping women.  That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been incidents but it sure isn’t anything common.  I suspect you’re trying to start trouble.

Posted by Slavyanski on October 06, 2007, 04:01 PM | #

In fact sex-slavery and brothels do exist in the Balkans, their main patrons being soldiers of the occupation forces.  This was well-documented by Victor Malarek.  However, since you didn’t see any, I commend you for not engaging in that disgusting practice.  Recently I was told of a conversation between a NATO general(of unknown nationality) and a US Congressman who came to talk to him about sex-slavery and trafficking in the Balkans.  He was told, “Our soldiers need to have fun.”  Anyway, again, despite any disagreement we might have, kudos to you for not engaging in that practice that so many patronize in Europe these days.

I know what you are talking about in the army, but I remember one jackass that used to wake me up all the time was in fact a white guy who loved hip-hop. As punishment, I played “Jump Around” by House of Pain(I actually bought the album just for this purpose) for four hours, till about 0400-0500, with my speakers to the wall.  He never played his rap too loud again.

Posted by 2R on October 07, 2007, 03:44 AM | #

You “punished” someone by playing loud music?  What did the CQ on duty say about this?  Why didn’t you go to the CQ and complain, instead of doing the same thing?  How were you able to sleep while your own music was playing?  What was your MOS?  Where were you stationed at?  When did you serve?  What rank did you achieve?

Posted by Slavyanski on October 07, 2007, 04:26 AM | #

I never heard a word about it, even from that guy.  He just stopped playing the music.  The trick is that we went into town so I wasn’t there while it was playing.  I was stationed at Ft. Riley, KS, MOS 31R. That is technically a signal job but I would say that at least at Ft. Riley it consisted of standing around the motor pool smoking, and making sarcastic remarks.  In the field you basically sat in a box(the shelter on the back of the humvee) all day.  It was on these field problems that I read Mein Kampf, Mussolini’s My Rise and Fall, and a few other books.  To be fair, I probably would have had more work to do if I were not in a RAU(Radio Access Unit), the LOS(Line of Sight) shelters have to constantly screw with their antennas.

I don’t really care about my military service any more, if you could even call it that.  I was pretty naive back then.

Posted by Gringo_Malo on October 08, 2007, 10:53 AM | #

2R,

In your first post, aside from confirming Robert Reis’ statement that most of the actual fighters in our military are white, you said a couple of interesting things:

1. “It wasn’t until Operation Iraqi Freedom that the military realized how useful Tanks and Bradley’s were in Urban Combat.”

2. “The only problem I have is with the generals who won’t say when things are going bad or admit that the military can’t bring stability to people who are incapable of the institutions we enjoy in the West.”

I wonder whether you’ve noticed that the reason for the change in armored tactics is that our government now tries to impose Western instutitions upon people who are incapable of supporting them. If you’re driving around a city letting people shoot at you from buildings, then maybe you need armor in cities. If you respond to gunfire from buildings with mortars, artillery, or air strikes, as our forces did in World War II, then you don’t need armor, and there’s no point in putting your armor between buildings that provide cover for attackers with Molotov cocktails. We need armor in cities only because our army is acting as a police force, and our army is acting as a police force only because our government has assumed the truly brain-dead mission of imposing Western-style democracy on non-Western people.

If you need more proof that our army acts as a police force, watch the program Shootout! on The History Channel. One of the episodes shows marines using SWAT team tactics to clear buildings in Fallujah. Perhaps you actually did some of this stuff yourself. To me, risking the lives of our best young men to avoid destruction of Iraqi property seems the height of folly.