My Iraq photo/video collection

Manic Moran

To try to minimize another thread from going off on a serious tangent, here's my on-the-ground view of Iraq, from Apr04 though Feb05. You can waste an hour or two on this, and eat up hard drive space with the videos!

I'll answer any questions you have, with one exception: This is not a thread for discussing Bush, the politics of the invasion, or any other high-level issues. At our level, we only cared about the fact that we were there, and what we were up to ourselves, and the people we interfaced with. Bear in mind also, that any answers will be made from the perspective from someone at the lowest echelon on the totem pole.

http://www.clubi.ie/exalted/sightssounds.htm

(Edit: The link to Hotdaybreak.avi is broken)

NTM

RedPlanet

I haven't found any dead iraqi's.
Is that becuase there are none?
Your site looks like propaganda, just out on for a bit of a holiday were ya?

ronbyrne2005

why have you posted this in politics forum if you dont wanna discuss the politics of the invasion?

Manic Moran

RedPlanet wrote:

I haven't found any dead iraqi's.
Is that becuase there are none?
Your site looks like propaganda, just out on for a bit of a holiday were ya?

I'm sorry, if my personal experience didn't match up with your preconceptions.
Perhaps I should have put up some of stills of the bodies. (Some do appear in the video/slideshows). If you really want to see an up-close image of a dead chap with the guts hanging out courtesy of our 7.62mm MG, I can either email it to you, or go hunt around on Ogrish for similar pictures. I guess I didn't feel that a dead insurgent was of sufficient interest to put up on the page. There are plenty on the web anyway. That said, I didn't actually see that many bodies to photograph, and if I was in such a situation that they were around, I was usually too busy to snap pictures.

why have you posted this in politics forum if you dont wanna discuss the politics of the invasion?

Seemed to be the most applicable forum. If I'm wrong, I'm sure a moderator will move it. Not as if Iraq isn't a popular topic for discussion here.

NTM

Interesting.

If not as interesting as this...

http://edwardpig.typepad.com/abughraib2.jpg

Sand

I guess before the thread gets closed due to the ignorance of some, Ill say I found the link and the photos/videos interesting and thanks for posting them. I never realised ground could just collapse under a tank!

Unfortunately theres a lot of so called freethinkers who can only accept information that supports their prejudgements. Balanced reporting and all that.

Sand

Sand wrote:

I guess before the thread gets closed due to the ignorance of some, Ill say I found the link and the photos/videos interesting and thanks for posting them. I never realised ground could just collapse under a tank!

Unfortunately theres a lot of so called freethinkers who can only accept information that supports their prejudgements. Balanced reporting and all that.

I dont know what you mean by this.
I've no intention of closing this thread.

I dont think its appropriate for here in that its not a politics discussion so its most likely that it will stay here untill its decided where to move it.

I'm busy today so , its going to be a couple of hours or even a day before I get back to this.
It's been given a ticket though in my to do list and if another mod hasnt acted before I get back to it,I'll move it.

In the mean time carry on.

Sand

Sand wrote:

Unfortunately theres a lot of so called freethinkers who can only accept information that supports their prejudgements.

Gotta admit I had no prejudgements. In fact, I never even heard of Abu Gharib until the photo I linked. But like, there might be plenty of images of soldiers on R and R on Vietnam beaches around the place, but bet everyone thinks of this one...

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/wiki/images/thumb/f/fc/250px-TrangBang.jpg

when asked about 'Nam.

But nevertheless as I noted it was interesting to link them here and kudos to the original poster for that.

dahamsta

Godwin has spoken. Time to lock.

Manic Moran

What's a Godwin?

Well, if someone decides to get the thread locked instead of asking some form of vaguely meaningful questions about some on-the-ground-realities...so be it.

I am also amused that Earthman can't seem to figure out what forum to move it to either. I don't feel so bad about putting it here, now!

NTM

It's not a politics discussion.
It's kind of politics relevant, so I'm leaving it here for another 24 hours or so and then I'll move it to a more appropriate forum probably the after hours board.
Also you've not done your self a service here by posting up a thread and ruling out political discussion-that simply is not on!

Reason for the delay, apart from me being busy here, is that I thought, that the extra bit of time the thread is here will give some of the regular posters here time to look at it if they want.


And by the way, it is very interesting.

BuffyBot

Travel/Holidays? Work?

Manic Moran

Now, now.. I stated I just wanted to avoid discussing the politics of the invasion. (bush lied, illuminati, blood for oil sort of thing that has been rehashed many times over the past).

Now, politics questions like 'how did the elections go where you were' or 'who did people in your area say they were going to vote for' are still fair game!

FWIW, I've no problem with a move.

NTM

Pyr0

Interesting photos Manic

Ruaidhri

Manic Moran wrote:

If you really want to see an up-close image of a dead chap with the guts hanging out courtesy of our 7.62mm MG,

Sorry to nitpick,but aint the standard NATO round 5.56mm,not 7.62,which has been retired for ages? And anyway,i'd not like to see that, the 7.62 is a BEAST of a round.

Willymuncher

http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/tricvanguard.JPG

Ah we're everywhere. Btw thank you for the pics...very interesting to look through.

Manic Moran

Ruaidhri wrote:

Sorry to nitpick,but aint the standard NATO round 5.56mm,not 7.62,which has been retired for ages? And anyway,i'd not like to see that, the 7.62 is a BEAST of a round.

In a word? No.

5.56mm is the standard rifle round. The medium machine-gun is still a 7.62mm, as used by almost every military in the Western World (incl Ireland). It is the standard anti-infantry weapon on American tanks.

NTM

Hobbes

Ken Shabby wrote:

Godwin has spoken. Time to lock.

Godwin does not mean threads should be locked and people misrepresent what godwin means.

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

People use the rule so easy to try and dismiss another poster or thread.

lili

Manic Moran wrote:

To try to minimize another thread from going off on a serious tangent, here's my on-the-ground view of Iraq, from Apr04 though Feb05. You can waste an hour or two on this, and eat up hard drive space with the videos!

I'll answer any questions you have, with one exception: This is not a thread for discussing Bush, the politics of the invasion, or any other high-level issues. At our level, we only cared about the fact that we were there, and what we were up to ourselves, and the people we interfaced with. Bear in mind also, that any answers will be made from the perspective from someone at the lowest echelon on the totem pole.

http://www.clubi.ie/exalted/sightssounds.htm

(Edit: The link to Hotdaybreak.avi is broken)

NTM

what this thread is about?
commercial for US army?

Beruthiel

are you looking for new recuits OP?
from those pics it looks like iraq is a walk in the park

mike65

Beruthiel wrote:

from those pics it looks like iraq is a walk in the park

I imagine not many pix were taken when they were being shot at!

Go figure....

Mike.

BuffyBot

from those pics it looks like iraq is a walk in the park

Yeah, but he had to fly with Northwest

*shudder*

Silverfish

Doesn't look like a walk in the park to me!

Fascinating pics, thanks for sharing these.

mad m

Interesting pics posted by OP.Especially the one with his periscope cracked due to a shot from a bullet.Seen a video recently(not nice) of a sniper shooting at americans in tanks like Manic's.Not good to be a sitting duck.

Here is a question to Manic moran,recently on our news there was a news report of hired gangs of ex-army,which are hired by american/british government(not sure which maybe both) opening fire on what seems to be just normal civilians driving their cars.Did you see anything like this while over there?

stevenmu

Thanks for the pics OP, it's interesting to get a look at some of more day to day aspects of life in iraq, all the mainstream media are interested in is big flashy bangs and high death tolls.

Ruaidhri wrote:

Sorry to nitpick,but aint the standard NATO round 5.56mm,not 7.62,which has been retired for ages? And anyway,i'd not like to see that, the 7.62 is a BEAST of a round.

iirc, it was the UN that moved to 5.56, apparantly it's more 'humane' than 7.62.

Manic Moran

are you looking for new recuits OP?
from those pics it looks like iraq is a walk in the park


Actually, the US military is looking for new recruits, but that wasn't the point of the post. My point of view is if you're interested, you'll go research it yourself without any prodding. It was initially a sort of 'FYI' of "This is what one person who was there saw and got up to", since people seem to forget about the realities of day to day life in amongst all the political bickering. Besides, it's not unusual for people to post pics of unsual places they've been, is it?

A year in Iraq is very hard work, and very stressful on the nerves: You never know when a bomb is going to go off next to your vehicle. It also is highly unpleasant to be away from family for that amount of time, some of my soldiers couldn't be present for the birth of their first child, for example. That isn't to say, however, that if you have a proper attitude, it isn't a rewarding experience. Given that we had something like a 6-month break when nobody specifically shot at us (Mortars, bombs etc, yes, but they're relatively random), we spent most of our time fighting boredom, and visiting with locals. Our last month and a half was the most hectic, it was preparation for the elections in Mosul, the hot-spot of the country at the time. We must have had an effect, the worst violence in the city I heard about was Iraqi forces firing warning shots to try to keep order amongst the people queing to vote. Other places had more excitement.

Yeah, but he had to fly with Northwest
That was just in the US. When it came to going abroad, it was even worse Outbound was on Omni Air International, stopping in Germany. Charter airline, not very comfortable. Return flight was ATA, stopping in Germany, Shannon and Washington State. Long flight, but we were going home: We didn't care!

Did you see anything like this while over there?
There's a thread over on Politics about that. There are times when shooting is justifiable, and times when it is not. It seems that contracting mob occasionally were a bit too trigger happy. I know that if I or some of my men had been doing that, we'd have been up on charges. The problem which only just occurred to me (since we didn't interact with them) is 'who sets their rules?' As non-military, they can't be court-martialled. As they're outside the country, they can't be charged under US or UK law. The Iraqi government would have to try them, which brings its own set of problems. I wonder if contracting mercenaries like that isn't more trouble than it's worth? [Edit to add: Now I think of it, wasn't a US mercenary convicted in an Afghan court a few months ago?]

it was the UN that moved to 5.56, apparantly it's more 'humane' than 7.62.

No. There are two schools of thought on that. The common one is that a 5.56mm is more likely to wound someone instead of kill them outright. If you wound someone, you take that person out of the fight, and one or two others to tend to him. Plus there's the psychological effect of all the screaming.

The more correct answer is that the US military performed effectiveness tests, and found that a soldier armed with a 5.56mm rifle and basic load caused on average some 40% more casualties to the other side than a soldier armed with a 7.62mm rifle with basic load: This because you could carry more ammo, and the rifle had less kick and so a little less skill was required to hit what you were aiming at. Once the US switched over, the rest of NATO followed.

NTM

mad m

Manic Moran wrote:

The more correct answer is that the US military performed effectiveness tests, and found that a soldier armed with a 5.56mm rifle and basic load caused on average some 40% more casualties to the other side than a soldier armed with a 7.62mm rifle with basic load: This because you could carry more ammo, and the rifle had less kick and so a little less skill was required to hit what you were aiming at. Once the US switched over, the rest of NATO followed.

NTM

Wow,you learn something new everyday,sorry didnt realise that question I put to you was in the Politics forum,rarely if at all go in there.Thanks for the reply.

mayhem#

Manic Moran wrote:

The more correct answer is that the US military performed effectiveness tests, and found that a soldier armed with a 5.56mm rifle and basic load caused on average some 40% more casualties to the other side than a soldier armed with a 7.62mm rifle with basic load: This because you could carry more ammo, and the rifle had less kick and so a little less skill was required to hit what you were aiming at. Once the US switched over, the rest of NATO followed.
NTM

Spot on explanation.
It's funy to see though that the old trusty M14 is making a comeback in Iraq as well as "the Stan"....

E.

Cake Fiend

Hobbes wrote:

People use the rule so easy to try and dismiss another poster or thread.

Hobbes' law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of someone using Godwin's law in an attempt to have it locked approaches 1."

Manic Moran

mayhem# wrote:

Spot on explanation.
It's funy to see though that the old trusty M14 is making a comeback in Iraq as well as "the Stan"....

E.

Sortof.

We were certainly a little surprised to be issued it, but it does make a handy sniper rifle.

That said, nobody in my company chose to carry the M21 (M14 with plastic instead of wood furniture) instead of their M-16/M-4.

NTM