The RE-Sensing Session

The meeting last night was almost exactly the opposite of what I had first thought it would be.  It wasn't a witch-hunt to find out who dropped dimes on the Squadron or who said what or even as a form of mass punishment.  The reason for the second "sensing session" was an attempt by the SCO to find out what is truely wrong and what is just a bunch of Soldiers venting their frustrations to a willing ear - who happened to be a General. 
   Apparently before the General left, he gave the SCO a rather unpleasant monologue about how screwed up the Squadron is an that it all stems from the leadership in the Headquarters.  I knew that the General had said something like that.  And I knew that it would be a big blow for the SCO - a man who is very proud of what he does and what the Squadron has been doing here.  I don't know what the General's problem was, but I know that he does not have an accurate perception of what the Squadron is doing here.  To the credit of the SCO, he took it as well as one could expect and instead of retaliating or making any flash judgements, he went back to the people who had the complaints to find out what was going on.  That is a demonstration of good leadership.  Also, the fact that he didn't just blow off the scathing criticism, but is electing to do something with the parts that actually mean something is also good.
   We had a discussion about what was really wrong, and what was a perception issue in the Soldiers.  I think what it comes down to is a lack of telling the Soldiers "Why?"  Why they are going here or there (either before or after the mission) and also a lack of telling the Soldiers what the big picture looks like. 
    What our Soldiers need to know is that we are doing good things here, that the missions they go on aren't always successful in the fact that they don't always catch the guy they looking for.  BUT they ARE successful in the fact that most missions are not a single patrol going to one place to get someone.  They usually have three or so patrols out going to different places at the same time to catch someone.  Now, in that scenario ONLY *1* patrol is going to be successful, the other three won't be (in the sense of catching the bad guys), but ALL of the patrols were necessary to the big mission of CATCHING THE GUY. 
     Even the big missions where we don't get what we are looking for are generally successful in some sense of the matter.  We may not get exactly what we are looking for, but more often than not we are successful in getting something - whether its information, or a cell phone (that may have lead to information that eventually led to killing Al-Zaqarwi), or a weapons cache or any number of other things that the Soldiers just turn over to the higher ups and never see again.  The thing is all of that stuff goes somewhere and someone does something with it - the videos and cds get checked for clues as to where other bad guys are, or what they are doing and how they are doing it.  The cell phones are checked for numbers and traced to other people, creating a web of bad guys.  The weapons caches are blown up and that means less bombs and crap to blow us up with.  Each bit helps and each piece counts.  I only wish that the NCOs and the LTs that deal with the Soldiers on the line were able to convey this to them.  As it stands, apparently they don't and from my perspective, seeing what is going on at above the ground floor (but well below many others), *I* can see the difference.  The fact that we aren't screwing up people houses for the sake of it, that we haven't killed anyone here and we haven't been killed - that doesn't mean we are doing bad here, it means we are doing fantastic!  No one killed, but about 150 or more captured and send to jail is great!  And those people aren't the people getting out in 48 hours or 72 hours, those are bad guys who we have lots of info about and who go away for a long time.  The fact that the Squadron has not lost ONE SINGLE SOLDIER in the 9 months we've been here is nothing less than amazing and a tribute to the level of planning and consideration that goes into each and every mission that any of the Soldiers goes on.  Very few other combat units involved in the level of combat this Squadron has can say the same.  And few others can say they have killed zero civilians on accident or mistake and still have put bad guys out of the system.  Dead bad guys are bad guys no longer, but they don't have the ability to tell us where the other bad guys are. 
    Many of the bad guys aren't even really bad guys, in my opinion.  Do they set bombs on the side of the road?  Yes, some do.  Why are those people not really bad guys?  Well, they are and they aren't.  When they are putting the bombs in, I would have no issue with them getting shot and killed.  At that point they ARE the bad guy.  But, really, they are not the insurgents or the real bad guys.  Most of the IED emplacers are just local citizens who need the money provided by the insurgents (who get the money and are kept in the money by the corrupt government - but thats a whole different rant).  They are not much different from the mother who steals a loaf of bread to feed her children.  Is it wrong?  Yes.  Sometimes do you have a choice?  Maybe not.  Now, the reason I say this is because of the lack of success that 98% of the IEDs here are having.  Most are poorly placed and ineffective - I don't think that that's an accident with how long this fight has been going on.  They get paid by the bomb that goes off, not by what it does.  We can tell when a bomb is set by someone with intent to kill - they are sometimes effective.  We lost a truck to one - but the passengers got out ok.  The truck burned to the ground - THAT one was set by the REAL bad guys - not some poor Iraqi with no job and no money.
    We take every precaution to protect our Soldiers first and the lives of the innocent civilians second.  AND we get the job done.  We recently caught a guy in our area who was way up on the "catch" list - and even in that, no one was injured on either side.  Here, in this area, we are making things better.  In other places the case isn't the same - even though they may have a higher kill ratio - and probably have lost a Soldier or two.