Jim Spiri in Iraq

In any event, today was another day in Mosul, Iraq. I would travel today with Briola up top, Martinez driving, who happens to be from Los Angeles where high speed driving is a must, Bell on my left again, and Ludwig in the front right, commanding the Humvee. I am with Apache Company again today, and it seemed as if a part of our mission was to go find IED's, the hard way, and trust that Martinez uses some of his California driving skills to keep us upright and going forward on all fours.

We departed in the morning for West Mosul. It's Friday and most shops are closed, but the bad guys don't really take days off so far as I can tell. Once again as we approached the objective area, there were wagers on how long it would be before we made "contact". I had picked 30-minutes, others picked less. No sooner than had we all got our times in order, we ended up dismounting at a certain location when there were the familiar sounds of small arms fire
(saf) from close by. I looked at my watch and mentioned to Bell that it was 17-minutes since we placed our guesses. When we got back to the Humvee later, Bell said it was 13-minutes. There was some discussion about it, but, I lost the bet anyway.

Everyone smiled about it in the long run, I still do not know who won, but seems like Bell gets closest lately.

The Iraqi Army had been involved in this mission and I had heard over the comms that they suffered two WIA's.

I do not know the extent of their injuries, but I did hear that two were shot by AK47's. There were reports that some IED's were in the area and sure enough, we heard the first one go off in the distance. While we were dismounted at another time today, Briola up top spotted a red vehicle with three male occupants and an RPG launcher in the window, cruising the area. There was a joint effort to try and find this vehicle, but I soon realized that there must be a million red vehicles in West Mosul, and trying to find this one in particular proved to be a futile search.

I realized today, that the enemy is quite clever and can cause lots of resources to be pulled in one direction or the other and at the same time, elude coalition forces more often than one would like to see. At another point in time today, there were two vehicles who gave chase and we pursued with a line of Humvees racing through the streets of Mosul, something akin to what the old television show "Streets of San Francisco" showed on TV years back. It was at this time that the California driving skills of Martinez came in quite handy as we were in trail behind three humvees in hot pursuit of two enemy vehicles.

Martinez did well, although there were times I had my doubts. I'm glad he was driving, and not me.

As the mission wound down, we began to coordinate with the other elements working in conjunction with us today, our departure back to the FOB. We would pass through an area that I've been by before. It's a bad area. I always have my camera ready, and today, sure enough, it paid off once again. There was the huge sound of an explosion just in front of us a ways, where an Iraqi Army Humvee was traveling. I snapped four photos of the explosion just a couple seconds after it detonated. The Iraqi Army folks were unscathed, but it was close. It could have hit any one of us.

Word came over the comms rapidly, and maneuvers were taken to avoid any secondary detonation. We proceeded back to the FOB on schedule. This mission was now over. We had made contact, found two IED's the hard way, an RPG was shot at us from somewhere, and lots of small arms fire was directed at us and other elements.

The bad guys area was found, again. This was the morning of August 24, 2007, in Mosul, Iraq.

By the early afternoon, we were back and I was having lunch in the chow hall. I sat near the television and listened to all the reports about Senator John Warner's comments that were all over the wires in the past 24-hours. I began to feel a bit frustrated.

Many times lately, I've seen the enemy evade and escape us. He is clever and knows the strategy of harassment. He gets caught eventually, through lots of hard work by us and many other elements working 24/7 to eliminate him. But I keep hearing this political wrangling about how and when to leave at every meal on the television in the chow hall.

I keep going back to things the President has said over the past five years about telegraphing our move to the enemy. At every place during my time in theatre, I'm constantly reminded about OPSEC, which stands for operational security. Now, I hear some of the most powerful players in our government, basically telegraphing our next move to the world audience. I'm feeling quite confused all of a sudden. Each day I go out with the cavalry, I'm wondering if the bad guys are drinking "chai" (tea) and watching CNN or FOX News or reading the Wall Street Journal, and getting battle plans for their days missions to harass and intimidate our forces. Like the President, I'm beginning to reminisce about a war 40-years back in South East Asia. There seems to be something wrong with this picture.

Quite frankly, I don't believe it's anybody's business what military moves we make or are going to make during a time of war. As I hear those making statements, it's apparent to me that they are only speaking for political reasons. None of that makes a difference to me when an IED blows up in front of me.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I believe I'm not alone in what I say.

There were lots of mistake made in the handling of this war by those who made the initial decisions to do this or that and for whatever reasons. But now, it is today. I'm not apt to listen to those who went one way, so strongly before, and now are swinging the other way the closer the next Presidential election comes into view. Through my viewfinder, today, I saw smoke rising from an IED that could have been destined for the troops I was with, as well as myself.

As I said earlier, Gen. Pace seemed to have said it best. "For other threats in the area, such as Iran, we should scale back our forces where it is feasible".

It would not surprise me to find that the IED that blew up right in front of me today , may have had Iranian fingerprints all over it, I'm not sure.

Senator Warner is trying to send a message to the government of Al Malaki, who spent many years in exile in Iran during the Sadaam Hussein years. Gen. Pace is telling the President, withdrawal of troops from Iraq should be in light of the threat from Iran. Iraq is complicated. Politics is tricky. But General Pace, who for some reason was not nominated for another term by President Bush, cares for the troops.

I suggest a cut. I would like to see 5000 civilian jobs, mostly from KBR, eliminated, for that is where the real "pork" is in this war. That would still leave well over 140,000 never been to Jenny Craig type civilians still gainfully employed at over $100,000 per year. Let's start there first. Senator Warner should go have a face to face with VP Dick Cheney. I, on the other hand, will listen to General Pace, who I know cares for the troops.

I'm angry today and I'm frustrated. I don't think I'll watch the news anymore in the chow hall. I'll go watch the other TV that plays baseball and see if the Yankees are moving up on the Red Sox yet.

Jim Spiri
Mosul, Iraq
jimspiri@yahoo.com