signs this “war” needs to end September 5, 2008

We have five towers around our cop. They are nothing more than stacks of hollow concrete cylinders with a flat piece for a floor that has a large hole in it. There is nothing else inside except a ladder. Well the other week our brigade sergeant major told everyone that towers now need to have platforms in them. So today we had two iraqis show up that are contractors with battalion. The said it will cost $7,000 to construct and will take 3-4 weeks. We start tearing down the cop in a month.

The brigade we are attached to had four accidental discharges the other day. An accidental discharge is whenever a round leaves your rifle and you’re not in a fight. Nine times our of ten these happen at clearing barrels, which are barrels shoved in the ground at the entrance of every base. Whenever you enter you have to place your muzzle in the barrel and clear your weapon. Now twenty years ago an accidental discharge went no higher than your squad leader. A few years ago this was a non-event. If you shot the barrel the attitude was “that’s what it is there for.” In 07 that stopped and they started calling them negligent discharges. Then the battalion commander was the authority, then the brigade commander, and now the division commander. So what that means is that if someone fails to clear the weapon properly and shoots a barrel, whose only reason for existence is to get shot, then that soldier and their entire chain of command up to brigade commander have to go talk to the division commander who is in charge of all of baghdad. I can’t even imagine another way to waste people’s time more.