WEAPONS REPORT FROM BATTLE FIELD IRAQ
Supplied by U.S. Military Member Whose Identity I Am Protecting

The following is another in a continuing series of on-scene reports directly from U.S. Military members inside Iraq.

The Hal Turner Show offers these messages uncensored, unedited and without editorial comment.
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Weapons report from Iraq:
What works and what doesn't.

1) The M-16 rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming
problems with the talcum powder like sand over there.
The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel filthy 2
minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4
carbine version is more popular because it's lighter
and shorter, but it has jamming problems also. They
like the ability to mount the various optical gun
sights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but
the weapon itself is not great in a desert
environment. They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round.
Poor penetration on the cinder block structure common
over there and even torso hits can't be reliably
counted on to put the enemy down.
Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents show a
high level of opiate use.

2) The M249 SAW (squad assault weapon): .223 cal. Drum
fed light machine gun. Big thumbs down. Universally
considered a piece of chit. Chronic jamming problems,
most of which require partial disassembly (that's fun
in the middle of a firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Mixed bag. Good gun, performs
well in desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm
cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is
actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm: Bad
guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Works well, used
frequently for clearing houses to good effect.

5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal belt fed
machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60 (what
a beautiful weapon that was!!). Thumbs up. Accurate,
reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down. Originally
developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more
are being dismounted and taken into the field by
infantry. The 7.62 round chews up the structures over
there.

6) The M2 .50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way
up. "Ma deuce" is still worth her considerable weight
in gold. The ultimate fight stopper, puts their
"censored" in the dirt every time. The most coveted
weapon in-theater.

7) The .45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol
round out there. Everybody authorized to carry a
sidearm is trying to get their hands on one. With few
exceptions, can reliably be expected to put 'em down
with a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing
most of the pistol work) use the HK military model
and supposedly love it. The old government model .45's
are being re-issued en masse.

8) The M-14: Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in
bulk, mostly in a modified version to special ops
guys. Modifications include lightweight Kevlar stocks
and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very reliable in
the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.

9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle: Thumbs way up.
Spectacular range and accuracy and hits like a
freight train. Used frequently to take out vehicle
suicide bombers ( we actually stop a lot of them) and
barricaded enemy. Definitely here to stay.

10) The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in .308
but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington
700's. Great performance. Snipers have been used
heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine
sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has
actually exceeded Carlos Hathcock's record for
confirmed kills with OVER 100.

11) The new body armor: Thumbs up. Relatively light at
approx. 6 lbs.and can reliably be expected to soak up
small shrapnel and even will stop an AK-47 round. The
bad news: Hot as chit to wear, almost unbearable in
the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees).
Also, the enemy now goes for head shots whenever
possible. All the bullchit about the "old" body armor
making our guys vulnerable to the IED's was a
non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body
armor doesn't make any difference at all in most
cases.

12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way
up. Spectacular performance. Our guys see in the dark
and own the night, period. Very little enemy action after
evening prayers. More and more enemy being whacked
at night during movement by our hunter-killer teams.
We've all seen the videos.

13) Lights: Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and
personal lights are Surefire's, and the troops love
'em. Invaluable for night urban operations.

Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and
loved it. I cant help but notice that most of the
good fighting weapons and ordnance are 50 or more
years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology,it's the
WWII and Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!!
The infantry fighting is frequent, up close and
brutal. No quarter is given or shown.

Bad guy weapons:

1) Mostly AK47's . The entire country is an arsenal.
Works better in the desert than the M16 and the .308
Russian round kills reliably. PKM belt fed light
machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily,
the enemy mostly shoots like chit. Undisciplined
"spray and pray" type fire. However, they are seeing
more and more precision weapons, especially sniper
rifles. (Iran, again)
Fun fact: Captured enemy have apparently marveled at
the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they fight.
They are apparently told in Jihad school that the
Americans rely solely on technology, and can be
easily beaten in close quarters combat for their lack
of toughness. Let's just say they know better now.

2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared
by our guys. Simple, reliable and as common as
dogchit. The enemy responded to our up-armored
Humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point
blank range. Still killing a lot of our guys.

3) The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything
from old Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged
artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan's area were
in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm
artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated
by cell phone, and the explosions are enormous. You're
not safe in any vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is
by far the most dangerous thing our guys do over
there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated
"shape charges" (Iranian) specifically designed to
penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the ready made IED's
are supplied by Iran, who is also providing
terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents
in their use and tactics. That's why the attacks have
been so deadly lately. Their concealment methods are
ingenious, the latest being shaped charges in
Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the
cinderblocks that litter all Iraqi roads. We find
about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb disposal
guys are unsung heroes of this war.

4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent. The soviet era
122mm rockets (with an 18km range) are becoming more
prevalent. One of Jordan's NCO's lost a leg to one.
These weapons cause a lot of damage "inside the wire".
Jordan's base was hit almost daily his entire time
there by mortar and rocket fire, often at night to
disrupt sleep patterns and cause fatigue (It did).
More of a psychological weapon than anything else.
The enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles,
fire a few rounds, and then haul a$$ in a matter of
seconds.

5) Bad guy technology: Simple yet effective Most
communication is by cell and satellite phones, and
also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS units
for navigation and "Googleearth" for overhead views of
our positions. Their weapons are good, if not fancy,
and prevalent. Their explosives and bomb technology
is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is rare. They are
very careless with their equipment and the captured
GPS units and laptops are treasure troves of Intel
when captured.

Who are the bad guys (remember that is what the
Captain called them!)? Most of the carnage is caused
by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate mostly in
Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly
"foreigners", non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all
over the Muslim world (and Europe). Most enter Iraq
through Syria (with, of course, the knowledge and
complicity of the Syrian govt.), and then travel down
the "rat line" which is the trail of towns along the
Euphrates River that we've been hitting hard for the
last few months. Some are virtually untrained young
Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in
"sacrifice squads". Most, however, are hard core
terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al Qaeda,
Hezbollah, Hamas etc.). These are the guys running
around murdering civilians en masse and cutting heads
off. The Chechens (many of whom are Caucasian), are
supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters
(they have been fighting the Russians for years). In
the Baghdad area and south, most of the insurgents
are Iranian inspired (and led) Iraqi Shiites. The
Iranian Shiia have been very adept at infiltrating the
Iraqi local govt.'s, the police forces and the Army.
They have had a massive spy and agitator network
there since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 80's. Most
of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured or gave
up long ago.

Bad Guy Tactics:
When they are engaged on an infantry level they get
their a$$es kicked every time. Brave, but stupid.
Suicidal Banzai-type charges were very common earlier
in the war and still occur. They will literally
sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending
them screaming and firing AK's and RPG's directly at
our bases just to probe the defenses. They get mowed
down like grass every time (see the M2 and M240
above). Jordan's base was hit like this often. When
engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same
building, probably for what they think will be a
glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and
that's the end of that more often than not. These
hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo's
(Allah's Waiting Room). We have the laser guided
ground-air thing down to a science. The fast mover's,
mostly Marine F-18's, are taking an ever increasing
toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the
helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut
them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire,
especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is
hardly used at all.

Fun fact: The enemy death toll is supposedly between
45-50 thousand. That is why we're seeing less and
less infantry attacks and more IED, suicide bomber
chit. The new strategy is simple: attrition. The
insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of
civilian non-combatants as cover. They know we do all
we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore
schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are
locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache
weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have
absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian
casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder
without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic
to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of
family members (especially children) is common to
influence people they are trying to influence but
can't reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics,
tribal leaders, etc.). The first thing our guys are
told is "don't get captured". They know that if
captured they will be tortured and beheaded on the
internet. Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone
who brings him a live American serviceman. This
motivates the criminal element who otherwise don't
give a chit about the war. A lot of the beheading
victims were actually kidnapped by common criminals
and sold to Zarqawi. As such, for our guys, every
fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option.

The Iraqi's are a mixed bag. Some fight well, others
aren't worth a darn. Most do okay with American
support. Finding leaders is hard, but they are
getting better. It is widely viewed that Zarqawi's use
of suicide bombers, en masse, against the civilian
population was a serious tactical mistake. Many
Iraqi's were galvanized and the caliber of recruits in
the Army and the police forces went up, along with
their motivation. It also led to an exponential
increase in good intel because the Iraqi's are sick of
the insurgent attacks against civilians. The Kurds
are solidly pro-American and fearless fighters.

According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very
high. They not only believe they are winning, but
that they are winning decisively. They are stunned
and dismayed by what they see in the American press,
whom they almost universally view as against them.
The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted.
They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and
then see chit like "Are we losing in Iraq" on TV and
the print media. For the most part, they are
satisfied with their equipment, food and leadership.
Bottom line though, and they all say this, there are
not enough guys there to drive the final stake
through the heart of the insurgency, primarily because
there aren't enough troops in-theater to shut down
the borders with Iran and Syria. The Iranians and the
Syrians just cant stand the thought of Iraq being an
American ally (with, of course, permanent US bases
there).

Anyway, that's it, hope you found it interesting.

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