Stryker Brigade News

I received an e-mail invitation this morning for Scott to call and speak to Travis Majors on the cell phone of a visitor. I was unable to reach Scott in time to do anything about it. We'll have to try again now that I have the number.

Scott, Tiffany and Alyson arrived at the hotel just in time for football. The favored teams (Vikings, Chargers and Dolphins) all won today so no griping necessary. Tiffany and Alyson went to the Mall for a haircut, shopping and food while the Vikings game was on. Julie was asleep.

While the ladies were out, Scott and I talked more about SGT Demand and life in Iraq in general. I read the announcement and program for the memorial service to him while he listened intently. Scott then began to talk about him and how they had worked together before and during the deployment. He then launched into a general rant about the rules of engagement, as he found them to be silly. He stated that he engaged and captured the same insurgents on three separate occasions. How is this possible? They dropped their weapons and tried to hide, were captured, then released sometime after being detained. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My opinion: If you're seen carrying a weapon in the middle of the night in the deep desert during an insurgency, you should just be shot. No questions asked. No amount of Pixie Dust is going to make you a reasonable person and it's too difficult to keep you bottled up like Lenin waiting to return to Russia. If you choose to take up arms against us, you should be shot. Sounds brutal, but that's the only way to stop the merry-go-'round. We certainly shouldn't take them prisoner a second time, let alone a third. I understand there's an intelligence benefit (I used to be an Intelligence Analyst--MOS 96B) to interrogating them, but there's also no way to get these nutballs to stop believing in Santa Claus. Well, there may be, but that's an untested hypothesis of mine that I'd dearly love to test. It's not just ignorant people we're fighting, it's an idea those ignorant people hold sacred enough to blow themselves up for. We're doing nothing about the idea that I can see. End of rant.

Tiff returned with the grub and we finished the football day with the Patriots-Ravens Mud Bowl. Scott got tired sometime afterward and they all left for the evening.

ST