Recently, I received this from one of our officers. Permission was granted for publication here based on certain conditions. Note the comments on combat driving, the media, IED attacks vs. hits, racial profiling, and the role of foreign terrorists like FARC in the Iraqi insurgency. I've also asked Joe to add it to Winds military lessons learned compilation post, available as a resource for troops deploying abroad.
From: [name expunged]
Subject: Lessons learned
In the last month I have been to:
[expunged - various courses, including some explosive-related]
In each event, the center of focus was current and future events and requirements in Iraq. While I have now many CD's of data and tools as well as pages and pages of notes, I can sum up the salient points that apply to * ALL* Soldiers, from the lowest, greenest, and most removed-from-doorkicking private to the top officers and NCO, to the meanest doorkicker on the block:
The Enemy:
- The enemy is ANYTHING that prevents us from coming home on our own power and intact.
- IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) are the #1 killer of troops.
- IEDs are not "incidents", but the primary means of contact. It is an "ambush", and whether a "far ambush" (blow it from a distance and run) or a "near ambush" (blow the shot and have small arms fire with close-quarters marksmanship needed), regardless, it is not a random event. The enemy is patient, plans their attack, goes through all the recon and planning we do, and then targets who they hit.
- The #2 killer is TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS!!! Everyone must keep this in mind. The up-armored HUMVEES turn and brake way differently, and are prone to tipping. "COMBAT DRIVING" means know your vehicle, use it as a weapons platform AND a weapon as needed, and be able move and communicate at all times... it does NOT mean "drive like the Dukes of Hazzard". As the CSM of the Army said, "Drive like NASCAR"... know you vehicle, keep the distances and speeds YOU need to be safe, and if needed, get under the opposition and put them into the wall. NOTE TO ALL: It is a * bad* idea to put your most junior people in as drivers and gunners, at least to do it all the time. Train them. We all need to be proficient with driving AND being a gunner AND using all the comms available AND navigating using * MAPS* and GPS
- The #3 Killer: Failure to execute proper and FAST first responder duties. The difference between life and death is measured in seconds if someone is bleeding out. As just one example, if you get a tourniquet on someone in time, they live. If not, they die. Again, EVERYONE has to know this... .the designated "combat life saver" may be the one hit. It used to be they barred officers from CLS courses as "if the officer is busy doing this, they aren't doing their primary job". That has changed. Standardize where the vehicle response bag is. Have recovery drills, mounted and dismounted. Have MEDEVAC plans, to include if you have to lay people flat. The time to figure out how to change a tire, how to open a vehicle and clear the people AND sensitive items, how to cross load people is NOT while RPG are criss-crossing your area.
- The AIF (Anti-Iraqi Forces) are adaptive, intelligent, and will kill any number of civilians, to include using kids as bait, in the hopes of getting just one Coalition troop. By the same token, they are being driven to these extreme means precisely because public support for AIF activities is dropping (the majority of of help, in fact, come from Iraqi civilians and Iraqi forces). The AIF will do anything to take away progress and betterment of the Iraqi people, because anything good is seen as supporting the legitmate government and makes the AIF look less powerful. From everything I've heard from those in country, things are getting better, and its has resulted in more foreign fighters coming in and less and less Iraqis supporting these attacks or the causes claimed.
- Be aware, the PIRA (Provisional Irish Republic Army), FARC (the Columbian drug/leftist terrorists), and Chechnyans are many of the primary "expert" trainers for the AIF, and have been caught both in Iraq and neighboring countries teaching organization and tactical skills. There are others out there, too, that are not Arab and are actively supporting the AIF. Don't think someone is "OK" just because they aren't muslim. Do not fall into a trap thinking this is a religious or racial war - that is what the demagogues on both sides want to cloak this in. It is a struggle for power and money.
- There are media, most notably Al Jazeera but also others, that are coordinated by the terrorists and are in place for attacks. Almost all attacks are videotaped. They do not air all of the many, many failed attacks or ones where the Coalition clearly dominates the battle, but they are filming and use them for training if they can't use it for propaganda. They don't have media that films all and airs the bad and the good... the only stuff the enemy-oriented media shows is what benefits them. They even film their training programs, such as mock-ups of raids and kidnappings. We saw lots of footage from captured videos at the conferences. Never assume anyone with a camera is friendly - this does NOT mean they are enemy and can be shot, but it DOES mean to be wary, to keep the security cordon so they cannot capture images of sensitive items or record voice traffic that they can use (such as getting current pro-words or the "handles" of units or individuals.) Be professional, but remember OPSEC at all times, as you are watched and recorded at all times.
PERSONAL COMMENT: At the [expunged] conference there were seats for the LA Times and NY Times, with the reporters' names reserving their seats. There was salient, timely information being put out by the people who have been there for the people who are going - it was not a "press event". It did a great job of outlining the threat, outlining how the enemy has succeeded AND has been defeated, and how we are doing better as where we need to improve... but the mainstream media couldn't bother to show up to deal with the military's (all services present) #1 event to deal with our biggest killer.
LESSON LEARNED: The media is not exercising the due diligence needed to report the full picture. This is consistent with my years in media relations (military and otherwise) as well as being a journalist on assignment where only a FEW will actually care enough to do their job instead of worrying about "consumers" (what they now call "readers"/ "viewers") and advertising. Therefore, realize you will not get the "boring" part of a given story, and "boring" often is the "good news". "If it bleeds, it leads" has been a media mantra for longer than I've been alive, but the perceived need to be "balanced" has been officially given up by many news agencies using "everyone does it" as an excuse.
How to defeat the enemy:
- There were 12,000 IED attacks in 2004. That is 12 thousand. IEDs are not an automatic fatality. Most miss. Even those that hit usually are not effective. There is a soldier in the 256 who has 18 IED hits to date (that they can figure... he doesn't brag and its the gunners and otters that are trying to total up the hits), and not a scratch on him or his crew. There are those on IED Hunting teams that refuse to come off hunting duties and have had ZERO IED hits... they have been shot at, but ZERO hits on IEDS. LESSON LEARNED: IEDs are an inefficient way to attack.
- There are units that have spent their ENTIRE tour with soft-sided HUMVEES and have had far less IED hits that those in Up-Armored or fully armored vehicles. In fact, they had their doors off. Even today, Rangers and SF run around in bare vehicles and don't get attacked. The reason - the entire convoy was sharp, at the ready, and was able to visually detect IEDS, use aggressive driving to throw off timing of IEDs, and were obviously ready to return fire. They were NOT worth hitting. An up-armored conmoy with everyone's head down and hiding is a much better target. ALL ARMOR CAN BE DEFEATED!!! There have been tanks as well as Strykers and Up-Armored HUMVEES (the M1114's) that have been hit and destroyed. Often (not always), its because they were complacent, they established patterns, they trusted their armor to save them, and otherwise they gave the enemy the means to predict their movements and the comfort (based on lack of alertness) to target them. LESSON LEARNED: If everyone is alert and in th right mindset, you're far less likely to targeted, regardless of armor. Armor has often led to false sense of security.
- Know your basic skills - shoot, move, communicate. Know how to fire all weapons. Know how to operate radios, do call for fire, call for MEDEVAC , call in IEDs, etc. Know how to drive, to include how to "push" friendly vehicles out of a the kill zone or move other vehicles out of the way (the enemy uses junked cars as obstacles to channel movement). "Move" includes know how to change a tire like a NASCAR pit crew or how to execute a "bump" plan (the plan to stack extra people in a vehicle after losing a vehicle in the convoy.) For those that have travelled in a big city before... if you move out with a purpose and look like you know what you're doing, you're not an attractive target. If it looks like you are in charge of an area after an IED attack, they won't want to attack with small arms and lose everyone (as they often do... its why they usually just use IEDs unless people get lazy).
- Security at all times. If you are safeguarding a site, like an IED, do NOT spend time looking inwards at the IED. Look out, observe patterns and behavior. If just part of the perimeter gets lazy, that is where they will attack. If you're in the wire, know where your equipment is, know where shelters are, and know what the drill is in your area. Know what protection your ECM provide - they are highly effective and are forcing the enemy to move from 90% radio-controlled IEDs to other, less desirable means of initiation.
- Have brutally honest AAR after EVERY movement. There are no such things as "simple convoys", they are all combat patrols. So, even if there were zero hits, review your conduct. Did you follow a pattern from previous ops? What did everyone see in terms of changes to the terrain or people? Did your vehicle stay alert? The other ones? If you can keep each other sharp, avoid patterns, and constantly learn, it dramatically decreases your chance at being targeted. There is always room to improve, always something that slipped. Get after it.
There is a lot more, but we'll be getting a lot of this. Just trying to get everyone thinking that this all applies to everyone, regardless of rank and duty.
UPDATE: As Thomas Holsinger noted, Hezbollah and its state backers are heavily invested in hashish distribution via Lebanon. That's widening. Speaking of FARC et. al., Captain's Quarter's Blog has a piece today called Snort Cocaine And Fund More Bombings:
"The BBC reports that Ecuador has broken up a drug ring that explicitly existed to fund terrorist operations for Iranian-backed and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. The ring specialized in providing cocaine for users in South America, the Middle East, and Europe..."
One more lesson learned we've published over at DID: don't forget to stop by your local Radio Shack before deploying.
Load up on a spare set of appropriate batteries, too, so those radio-controlled cars don't run out of juice at an inopportune time.
Brilliant. Thanks Trent.
The reduced road safety of the up-armored Humvees had already been predicted...
Also the considerations on the false sense of security given by armor are interesting.
But I doubt those who were howling about the lack of armored vehicles will ever consider these facts.
An interesting addendum to your excellent post is in the NY Times today: Iraqi Insurgents Refining Bombs G.I. Deaths Rise (registration required). Apparently terrorists are turning to more sophisticated IEDs which include shaped charges and detonation through infrared lasers. This has resulted in the highest level of mortalities due to IEDs among U.S. troops since the war began. I don't think you can learn this stuff from a book so clearly some persons with real expertise are involved. The article suggests foreign agents (Syrian agents? FARC or PIRA as your post might suggest? they don't say) or former Iraqi rocket scientists might provide the training. But how does this get disseminated to the guy who lays and detonates the bomb? This requires leadership and a network and we know there have been numerous arrests of mid- to top-level terrorists. Either these arrests have not been enough to disrupt the net, or its relatively easily to repair, or maybe (and this is where I am wildly speculating) there are other services moving in and taking over command and control, say a group like Syrian intelligence or other interested party with a nation-affiliation.
FabioC.,
There are efforts underway by the Army to upgrade the suspension of the up armored Hummvees to restore mobility and reduce their tendency to roll over. There will be kits for existing trucks and a new suspension for new production vehicles.
I know of it through my father who has been approached by the contractor that has developed the suspension kits to run his production facility in Dallas, Texas.
Trent,
Those upgrades were in the works together with armor kits, IIRC.
It was the Bush critics that made up-armoring Humvees seem like a job that can be done in a few hours with an arc welder and steel plates, but the military did not do it because Bush and Rumsfeld and evil and stupid.
But how does this get disseminated to the guy who lays and detonates the bomb? This requires leadership and a network and we know there have been numerous arrests of mid- to top-level terrorists. Either these arrests have not been enough to disrupt the net, or its relatively easily to repair, or maybe (and this is where I am wildly speculating) there are other services moving in and taking over command and control, say a group like Syrian intelligence or other interested party with a nation-affiliation.
Peter,
We are in a regional war in Iraq, not just an "occupation campaign." Iraq will not be secure until we also change the regimes in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. This is a series of facts that the Bush Administration has not communicated to the American public because they are "Big Government Republicans" who do not view the American people as a seperate player, independent of the Washington DC political factions, who needs to be brought into the war.
We are facing in Iraq the whole of the 1st string Islamist threat to including the intelligence services or significant factions of the intelligence services of the old Iraqi Ba'athist regime, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, and Saudi Arabia.
Personally, I also think these people have bought or obtained favors from the national intelligence agencies of nations like Russia and China who are watching our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In short, our enemies cooperate and use modern communications like the internet to speed horizontal communications on what works and what does not to kill our troops.
It is a testimate to our troops that we are driving the change cycle, or OODA loop, past our own arthritic vertical communications in places like our military procurement system so quickly that we are grinding the terrorist bastards down in Iraq.
FabioC.,
The efforts to upgrade Humvee suspension did not start until troops started dying the in the field and commanders screamed for new suspensions.
That is the way the military procurement system works.
With the IEDs hurting our boys, when are we going to create some STARTSHIP TROOPERS? Seriously, we have (or could soon have) the technology for Powered Armor to protect individual solders against IEDs...can we get the will? In today's world a soldier's life is worth more than a tank or ship.
See here for more on Power Armor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_armor
Question for peterargus;
How does a qualified newspaper get this kind of information from a war zone? Why do they publish this information, if not to demoralize the public and the opinion of the war?
Great article by Trent. Kind 'o wish I were back in boots in his convoy!
Speaking of the international nature of our war in Iraq, this is over on the Captain's Quater's Blog:
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004782.php
Snort Cocaine And Fund More Bombings
The BBC reports that Ecuador has broken up a drug ring that explicitly existed to fund terrorist operations for Iranian-backed and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. The ring specialized in providing cocaine for users in South America, the Middle East, and Europe:
(snip>)
How come taking aspirin does not fund our enemies?
Prohibition is a price support mechanism for criminals.
Any one here remember alcohol prohibitiion? Any one at all?
It is not the drugs, it is the prohibition, stupid.
It is amazing that such otherwise intelligent folks can veer off into such errant non-sense.
Prohibition in economic terms is rent seeking.
1. For criminals
2. for "ethical" drug companies who would rather not compete with plants that you can grow at home.
3. ditto alcohol companies
4. ditto tobacco companies
And that is just the supplier end
There are judges, lawyers, prison guards etc. etc. etc.
McCouchey:
How does a qualified newspaper get this kind of information from a war zone? Why do they publish this information, if not to demoralize the public and the opinion of the war?
The sources appear to be named military officials including “Col. Bob Davis, an Army explosives expert,” …”Gen. John Vines, a senior American ground commander in Iraq,” … and the usual unnamed senior military and Pentagon officials. This seems like decent sourcing and if the military is providing the information I can’t see the problem with NYT reporting it. Significantly they would not provide the journalist with specific information about how often such sophisticated bombs are employed, who is involved, or where bombs have been detonated.
Trent:
We are in a regional war in Iraq, not just an "occupation campaign." Iraq will not be secure until we also change the regimes in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Precisely and this IED campaign should be interpreted from that light. What if the coalition efforts have been successful enough in Iraq to make it impossible to use as an effective training ground for IED deployment and use? If that is the case one could imagine a greater reliance by the terrorists on developing capabilities in neighboring countries (read Syria) and then sneaking across the border for deployment. The more they use Syria as a training sanctuary the more likely they are to come into contact/control of government agents bent on preventing regime change throughout the ME.
This reminds me of two parallels from Vietnam (sorry I try to avoid this comparison but it really is useful sometimes). First after Tet the VC are widely considered to have been destroyed as an effective insurgency. This resulted in the North Vietnamization of the opposition to South Vietnam and the US. Second NV used Cambodia and Laos as sanctuaries from which to resupply and launch attacks. So I am going to speculate wildly and predict that the insurgency is going to become more and more dominated by foreigners based in presumed sanctuaries outside of Iraq. We should see an escalation of diplomatic pressure on Syria and possibly cross-border raids by coalition forces.
In other words our government is fighting the terrorists at the same time it is supporting them.
Wouldn't unity of purpose be a good idea?
Time to end the Government Cocaine Price Support and Gang and Terrorist Finance Program?
I'm just askin'.
I agree with M Simon. Legalising all drugs and providing free medical treatment for addiction would cut the ground from under the feet of most of these killers.
It would also save a vast amount of money in law enforcement costs.
Even legalising just cannabis would reduce their income considerably.
"Never assume anyone with a camera is friendly - this does NOT mean they are enemy and can be shot"
The guys with cameras are the enemy. even if they are Americans working for CBS, (strike that, especially if they are Americans working for CBS).
Its time to change the rules of engagement. Cameras are the same as guns. Anyone carrying one in Iraq should be treated as an enemy.
Excellent article. I have forwarded this to my husband (a Marine, currently Stateside) and am "motomailing" it to my cousin, a Marine currently playing in the Sandbox. I hope he already has this information, but if not he and his Marines can ABSOLUTELY use this. Definitely something to 'laminate and stick in your butt-pack.'
Although the number of bombs using the refinements remains low, their appearance underscores the insurgents' adaptability and the difficulty the Pentagon faces, despite a strong effort, in containing the threat. Improvised explosives now account for about 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq.