Party Time in Baghdad?!?
Posted By The Dude on March 5, 2009
I want to begin my first entry by taking a moment and thanking Bouhammer for inviting me to blog for him. I’ve had the priviledge to serve in combat with him and consider him a close friend. To everyone else who have welcomed me already, thank you.
My focus today is on something I came across in the Stars and Stripes while I was eating breakfast in a dining facility in Kuwait (Camp Arifjan). It was an article that was originally in the Washington Post by Sudarsan Raghavan titled “An End to Baghdad’s Dark Era.”
This articled discussed US soldiers going to Iraqi nightclubs, drinking alcohol, and dancing with locals. All the while wearing full combat gear. My first instinct was that it must be non-alcoholic beer they are drinking and they must have a task and purpose for being there. However, I understand that soldiers will get away with what they can get away with. I’m not going to sit here and second guess the leadership on the ground as I’m unable to feel the pulse for that sector from my Tuesday morning quarterback position.  But,  it does raise my eyebrows to the situation.
I hope the situation on the ground is that secure but I also hope the leaders use a little more common sense in the tactical decision making process. I’ve attached the link to the article so you can make your own opinion on this story. Let me know what you think.
Live free or die trying.
I picked up on this story the other day from my buds at B5 and I thought it sounded fishy. Well after looking at the pics I am sure it is. Two pics had soldiers in it. One appeared to be talking to a local, and the other was showing a move on the dance floor. They were in full battle rattle (FBR), which means they were NOT in there socializing. What it means it they were probably on patrol, and came across the club. Not wanting to piss off the locals or disturb them, they probably told them to keep playing music and have a good time. The leaders went to talk to people while some ‘joe’ got on the floor to humanize himself and show that he can relate. This is no different than soldiers who kick a soccer ball around with kids while on patrol. There are no pics of a soldier loving up on a woman, drinking beer or anything, or out of FBR. I am going to throw the BS flag on this one can say “SHAME on Stars and Stripes” for even running this article. This article turned the Stars and Stripes into nothing more than National Enquirer. SHAME, SHAME!!
I call bullshit! This is completely taken out of context and is disgraceful but no surprise. I know exactly where that area is having done many patrols there myself, however, in less hospitable times. This area is near the old Palestine hotel in a once nice area of Baghdad. Alcohol was always available in that area, in fact there were open outright liquor stores. It was not uncommon when on patrol in Baghdad to come across neighborhood socials or revelry emanating into the street from one place or another in calm times. It is also not uncommon for soldiers to interact with the locals as an act of good will or just plain civility. At times it could be a welcome relief to simply see the locals having fun in a place filled with such misery and where you always have your head on a 360. Arabs, like many people anywhere are always willing to share or to offer you something when they are having fun. Sometimes, they will insist you share with them to the point of it be insulting if you don’t accept. As Troy stated above there where no untoward pictures of soldiers doing anything wrong or drinking alcohol.
It is also awfully interesting as to what the reporter was doing there in the first place? What was the real intent of the story? And wasn’t it quite convenient of the reporter to follow up with the PAO about an alleged activity without having pictures to prove it?
“A U.S. military spokesman, [an air force TECH SGT in the green zone?] responding to a query about the soldiers, was incredulous. “Just so I understand this clearly, you saw U.S. soldiers at a nightclub in downtown Baghdad outside of the Green Zone in uniform drinking and dancing?”
“Under a Status of Forces Agreement the U.S. and Iraqi governments signed in November, an American soldier who commits a serious crime off base and off duty is subject to Iraqi laws, although the United States retains the final word in determining whether a soldier was off duty. Drinking and dancing may create a hard-to-dispute impression that a soldier was at leisure.”
“it was impossible to know how many U.S. soldiers in Baghdad have the opportunity or the inclination to drink a beer while on patrol, apparently in violation of rules banning alcohol consumption in combat zones.”
Such Bullshit! The intent of the article, if you really read it, is that we gave the locals 10k to pacify them and they turn it into a whore house where we now go and drink alcohol and cavort with prostitutes – or “hired entertainers” as the reporter likes to say.
Is it me or can the washpo not control it’s zeal and disdain for the coalition soldier and it’s efforts even in the face of blatant success? This article is not as bizarre as it seems, it is fact something benign that is made to look seedy and is fact an insult to our soldiers who might likely face an ambush around the corner from that stop or later in the patrol. Having the locals on wanting you there makes your safety their concern and is business end of COIN ops.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 03/06/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
Sometimes these kinds of issues are really difficult for some people, but you’ve communicated it very well. Thank you.