Sand is an equalizer. When there are storms, none of us can see. Good guys, bad guys and other guys.
The local peoples are used to the sand. It's part of them. Their clothing, their homes, their animals, their possessions are all "sand-proofed" in a way that makes it easier to deal with the sand storms. I hesitate to say "easier." But compared to us and all our technology, machinery and moisture-wicking-flame-resistant-high-speed-low-drag-clothing, the Kuwaitis and Iraqis have it easier when dealing with the weather.
We always worry that when we're not moving, troops aren't getting the supplies they need and the bad guys are getting time to plot against us. But no, not so much. Every FOB and Camp "Up North" has several days worth of supplies on hand. Everyone knows that, its how we do business. And the insurgents, they don't like going out in the storms any better than we do. I'm sure some go out, just like some of us do. For everything they do, we counter, successfully. And many of the things we do, they try to counter. But I think we stay ahead of them pretty well.
When I was in college working on my Criminal Justice degree, I had a professor who was a retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy. Professor James Rowell used to tell us that the bad guys (he called them 'scrot bags' by the way) could run, but they couldn't out run Motorola. Meaning when someone tried to flee, we could always call for help and coordinate a search using our police radios to eventually find the guy. We do that here now. Technology allows us to share a wealth of information with other units on the battle field, sometimes faster than we'd like. When the weather changes, we all know. When something bad happens somewhere, we all know. When we figure out a way to one up the bad guys, we share. Its that technology thing.
Professor Rowell used to tell us something else pretty important. If you can't deal with it ('It' being whatever it is you're doing) Mac Donalds is always hiring. Yes, he said Mac Donalds, not McDonalds. I'm pretty sure I don't have a future in the fast food industry. So I'm just going to deal with the sandstorms. Again. CM, Micah
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 06/30/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.
http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-front-06302008.html
Posted by: David M | June 30, 2008 at 09:02 AM