Vet's Day

Veteran's Day:

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone. Today is Range Day for me: M9, M4, and Glock 19. We went through the PMI ("Primary Marksmanship Instruction") classes yesterday, which was a source of great amusement to everyone. There's only like two people here who weren't former military, and so the class (like almost everything in the week of CRC pre-deployment) is pro forma. Especially for the USSF guys. ("Oh, really? This thing is called a 'magazine release'? What does that do?")

Looks like Baghdad is heating up for us. I'd guess there's a two-part mindest at work in the new insurgent push. They probably believe the election shows that the mood of the country is ready for the war to end, and a push now will force a lame-duck President to back down. They'll be disappointed. What happens after January I can't say, but I'm sure we're not going anywhere until then.

The other party they'd like to motivate is the Shi'ite factions in the government of Iraq. If a US response to the new bombing aggravates local Shi'ites, or if it moves too slowly and is not able to stop the bombings, it could turn sentiment against approving the Status of Forces Agreement; that would mean an end to US combat operations on 1 January.

The US military has to move with the right balance to address the problem without creating new hostility. That's hard work, but it's been the work of the last two years. It'll be done right.

That might stand as a good reason to remember and celebrate Veteran's Day: that this is what the military does. This is why we honor veterans, if anyone has forgotten.