So they've done it, they have pulled out US forces from cities... Well, as I already said in my previous post, not a good idea, but we'll se the results in a few week's time. I'm sure they won't be too ecouraging... Insurgents started out their celebration by setting off a couple of bombs across the country, killing and injuring a couple of dozen of civilians and shooting four US soldiers dead. Way to go, I knew they would be harrassing the 'retreating' US forces.
Our convoys were also attacked several times today, although the result was only minor damage to vehicles - and faster heartbeat for some people. A three car convoy heading to Baghdad Airport with 2 VIP's on board, was hit by small arms fire and another convoy, mostly consisting of heavy trucks had encountered multiple instances of small arms fire along it's 35 mile route. I'm glad nothing serious happened, but who knows what's tomorrow gonna be like. I'm guessing that it could only be worse.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
US troops pulling out of cities
Well, you've heard this in the news I'm sure. That is one bad thing for us mercs. Why, you might ask? The fact of the matter is, that this means more job for us under much worse conditions.
Up to now, US patrols have kept most neighbourhoods relatively safe, so that we could carry on with our daily tasks at least a bit easier. Now that there will be no more US checkpoints and army patrols, ragheads will go frenzy, I can assure you. In this past few days, more people were killed in bomb attacks than in the past two months... But US believes this to be a feasible solution, so well, I won't say anything. They still let us do the convoy runs, etc with much less probability for support than before.
The fact is that if we came under attack, which happened quite a few times already, we always had it in the back of our minds, that help is relatively close, as there was always a patrol within a few minutes distance. If we happened to be stuck in an area and under fire, it was always really good to know, that army guys will shortly be there and help us out. Even if they could not get to us right away, the fact that the ragheads had to divide their attention between shooting at us and watching their backs for an army patrol, was already a lot of help.
Now that's gone and quite frankly, I'm not liking the idea to trust the Iraqi police. I'm not saying that all of them are bad guys (I know a couple of good fellas there myself), but quite many of them are actually giving away information to the insurgents, which puts the entire police force on the bad side, for you don't know which one of them you may trust... Of course, commanders are having a big mouth, that they are prepared to take over control, blablabla, but that is not the case. They sound very much determined when speaking to the camera, but they look entirely different when they come under fire...
One of our convoy was attacked this week in an area, which was supposedly a calm neighbourhood. Two of our men were killed by the IED that was planted in between trash bags and was set off when the second SUV of the convoy passed by. I felt really sorry about them, as one of the guys was about to go home in two weeks time. He spent three years in Iraq and finally decided that it was time. Well, one of them fucktards had something else on his mind and killed him before he had a chance to get outta country. I was kinda sick all week, 'coz I know the guy's kids and wife. During one of my holidays last year, I've bumped into them at a popular holiday destination and we've spent a week together. His family was real nice, the kids cute... Well, what else to say, RIP brother, some might forget you, but I never will!
This attack was kinda approval for the other insurgent groups. After a relatively calm period, we were taking fire almost every day after this attack took place. Fortunately no one else was hurt of our people, only minor damage to the vehicles involved.
You know, I've always been so glad that ragheads have never been qualified shooters. They usually don't hit shit, just wasting ammo and their time / resources. But I guess this is part of the picture they have to uphold to be looked upon as fearsome fighters of the islam cause... Yeah, my ass...
Anyway, my best guess is that we're looking at a rather difficult period of time; soon we will find out whether Iraqi police will be able to handle the situation or they will be overwhelmed by the insurgents. My bet goes for the latter...
Up to now, US patrols have kept most neighbourhoods relatively safe, so that we could carry on with our daily tasks at least a bit easier. Now that there will be no more US checkpoints and army patrols, ragheads will go frenzy, I can assure you. In this past few days, more people were killed in bomb attacks than in the past two months... But US believes this to be a feasible solution, so well, I won't say anything. They still let us do the convoy runs, etc with much less probability for support than before.
The fact is that if we came under attack, which happened quite a few times already, we always had it in the back of our minds, that help is relatively close, as there was always a patrol within a few minutes distance. If we happened to be stuck in an area and under fire, it was always really good to know, that army guys will shortly be there and help us out. Even if they could not get to us right away, the fact that the ragheads had to divide their attention between shooting at us and watching their backs for an army patrol, was already a lot of help.
Now that's gone and quite frankly, I'm not liking the idea to trust the Iraqi police. I'm not saying that all of them are bad guys (I know a couple of good fellas there myself), but quite many of them are actually giving away information to the insurgents, which puts the entire police force on the bad side, for you don't know which one of them you may trust... Of course, commanders are having a big mouth, that they are prepared to take over control, blablabla, but that is not the case. They sound very much determined when speaking to the camera, but they look entirely different when they come under fire...
One of our convoy was attacked this week in an area, which was supposedly a calm neighbourhood. Two of our men were killed by the IED that was planted in between trash bags and was set off when the second SUV of the convoy passed by. I felt really sorry about them, as one of the guys was about to go home in two weeks time. He spent three years in Iraq and finally decided that it was time. Well, one of them fucktards had something else on his mind and killed him before he had a chance to get outta country. I was kinda sick all week, 'coz I know the guy's kids and wife. During one of my holidays last year, I've bumped into them at a popular holiday destination and we've spent a week together. His family was real nice, the kids cute... Well, what else to say, RIP brother, some might forget you, but I never will!
This attack was kinda approval for the other insurgent groups. After a relatively calm period, we were taking fire almost every day after this attack took place. Fortunately no one else was hurt of our people, only minor damage to the vehicles involved.
You know, I've always been so glad that ragheads have never been qualified shooters. They usually don't hit shit, just wasting ammo and their time / resources. But I guess this is part of the picture they have to uphold to be looked upon as fearsome fighters of the islam cause... Yeah, my ass...
Anyway, my best guess is that we're looking at a rather difficult period of time; soon we will find out whether Iraqi police will be able to handle the situation or they will be overwhelmed by the insurgents. My bet goes for the latter...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Time for the first one
So, I'm about to start blogging. Kinda weird, as I have never felt an urge to share the story of my life with others, except for my family. Even they don't know about many things that happen or have happened to me in the past. Actually, I'm fairly sure that I do not even want them to know about many things I have seen and / or experienced. They would either be scared of what could happen to me every day, or disgusted by the things people are capable of doing when it comes to earn their living. Therefore, I do not intend to use my real name while writing this blog, that is the sort of privacy you need when it comes to stories that you are going to read about on this blog.
Well, who are you, one might ask. Well, I'm an Eastern European guy, therefore, forgive me the potential typos and grammatical errors I will most certainly make during the creation of this blog. English is obviously not my primary language, but I'll do my best to be as clear and understandable as possible. Feel free to make any corrections along the way, I won't get pissed.
I've been a - so called - 'mercenary' for several years now (although I prefer the title of 'security officer', it does not sound half as bad as mercenary, now does it?), working around the globe for a well-known company, famous for having a rather large 'private army'. Why the inverted commas? Well, no one in the industry likes to be referred to as a private soldier. Although most of us have extensive military background, being in the private security industry is a hell of a lot more different than being in the Army.
Most importantly, we're pretty much on our own out there most times and we cannot count on the cavalry or the fly-guys bringing in the big guns for our rescue. All we can hope for is that, the guy sitting next to us or watching our back, knows what he's doing. And above all else, we should count on ourselves and a bit of fortune as well.
See, those documentaries you watch on YouTube and other sites, are telling you that we're a bunch of trigger-happy murderers with only one aim: kill as many people as possible. That isn't entirely true. Those people saying things like this have never been in a war zone and have absolutely no idea what is it like to put their lives on the line every single day they get out of the safe zone. They have no idea what it feels like when you see a long-time friend of yours being shot dead or blown to pieces by an IED. They have never in their lives experienced what it feels like when you have to keep your best buddy alive by trying to keep his guts inside his stomach with your bare hands, just to see him die after a few minutes. Or arrange a late evening darts game with one of your friends, only to find out when it's time, that he went missing while on an escort mission. I could give you dozens of more examples, but to hell with it. These kinds of people will simply never understand it until they went through the exact same things that we have to live through every day. I bet they'd go insane in a week...
Actually, we are caring people. 99% of us have wives and kids or loved ones waiting for us back home. And we all came here in hope of securing a better living for our families back home. To secure a way out of a mortgage that we can no longer pay, for both parents have lost their jobs. Or, like one of my old buddies, have a child with a serious illness and they can no longer afford to pay the medical bills. And there are a lot more reasons, believe me, most of them perfectly legitimate.
I'm not saying that there aren't any people that are here for the killing. There have always been and there will always be people like that. But they are extremely few in numbers. Maybe one out of a thousand of us. There's no doubt that these people should not be here, but show me a system that is flawless. It's so sad that the media only captures the wrongdoings of the private security industry and never talks about the things we do right. Of course, showing the fearsome mercenaries playing baseball or soccer with little kids would not sell as much as the same fearsome mercenary killing 2-3 civilians in a firefight, when anyone wearing a rag on top of their head could be hiding an RPG or a grenade or could be wired with explosives... Of course they don't, after all, most of those news reporters could not even point out the countries we're operating at... Not to mention some hands-on experience... I bet you all, if they would have to do our job for just one day, their opinion would take a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction.
But I can live with that. At first, I felt it was insulting for I was there not to kill, but to help those people in need. I honestly don't care about it anymore, I got used to it over the years. This is the part when some of you might say: 'It was your choice, no one asked you to go there'. You're right. No one did. But there should always be someone who does the dirty job. That's a fact. If there would be no such people, you, my friend, would not be living in an all-mighty US of A. That's a fact, too. Possible that America would not even be on the map now, if there would have been no such people in the past. And America will certainly not be on the map, if there will be no such people in the future. It's like that.
Just think about it when you're reading this from the safety of your home. Everything that you own would not be yours if America was not exploiting other, less powerful nations around the globe. This is a fact. Instead of having a big, fat and lazy ass, you would most probably be working your ass off to stay alive and have at least one meal a day. War is tough, no one has ever said it was a joyride. It is always about having a less powerful (and as such, exploited) side and a more powerful , which does the exploiting. More importantly, war will never end. That is just a dream of some hopelessly peaceful dummies not having a clue about realities in life. World peace, kumbaya, blablabla... Wake up! It doesn't exist!
Whatever... It isn't my intention to change the attitude of those people. Instead, I plan to use this little corner of cyberspace to share stories on what I have seen and experienced while working in this industry and also to pay tribute to those friends of mine who have fallen along the way. Do not expect precise dates, places and names. Since I have a confidentiality agreement with my employer, I may not disclose such information, but I will try to be as specific as possible, given the circumstances.
Mike
Well, who are you, one might ask. Well, I'm an Eastern European guy, therefore, forgive me the potential typos and grammatical errors I will most certainly make during the creation of this blog. English is obviously not my primary language, but I'll do my best to be as clear and understandable as possible. Feel free to make any corrections along the way, I won't get pissed.
I've been a - so called - 'mercenary' for several years now (although I prefer the title of 'security officer', it does not sound half as bad as mercenary, now does it?), working around the globe for a well-known company, famous for having a rather large 'private army'. Why the inverted commas? Well, no one in the industry likes to be referred to as a private soldier. Although most of us have extensive military background, being in the private security industry is a hell of a lot more different than being in the Army.
Most importantly, we're pretty much on our own out there most times and we cannot count on the cavalry or the fly-guys bringing in the big guns for our rescue. All we can hope for is that, the guy sitting next to us or watching our back, knows what he's doing. And above all else, we should count on ourselves and a bit of fortune as well.
See, those documentaries you watch on YouTube and other sites, are telling you that we're a bunch of trigger-happy murderers with only one aim: kill as many people as possible. That isn't entirely true. Those people saying things like this have never been in a war zone and have absolutely no idea what is it like to put their lives on the line every single day they get out of the safe zone. They have no idea what it feels like when you see a long-time friend of yours being shot dead or blown to pieces by an IED. They have never in their lives experienced what it feels like when you have to keep your best buddy alive by trying to keep his guts inside his stomach with your bare hands, just to see him die after a few minutes. Or arrange a late evening darts game with one of your friends, only to find out when it's time, that he went missing while on an escort mission. I could give you dozens of more examples, but to hell with it. These kinds of people will simply never understand it until they went through the exact same things that we have to live through every day. I bet they'd go insane in a week...
Actually, we are caring people. 99% of us have wives and kids or loved ones waiting for us back home. And we all came here in hope of securing a better living for our families back home. To secure a way out of a mortgage that we can no longer pay, for both parents have lost their jobs. Or, like one of my old buddies, have a child with a serious illness and they can no longer afford to pay the medical bills. And there are a lot more reasons, believe me, most of them perfectly legitimate.
I'm not saying that there aren't any people that are here for the killing. There have always been and there will always be people like that. But they are extremely few in numbers. Maybe one out of a thousand of us. There's no doubt that these people should not be here, but show me a system that is flawless. It's so sad that the media only captures the wrongdoings of the private security industry and never talks about the things we do right. Of course, showing the fearsome mercenaries playing baseball or soccer with little kids would not sell as much as the same fearsome mercenary killing 2-3 civilians in a firefight, when anyone wearing a rag on top of their head could be hiding an RPG or a grenade or could be wired with explosives... Of course they don't, after all, most of those news reporters could not even point out the countries we're operating at... Not to mention some hands-on experience... I bet you all, if they would have to do our job for just one day, their opinion would take a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction.
But I can live with that. At first, I felt it was insulting for I was there not to kill, but to help those people in need. I honestly don't care about it anymore, I got used to it over the years. This is the part when some of you might say: 'It was your choice, no one asked you to go there'. You're right. No one did. But there should always be someone who does the dirty job. That's a fact. If there would be no such people, you, my friend, would not be living in an all-mighty US of A. That's a fact, too. Possible that America would not even be on the map now, if there would have been no such people in the past. And America will certainly not be on the map, if there will be no such people in the future. It's like that.
Just think about it when you're reading this from the safety of your home. Everything that you own would not be yours if America was not exploiting other, less powerful nations around the globe. This is a fact. Instead of having a big, fat and lazy ass, you would most probably be working your ass off to stay alive and have at least one meal a day. War is tough, no one has ever said it was a joyride. It is always about having a less powerful (and as such, exploited) side and a more powerful , which does the exploiting. More importantly, war will never end. That is just a dream of some hopelessly peaceful dummies not having a clue about realities in life. World peace, kumbaya, blablabla... Wake up! It doesn't exist!
Whatever... It isn't my intention to change the attitude of those people. Instead, I plan to use this little corner of cyberspace to share stories on what I have seen and experienced while working in this industry and also to pay tribute to those friends of mine who have fallen along the way. Do not expect precise dates, places and names. Since I have a confidentiality agreement with my employer, I may not disclose such information, but I will try to be as specific as possible, given the circumstances.
Mike
Monday, June 1, 2009
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Effective January/01/2009
Our Commitment To Privacy Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.
Log Files
Like many other web sites, mercguy.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Cookies and Web Beacons
mercguy.blogspot.com does NOT use cookies to store information about visitor preferences, record user-specific information on which pages our users access or visit, and to customize our website content, based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitors send via their browser.
DoubleClick DART Cookie
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Currently, our advertising partner is Google Adsense.
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads onmercguy.blogspot.com
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to flashacks.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Ad and Content Network Privacy Policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
The Way We Use Information
We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties.
You can register with our website if you would like to receive updates on our new services. Information you submit on our website will not be used for this purpose unless you fill out the registration form.
We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website and to share with advertisers. For example, we may tell an advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.
Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.
Our Commitment To Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
How To Access Or Correct Your Information
You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online by sending a request from the email address you have registered with, to moszter@gmail.com. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.
You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request that credibly shows error.
To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections to your personally identifiable information.
How To Contact Us
Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please send us an email at moszter@gmail.com.
Effective January/01/2009
Our Commitment To Privacy Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.
Log Files
Like many other web sites, mercguy.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Cookies and Web Beacons
mercguy.blogspot.com does NOT use cookies to store information about visitor preferences, record user-specific information on which pages our users access or visit, and to customize our website content, based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitors send via their browser.
DoubleClick DART Cookie
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Currently, our advertising partner is Google Adsense.
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads onmercguy.blogspot.com
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to flashacks.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Ad and Content Network Privacy Policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
The Way We Use Information
We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties.
You can register with our website if you would like to receive updates on our new services. Information you submit on our website will not be used for this purpose unless you fill out the registration form.
We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our website and to share with advertisers. For example, we may tell an advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.
Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.
Our Commitment To Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
How To Access Or Correct Your Information
You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online by sending a request from the email address you have registered with, to moszter@gmail.com. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.
You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request that credibly shows error.
To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections to your personally identifiable information.
How To Contact Us
Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please send us an email at moszter@gmail.com.
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