[Webstral]

Not upsetting the locals. I'm glad to see policy was not all tore up just for my rotation.

There are things you do that upset the locals that actually make them happy, and there are things you do that genuinely upset them. We really struggle to differentiate between the two. For instance, there's the presence of foreign troops in the host nation. Yes, that upsets the locals. It surely does. But when given the choice of foreign troops and anarchy, the locals will choose the foreign troops 99% of the time.

The locals want a strong police presence. Most people in a bad neighborhood wants a strong, effective police presence. The ones who don't want a strong police presence are making their living from a weak police presence. Do we care how they feel?

My NG unit had an amnesty for M16 magazines right after I joined. It was pointed out that guys were going out short of mags and ammunition. No questions would be asked when soldiers came in with magazines. One NCO brought in a duffel bag and emptied it into the bin being used to collect magazines. I just happened to be there at the time. I have to confess I was very curious to see what would happen, because the first sergeant was standing in the doorway while the duffel disgorged its considerable contents into the bin. All eyes went to the first sergeant. All he said to the soldier in question was: "Thanks for bringing those back, sergeant."

I never saw an SKS while I was in Iraq. I saw a lot of very interesting variants of the AK, but no SKS. One guy came through with a stainless steel AK-47 that had been cut down to machine pistol size and given considerable bling. I wondered how he would control the recoil once the shooting started. Still, a very sweet-looking piece.