I had dinner tonight with an Army pal that got back from a stint in Iraq recently. He gave me a few photos he had taken and collected from people in his squad. Lots of them were pretty bad, as well as the stories that went with them, but there were a few that were interesting...

"Iraqi Ben Stiller" on his mound of dirt.

Kids in school...

Captured goods...

Fallen soldier...

Dusty...

Humvee ambush where a soldier lost a foot...

Surfing the net...

Destroyed tank...

Patrol tower...

Thanks for sharing.

That Patrol Tower pic should be in a magazine. I really like the overall feel of it.

Thanks for sharing Roikins.

Thanks Roikins.

I been thinking about this pic. And I really need one of these.

Isn't that a 50 caliber?

I would love to see a theme made out of the patrol tower pic if it was bigger as I for one would probably use it as well as some vets I know

Not sure. Barrett has a new one out that I have not seen real good yet. But heck I would like one of the old 60s. I like the sound of those.

No problem. I think seeing photos from Iraq always helps people to realize the gravity of the situation. The news and politicians handle stories from the Middle East in such a way that it makes people forget that troops and civilians have their lives on the line, regardless of the reasons and if you agree or not with them. When you see stories on the news, it often seems like politicians and generals are playing with toy soldiers and toy tanks.

I always heard that young men fight old mens wars.

Bigger...

Thanks for showing us the pictures and please tell your friend thanks too.

Every time I think of the politics of war Us & Them from Pink Floyd comes to mind. The solders are so honorable but the ones at the top are suspect. Sometimes.

Us and Them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
General sat, as the lines on the map
moved from side to side
Black and Blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and Down
And in the end it's only round and round and round
Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There's room for you inside
Down and Out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny that's what the fightings all about
Out of the way, it's a busy day
And I've got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died

More pictures from Iraq

http://tinyurl.com/6ceaj

Can anyone translate the writing on this one?

http://www.undermars.com/images/mars0775.jpg

Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco?
Smoke Camels?

I don't know, but the homepage there mentions that they are burning 300 gigs of bandwidth each day. 9,000 gigs per month is beyond the realm of most dedicated server plans. Most top out at 2,000 gigs.