APACHE COMPANY

(Via ThinkProgress)

ABC gets us a real picture of the Iraq War. You can add a comment about the story at ABC here. As you can easily imagine, ABC got some grief from the war whores:

Many of you criticized ABC News and said we were focusing only on the negative, and called it "irresponsible and cowardly reporting."

A Violent, 'Normal' Day in Baghdad
Photojournalist Captures the Troop Surge Firsthand,
as Soldiers Navigate the Perils of Baghdad

July 16, 2007

(excerpts)

ABC News has an exclusive look at that campaign, a portion of which was filmed by British photographer Sean Smith of the Guardian newspaper, who was embedded with the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division.

Smith spent two weeks with members of Apache Company and filmed them as they went on daily routine investigations, including one of a bomb making factory hidden in a private home.

"I challenge anybody in Congress to do my rotation," said Spc. Michael Vassell of Apache Company. "They don't have to do anything, they just come hang out with me and go home at the times I go home, and come stay here 15 months with me."

Apache Company was sent to Iraq in June 2006 for a 12-month rotation which has since been extended to a 15-month tour.

"It's a joke. We will have spent 14 months in contact, basically fighting all 14 months," said Cpl. Joshua Lake. "Our battalion got right to Baghdad … first week we were in Baghdad we lost two guys in our battalion … it hasn't stopped since." "We got grenades going off, we've got an IED blowing up your vehicle … and then you are expected to go back in those four to six, four to five hours … and relax!" he said. "You just don't have time to do it. Your body never gets to come down, you're always on that heightened sense of alertness."

"Because we have people up there in Congress with the brain of a 2-year-old who don't know what they are doing -- they don't experience it. I challenge the president or anyone who has us for 15 months to ride alongside me," Vassell said. "I [would] do another 15 months if he comes out here and rides along with me every day for 15 months. I'll do 15 more months. They don't even have to pay me extra."