Former Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia discussed his experiences on the front lines of the Iraq War, fighting from House to House in Fallujah -- a place he likened to hell. According to Bellavia, his enemies were expert fighters from around the world, what he called a "global all-star team of Islamic aggression."
They understood that U.S. forces wanted to control the rooftops of the city's buildings and became adept at booby trapping houses, he explained. One such home had a cinder block maze built around it, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the entrance and exit, and gun nests on the roof. Insurgents removed the roofs of other houses altogether and even turned entire buildings into bombs, he added.
Bellavia said one of the most psychologically debilitating aspects of fighting in Fallujah was killing enemies who were dressed as American soldiers. After killing an insurgent, I would count my men to make sure it was not one of them, he revealed. Bellavia described how difficult it was to put down other enemies who were hopped up on potent pharmaceutical cocktail of atropine, epinephrine, and opiates.
He commented on the 'Collateral Murder' video (WARNING: Graphic images and language) released by WikiLeaks, which shows an Apache helicopter firing on a group of people near Baghdad. Two Reuters employees were killed in the attack, along with several others, and two children were wounded. The editorialized WikiLeaks footage lacks context, Bellavia suggested, noting that the helicopter was providing support for troops on the ground, not arbitrarily gunning down people. The journalists had made an unfortunate mistake by hanging out with weapon-toting insurgents, he said.
Bellavia remarked on the success of the troop surge and counterinsurgency strategies in Iraq, as well as expressed his disappointment with how dismally this accomplishment has been communicated to the American people. He also spoke about the Abu Ghraib abuses, concurring with Ian that the prison personnel involved were guilty of treason and responsible for all those who died in retaliation for their acts.
Maritime Repo Man
In the first hour, Captain Max Hardberger described his perilous adventures repossessing ships from pirates, corrupt governments, and even the Russian mafia. Hardberger said his work takes him to dangerous ports in third-world countries, where he must conduct intelligence and assess potential threats before sneaking his crew aboard the stolen vessel. Hardberger also shared details from his extraction of the the Patric M, a ship that had been illegitimately seized in Venezuela.