search and avoid

bilby commented on the word search and avoid

"In October 2007, for instance, I interviewed Corporal Phil Aliff, an Iraq War veteran, then based at Fort Drum in upstate New York. He recalled:

'During my stints in Iraq between August 2005 and July 2006, we probably ran 300 patrols. Most of the men in my platoon were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan and morale was incredibly low. Recurring hits by roadside bombs had demoralized us and we realized the only way we could avoid being blown up was to stop driving around all the time. So every other day we would find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapon caches in the fields and everything was going fine. All our enlisted people had grown disenchanted with the chain of command.'

Aliff referred to this tactic as engaging in search and avoid missions, a sardonic expression recycled from the Vietnam War when soldiers were sent out on official 'search and destroy' missions."

- Dahr Jamail, Refusing to Comply, tomdispatch.com, 30 June 2009.

July 1, 2009