Map of Iraq.

I write these few words on April 2 as the media is reporting the beginning of the “Battle of Baghdad”. The TV graphics are showing me blue arrows of the US V Corps trying to get to Baghdad through red lines that are marked “Medina” and “Baghdad”, with the red lines only 50km from the city centre.

This is an extraordinary achievement on a complex battlefield. A US spokesman told us last night that Iraqi divisons in the north were heading south to Baghdad for what might be the climactic battle of the Second Iraq War.

I saw yesterday a wounded British soldier telling the world how his two vehicles were hit by an A10 tankbuster aircraft – a “friendly fire” kill. Earlier in the day I watched US soldiers storm and capture a 200m bridge, with tank fire, artillery and close air support being used, and in the middle, what appeared to be a suicide car attempted to drive into the middle of the US positions.

Earlier still, we all heard of the tragedy of seven Iraqi women and children being killed apparently trying to run a road block.

Men from the British Royal Marines 40 Commando take positions in a building as they progress towards enemy positions, in Al Faw, Southern Iraq, on March 22. British forces captured the port of Umm Qasr and begun to surround Iraq’s second biggest city, Basra, as part of the Coalition force to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and liberate its people from the rule of Saddam Hussein. Photo by Terry Richards, AP/Pool

This occurred only days after four US soldiers were killed by a suicide car near Karbala. At the same time, the British were symbollically wearing berets on patrols in Basra. Finally, I watched the US leadership defend the battle plan against media and other criticism. You’ve certainly got to be a smart, thinking soldier to be effective on this new 21st century battlefield.

And this was only Day 13, a normal day in The War. What the CA reminds us about continually is that our basic task is to form combined arms teams in joint operations, exactly the kind of teams that we see 24/7 on our TVs. We, more than most, know the reality. It’s deadly serious business that we in the ADF had better be the best at, because it is the real test of what we are.

The achievements of those currently deployed to the MEAO fill us with pride and give us an aiming point for how good we should be. It is our job, as we consider the images on the TV, to learn and to think and to do the professional bit that makes us that good.

We might ultimately see operational evaluation of the technical, professional side of this war. But we can still learn much from the vision of the embedded journalists who bring to us the “soldiers-eye view” of this war

Let me mention just two aspects, apart from the need to be smart, thinking soldiers, that have struck me.

The first is Combat Service Support (CSS). All the armchair generals of the world will be reminded by the TV vision of “500km convoys” on one MSR, of ambushed technical support teams, of troops only getting limited supplies, and of the proliferation across US CSS and logistic units of the 40mm grenade launcher (many shown being used to protect logistics units), that logistics remains as important as ever. But we as professionals knew that, or did we?

Do we professionals need to be reminded that our loggies must be as tough fighters as anyone in the force? And that every exercise must allocate troops to protect logistic units so they can do their job. I remember this point being made to me on many occasions by hard-working loggies demanding the right to train as soldiers, to be fighters, because they certainly know. And basic to all of this is that you all must make time for logistic soldiers to shoot, because, when it comes down to a dirty, dusty road in a foreign country, shooting is what it is all about.

The second is the amount of equipment that combat, combat support and combat service support troops are wearing.
My observation is that our personal equipment would stack up well against what we see on TV, but lets wait for the post-action reports to come in on that. But still there is a lot of it. Possibly more is being carried now than any soldier (or armoured knight) has ever carried. I do not see too many soldiers without their ballistic vests, even in the heat.

I guess that, if it is inevitable that troops involved in combat are going to be carrying and wearing equipment that remains heavy, even in its lightest form, then fitness must remain as important to us as our ability to operate our weapons.
Is our fitness standard right for a 21st Century Army? Can each and every one of us say that we are fit to fight? In this century, the fight does not come from the front line, the fight will come from anywhere, and from everywhere, at anytime. If you are a soldier, you must be physically fit – there can be no compromise, just look at the TV!

So there are lessons that can be learnt, or re-learned, from the “TV War”. But the one lesson we should never forget from the vision that we see, is that these are real people with real families and real lives.

The flickering images are not a computer game – there is human tragedy in every pixel that you see. So as well as being a thinking soldier who can shoot and is physically fit, Australian soldiers must remain the compassionate professionals that we have a deserved reputation for being – this is what separates us from our enemy.

Wars are fought for people by people and it takes a smart soldier to do it right.

Just watch the TV.

.