Here’s the situation: You’ve been held hostage by desperate men. You’ve lived in fear for your life 24/7. YOUR government, unlike the US government, negotiates with your captors and pays a sizeable ransom for your release. And, to your utter surprise, your captors genuinely release you! You think you’re home free…
Not so fast. You still need to get out of the country and that means running a gauntlet of trigger-happy US soldiers.
Most people have heard about the sordid and tragic situation of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Released by her captors and trying to make her way to the Baghdad airport to fly home, the car carrying her and others was strafed with gunfire from US military personnel.
Some people are charging that US troops specifically are targeting journalists, particularly journalists the Bush Administration is not happy with. While I certainly wouldn’t put this past our government, I’m willing – for now – to give our soldiers the benefit of the doubt.
If there isn’t some sinister conspiracy afoot, what could explain this kind of grievous error?
While it is a well known fact that I am vehemently opposed to the “war” in Iraq, I must admit I really feel compassion for the impossible situation US troops find themselves in. Told by the Bush cabal that they would be warmly greeted as liberators, I’m sure it has come as an utter shock that most Iraqis loathe them and that a significant number of Iraqis wished that each soldier would keel over dead.
Every Iraqi they meet on the street could be a potential suicide bomber or assassin – they could just as easily be someone trying to go about their daily routine. The problem is that suicide bombers, for example, are not known to wear nametags (Ahmad, Suicide Bomber) or carry signs that read, “Hi, I’m REALLY wired today”.
Consequently, not knowing who is friend and who is foe would tend to make any one of us a tad bit jumpy. In such cases, it’s somewhat understandable if a person chooses to be slightly more proactive than reactive.
Think about this in terms of normal everyday life. When we are anxious or frustrated or just having a bad day, most of us tend to be quick to snap at others. We often snap at people who haven’t done anything to deserve it. In most situations, we snap with words. We can each say some fairly nasty things to our coworkers or family members. While words can certainly be hurtful, by themselves they are not life threatening.
Unfortunately, when you’re put in the position that our troops find themselves in, you snap at people with guns. Unlike words, guns can be VERY life threatening. In fact, in the case cited above, the use of guns turned out to be deadly for one member of Sgrena’s entourage.
Who knows what caused the troops to decide to fire on this vehicle. Maybe the make of the car was similar to one used in a recent suicide bombing. Maybe one soldier was suspicious of the driver. Maybe the soldiers weren’t expecting a car on the road at that hour. Maybe the first person to fire was having a really bad day and doesn’t even know why he fired his gun. Or maybe the troops knew exactly who was in the vehicle and fired on it from orders from up the chain of command.
Hopefully, we will one day know. For now, however, I fear we will soon hear of other similar cases. Our troops are in a no-win situation. If they don’t act on their instincts, it could well mean their own death or that of their comrades. If they play a hunch and they’re sadly off-base, it will usually mean the death of one or more innocent people.
For me, the best solution to end the possibility of these kinds of situations from occurring is to get our troops out of there.
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