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"Resistance" tactics target Iraqi civillians
By Terry Boyd, Stars and Stripes European edition.EFL. Hat tip: Tim Blair. [Lt. Nicholas] Bradley and his Company A platoon from the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cavalry Divisionâs 91st Engineer Battalion left Camp Blackjack on Thursday morning at 9:30 for a lightning daylight raid on a mosque in their sector of northern Baghdad. The brigade command ordered the raid after collecting intelligence from informants. The mission was aborted after only a few minutes when soldiers saw the first roadside bomb and realized they were driving into a trap. . . . Rolling through the Al Khadrah neighborhood just outside the Blackjackâs gates, Bradley, a 27-year-old from Salt Lake City spotted the fresh pile of dirt on the side of the road. âThe trash starts to look familiar, believe it or not,â Bradley said of the second nature scanning skills many soldiers learn. So, his platoon pulled over to deal with a roadside bomb. With the area secure, bomb explosives soldiers from the 752nd Ordnance Company out of Fort Sill, Okla., arrived and prepared to detonate the bombâs 155 mm artillery shell. As they worked, locals gathered. Between turns at trying to unsnarl traffic, Bradley and his team â Sgt. Jeremy Lewis and Spc. Timothy Heim â talked about how this fit a recent pattern of attacks in which insurgents wait until bomb disposal teams arrive, then attack with mortars. Seconds later, their fears came true. Three mortar rounds landed only about 50 feet from their up-armored Humvee. Miraculously, no soldiers were injured. But two small Iraqi boys lay dead. A third, older boy tried to drag himself to safety. Bradley, Heim, Lewis and the rest of the soldiers somehow stayed almost supernaturally calm. Although they expected rocket-propelled grenades to follow the mortars, they rushed to check the bodies of the children, and to drag the wounded boy to safety. âGod, thatâs horrible,â Bradley said quietly after the situation stabilized. . . . Despite their outward nonchalance, Bradley, Heim and Lewis would like more than anything to fight the enemy straight up. âWe donât want to hurt anyone who doesnât deserve to be hurt,â Bradley says. Insurgents lobbing mortars into a crowded neighborhood âshows they donât care,â he says. âIEDs, RPGs and mortars guarantee civilian casualties,â he adds. âIf they really cared, they would wait till we were in an open field, and say, âLetâs do it.â But theyâre terrorists.â Note to Michael Moore, Kos, al-Jazeera, and others of that ilk (this means you, Murat): The "brave" Iraqi "minutemen," the guys you are rooting for, deliberately go out of their way to cause civillian casualties as a matter of policy. Our guys donât. To the objective observer, that says a lot--about us, them, and you. Posted by: Mike 2004-05-01 |
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