Salam Pax: Abandoning the Americans.

[TacticalPeek]

Tigris tales
Posted: 04/20
From: Guardian

If you want to stay alive, you had better obey the rules of the road - the
road to and from Baghdad airport

Salam Pax
Wednesday April 21, 2004
The Guardian

A few nights ago, a small local hospital in the town of Musaiyab was hit
with a rocket-propelled grenade. Luckily, no one was hurt. But what is
really funny is the fact that the guy who fired the missile went to the
hospital the next morning and apologised, saying it landed there by
mistake: "Nothing against you guys - it was supposed to hit something
else." Well, that's a relief. The guy shot a hospital by mistake and went
to apologise. It's called manners. I bet his mum is proud.

Now the tragic part. A couple of days later, another coalition convoy is
attacked in the same area and it seems the "resistance" is using the
same sharp-shooter. He misses the convoy and the RPG lands in the
local gas station. Look, give the idiot some slack, he did make things
go "kaboom", didn't he?

What lesson do we learn from this little story? First, the "resistance" has
not got better at aiming. This is kind of lucky for the troops but has
worrying consequences for the rest of the population. Second, they are
not afraid to show themselves. This is new.

snip

I make the taxi drivers who take me home via the airport road crazy.
The rules are: at all times stay at least two metres away from the curb
(roadside bomb thingies). Keep a distance of 10 cars between you and
the nearest army vehicle, preferably a distance actually filled with cars
not just a hypothetical one (when an attack happens the soldiers spray
the area with little pieces of highly lethal metal called bullets). And never,
ever drive on anything that lies on the road even if it looks like a silly
black plastic bag (kaboom, blood, calamity, etc). Every time someone
does that I wince, close my eyes and wait for the explosion.

Last night I noticed that it is not only me who has these airport road
rules. As my brother and I were driving back home a convoy of three
Humvees and an APC came into the road. Suddenly all the cars slowed
down to increase the distance from the convoy and stayed away from
the sides. Maybe because the road was so dark and frightening or
because I noticed how all of us, the Iraqis driving behind them, stayed
away; I felt like I wanted to apologise for leaving them to drive down that
scary road on their own. It felt like we were abandoning them.

· Salam Pax writes fortnightly.


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[buddy22600]

1. nice post

[alfredo]

2. thanks for posting this.

Now i can go eat some mushroom soup.