WP: On Iraq Campaign Trail, A Single Shot

washingtonpost.com
On Campaign Trail, a Single Shot
Before Sniper Struck, Platoon Leader Was Encouraging Iraqis to Vote

By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 28, 2005; Page A01

MOSUL, Iraq -- The 21-ton Stryker attack vehicles pulled into the neighborhood of al-Whada just after noon. Their rear ramps dropped simultaneously, disgorging dozens of American infantrymen into the cold rain.

The soldiers had multiple tasks on this day. In addition to hunting insurgents and searching houses, they were to help get out the vote for Sunday's national elections. For the next three hours, soldiers armed with assault rifles and election fliers moved warily through al-Whada's muddy streets, trying to get Iraqis to embrace democracy.

The inherent danger of the mission was driven home at 3:30 p.m. A single shot rang out, and 1st Lt. Nainoa K. Hoe, 27, the popular leader of the 2nd Platoon, C Company, 3rd Battalion of the 21st Infantry Regiment, fell dead in the street.

"Treat him! Treat him!" screamed Staff Sgt. Steve Siglock, one of his closest friends. The shot that killed Hoe on Saturday was followed within seconds by a blizzard of gunfire aimed at his exposed platoon. It was already too late for Hoe, but his men stepped directly into the gunfire in a desperate attempt to save him while fending off the unseen insurgents.

On the campaign trail in Iraq, U.S. troops are almost alone. Violence has kept away the election monitors, international peacekeepers and nongovernmental organizations that normally perform the basic tasks of electioneering in nascent democracies. With not even the candidates out on the streets, the role of getting out the vote has fallen to thousands of infantrymen like Hoe, soldiers who are menaced by the possibility of instant death.

MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42896-2005Jan27.html?referrer%3Demail&sub=AR

to spreading democracy. They are but toy soldiers to BushCo.

Julie

Directly involved in the Elections of another country?

in General Discussion. I would like to know the answer.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - U.N. officials have had to discourage an "overenthusiastic" U.S. military from helping to get out the vote in Iraq before Sunday's election, the top U.N. electoral adviser said on Wednesday.

"The U.S. military has been extremely overenthusiastic in trying to help out with these elections," said Carina Perelli, who heads the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division.

"We have been basically saying that they should try to minimize their involvement as this is an Iraqi process," she told a news conference, adding that Iraq's election commission had delivered the same message.

A U.N. spokesman said later that Perelli "misspoke."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26525560.htm

Cue the "F Troop" theme!

:headbang:
rocknation

Glad that's not my child.

The only place we will fight will be on the streets of amerika.