Something about the 2 civilians killed story with the kids..

Regarding U.S. Troops Fire on Car in Northern Iraq, Killing 2 Civilians in Checkpoint.

Someone else here pointed out a covered face of a soldier. What I noticed was that it seems like a very nice car. And that there's an awful lot of photos.

Maybe this was just a frightened soldier responding to a driver who failed to stop. Who managed to kill both adults in the front seat and no one in the back. (One story says 6 kids, 1 says 5.)

I have a nagging question in my mind though, whether this couple was singled out for a reason. An assassination with a message..maybe an intellectual, or a political leader who refused to play ball. I really wonder who he was. Whether the thought of having your children watch you get creamed in front of their eyes is a bit more of a deterrent (or an incentive) than simply fear of death.

I did think the covered face was strange though.

Scared young soldiers...failing to stop at checkpoints (in a country the US has no right to be in)...the soldier who murdered a wounded Iraqi in Fallujah was framed by the "camera angle"...I understand where you're coming from but I just don't accept these excuses. It is reminiscent of the My Lai massacre in that it became an "American tragedy" (rather than a Vietnamese tragedy or a simple crime) and the US soldiers became the victims etc...

It's also remarkable to think that one of the excuses Bush snr used to invade Panama was the killing of a US soldier at a checkpoint. The poor frightened Panamanian soldiers...

I am not excusing it. I am wondering if it was a planned assassination. A way of sending a message.

Probably not. But there's something about it that seems worse than the (absolutely horrible but seemingly routine) checkpoint mistake.

that got off track from the point you were making...

To second guess a soldiers actions from the safety of our computers. My daughter was an MP in Iraq and was wounded. Working a checkpoint is one of the most stressful things you can do in Iraq with the situation the way it is now. I worked several checkpoints in my day. In Panama right after the invasion, in Desert Storm after the Liberation of Kuwait and in Somalia. We got attacked in both Panama and in Somalia and luckily we were right in our assumptions when we took action and dealt with the threat.

A car, if it has more than two people has to drive right up to or even with the checkpoint so all of the shooters can fire. If not then only the two in the front seat can shoot.

The safety of the soldier is first and foremost. If a driver ignores orders to stop, a soldier is not going to endanger his unit by hesitating. Mistakes do happen and it is very unfortunate, but a soldier does what he is trained to do.

Sorry about your daughter's wound. I really hope she is better now.

I think working a checkpoint in Iraq must be like a temporary sentence in hell..I can't imagine coping with the fear and uncertainty, especially now in the runup to the 'election'.

Just FYI, I'm not rushing to judgment either way about what happened. I think we have a tendency to want to label things too quickly, to place blame or innocence, simply to avoid living with the tension that uncertainty brings.

Thanks for your insight. It's great to have some veterans on board at DU.

might be an Iraqi translator. Notice that he is wearing sneakers and has no unit patch on his sleeve.

The Mighty Liberators. The Army of Freedom. Come join the army to fight tyrant around the world. Liberate the people permanently from being oppress.

Is this the role of the US army. Are they protecting the US?