The Most Likely Victims are Innocent Civilians

Via Juan Cole, this is decidedly NOT a part of the bargain that is supposed to go with liberation.

This is outside my usual area, but I am compelled to bring to the attention of the readers of this blog a Frontline report called "A Company of Soldiers" that was broadcast February 22. It shows clearly the casual way in which checkpoints are being manned by U.S. forces in Iraq and why innocent civilians are dying at the hands of American soldiers.

Toward the beginning of the report, which can be streamed online, a camera crew follows a small company of soldiers posted at a highway on-ramp checkpoint. At one point a car is seen in the distance. The soldiers do not wave it off, use hand signals or fire shots that could be perceived as warning shots. Instead, with the car barreling down the road toward them they pause, watch, and then start firing. From the soldiers' perspective it is impossible to determine the occupants of the car or their purpose. The car turns around and heads in the direction it came from. Was anybody shot or killed? Who knows? The soldiers don't investigate and the occupants of the car certainly don't hold a press conference to present their side.

I was appalled as I watched this video scene unfold. It seemed inconceivable that we could risk taking life on an ordinary highway so casually. When a few days later we all heard the news about the Italian journalist I couldn’t help but think that she was a victim of this same casual approach.

Sure, war is dirty and ugly and if I were stationed in Iraq I would be frightened not to shoot when a car is barreling down the road at me. But don't checkpoints need to be established with some care? Don't the people innocently traveling down the road need to be told IN ADVANCE that they are approaching a checkpoint?

And why aren't the media broadcasting this actual footage of a checkpoint so viewers can understand the casual way in which checkpoints have been established? That means you CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox. Call up Frontline. Get the video. AND SHOW IT.

Here is the transcript to which he refers.

The question is primarily one of leadership, from the spoiled frat boy that started the war, to the officers over seeing the actions of these soldiers.

But it is always the soldiers that suffer the reproaches...a suffering only exceeded by the innocent civilian.