Bad news from Iraq: Roads Less Dangerous
McClatchy - U.S. convoys struggle to adjust to policy change
CAMP TAJI, Iraq — In the first month that they were in Iraq, someone threatened, shot at or tried to blow up the soldiers of the Kentucky National Guard’s B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery 12 times. Last month, there were only three such incidents.
But confirmation that the roads have become safer came a few weeks ago when a flier went up in the 2-138’s office at this base 20 miles north of Baghdad.
“Effective immediately,” it read, “assume all civilian vehicles are friendly.”
The order admonished soldiers throughout Iraq to yield to civilian drivers, allow vehicles to pass and avoid firing their weapons as they escorted convoys of concrete barriers, generators, water and food to U.S. military outposts.
It was a major reversal of a longtime policy that had made units such as the 2-138, which arrived in Iraq in August, the kings of Baghdad’s littered highways. From their hulking five-ton armored military trucks, the soldiers of the 2-138 had flashed lights, shouted through loudspeakers and fired warning shots that trained Iraqi drivers to pull over and let the nighttime convoys pass.
I know it’s McClatchy, but c’mon, as a headline “U.S. convoys struggle to adjust to policy change” is a bit much. Perhaps they should feature unemployment amongst vehicle junkyard dealers, stemming from this latest bad news.
It was better when “Iraq Resembled a Mad Max Movie.”
Let Harry go!
All he had to do was Enlist
A Little Help, Please
Three Options in Iraq
De mortuis nil nisi bonum