Force Protection Is Job 1
One big difference between the U.S. and British troops in Iraq has been the U.S. focus on “force protection” — the British troops there have been slower to fire, to avoid alienating the Iraqi civilians that they are there to protect, while the U.S., knowing that Americans really don’t like to see soldiers coming home in body bags, have made protection of troops their absolute, number one priority, leading to hundreds of innocent civilian deaths at the hands of American soldiers and private contractors.
The Los Angeles Times has a good story on this today, but I’ve also seen articles in The Economist and elsewhere; it’s common knowledge, to be sure.
BAGHDAD — Three men in an unmarked sedan pulled up near the headquarters of the national police major crimes unit. The two passengers, wearing traditional Arab dishdasha gowns, stepped from the car.
At the same moment, a U.S. military convoy emerged from an underpass. Apparently believing the men were staging an ambush, the Americans fired, killing one passenger and wounding the other. The sedan’s driver was hit in the head by two bullet fragments.
The soldiers drove on without stopping.
This kind of shooting is far from rare in Baghdad, but the driver of the car was no ordinary casualty. He was Iraqi police Brig. Gen. Majeed Farraji, chief of the major crimes unit. His passengers were unarmed hitchhikers whom he was dropping off on his way to work.”The reason they shot us is just because the Americans are reckless,” the general said from his hospital bed hours after the July 6 shooting, his head wrapped in a white bandage. “Nobody punishes them or blames them…”
The continued shooting of civilians is fueling a growing dislike of the United States and undermining efforts to convince the public that American soldiers are here to help. The victims have included doctors, journalists [recently, three journalists in a single week, in three separate incidents — TC], a professor — the kind of people the U.S. is counting on to help build an open and democratic society.
“Of course the shootings will increase support for the opposition,” said Farraji, 49, who was named a police general with U.S. approval. “The hatred of the Americans has increased. I myself hate them.”
Full Story at The Los Angeles Times
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