Soldier says he fired to save his life
…and I believe him. From the Associated Press story:
Spc. Mario Lozano said the agent’s vehicle kept approaching after he flashed a warning light signaling it to stop, the New York Post reported. Lozano said he shot first at the ground, and then at the vehicle’s engine.
“You have a warning line, you have a danger line, and you have a kill line,” Lozano told the newspaper from a relative’s New York apartment.
“Anyone inside 100 meters is already in the danger zone … and you gotta take them out,” Lozano said. “If you hesitate, you come home in a box — and I didn’t want to come home in a box. I did what any soldier would do in my position.”
For those who haven’t been over there, there’s some basic driving protocols that any Iraqi knows by heart. They’ve been dealing with Coalition forces now for four years, so they know the drill. It goes something like this:
1. When approaching a stopped Coalition convoy or checkpoint - SLOW DOWN! They aren’t hard to recognize - lots of soldiers, big and tan trucks, and HMMWVs with turrets and machine guns. Plus, lots of signs in English and Arabic telling you DANGER and STAY BACK.
2. When you’re within a couple hundred yards - SLOW TO A CRAWL. Turn on your hazard blinkers, if you have them.
3. If they indicate that you should stop or slow down (which is usually done with a laser pointer, waving arms, weapons being brandished) - STOP or SLOW DOWN!
4. If you fail to do the above, be prepared to have a couple of rounds fired in front of you, or just off to the side.
5. If you are still failing to do the above, be prepared to have several rounds fired into your vehicle’s front end.
6. If you are bound and determined to continue advancing rapidly without stopping, be prepared to have your vehicle (and yourself) filled with .50-cal machine gun bullets.
Why all this? Because suicide vehicle bombers have this nasty habit of running up on a convoy and blowing themselves up. In the past, it was usually a single male in the car or truck. Lately, they’ve been using women and children as camouflage to lower soldiers’ guards, so they can get in closer and blow themselves up.
Now, not all parts of Iraq are the same. In some areas, soldiers can be more lenient as to what they allow local drivers to get away with before they start shooting. In others, where the incidents of VBIED attacks on convoys has been much higher, soldiers and marines tend to much quicker on the draw - as well they should.
For example, around my own FOB in Iraq where it was fairly safe, we were pretty lenient on Iraqi drivers. The driver really had to be making some truly provocative moves for a gunner to loose off some rounds. In other parts of Iraq, like the highways around Baghdad, anyone deviating at all from the proscribed protocol would find themselves with tracer rounds chewing up the road in front of them.
Bottom line - if this soldier’s story is true, then he did what he was supposed to do.
For more of the back story on the hostage-taking, go here. To view some of the debate on the subject go here, here, and here. And, to see some really wacky stuff about how Pres. Bush ordered a CIA hit on the sedan and it’s occupants, check out this nut.
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Iraq 
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Hooah
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