Friday, July 13, 2007

In Iraq, Whom Do You Shoot?

Turns out, anything or anyone that shoots at you.

Vietnam was a nightmare war. The enemy sometimes refused to march around in uniforms. The faces of the enemy could not be distinguished from the faces of the good guys, let alone the innocents.

Now we have it again, and our troops are now in a dilemma of whom do you shoot at?

Today’s Houston Chronicle is carrying a piece about how six Iraqi police were shot and killed by US troops in a gun battle. As it turns out, the troops were in an operation to arrest a police lieutenant who had been exposed as a high ranking leader of a Shiite cell that was helping to coordinate Iranian support for Shiite terrorists.

“It began before dawn when U.S. troops launched a raid and captured the lieutenant, according to a military statement. The troops quickly came under heavy fire from multiple directions, including nearby rooftops and a church. ‘Heavy and accurate’ fire was also coming from a nearby police checkpoint.”

Coming on the heels of Thursday’s war escalation progress report, this can’t look good. If you think it’s unfortunate that the Iraqi government has been too slow to pass needed reform, take a look again. The Iraqi security force itself, the one our troops are supposed to train, is compromised.

Our friends are our enemies.

No comments: