The Big City

The Americans in Iraq frequently kill people at checkpoints. When they do this they usually claim that a car approached at speed and they tried to stop it by “making hand signals, flashing lights and firing warning shots - before firing at the vehicle’s engine.” Sometimes they shoot at the vehicle’s driver instead of the engine. A while ago one of these killings hit the headlines because the gory aftermath was photographed and because the American soldiers at that checkpoint made orphans of the five children in the car. I wondered why a father would intentionally drive his car, jam-packed with the people he loved the most, at speed towards a group of soldiers notorious for their disregard for Iraqi life. The US description of the incident made him sound like he was stupid or crazy. But maybe he just thought they were bandits or kidnappers.

On Friday a car containing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and three Italian security agents was shot up by bored, trigger happy US soldiers. The occupants of the car were trying to get to the airport; Giuliana Sgrena had just been released, or maybe rescued, from a gang of kidnappers. The incident has caused a “major diplomatic incident” and the Italians are demanding an investigation. It’s impossible to believe that an experienced, professional spook would believe that he could just whizz through an American army checkpoint. In fact, it sounds like these Italians met the fate of goodness knows how many Iraqis when they drove into what really amounted to an American ambush.