Embedded journalist Brian Palmer (disclosure: old friend of mine) writes this final post before leaving Iraq for Kuwait. He concludes:
I have met many wonderful soldiers, but I haven't been impressed by their fitness, preparedness, or their skills. I watched a kindly sergeant fumble with his M-16 and a digital camera during a joint patrol with Marines through a former munitions plant known for insurgent activity. He snapped pictures while the Marines surveyed the rubble for potential bombers and snipers. Marines in the artillery platoon have told me their Army counterparts are positively bewildered by the call-for-fire process. These are the procedures by which you rain artillery shells on your enemy -- and avoid killing civilians and your own forces.
This morning soldiers fired on a civilian vehicle. Three officers I talked to, two Marines and one soldier, assured me it was a legitimate shoot: Two vehicles approached a checkpoint; one failed to stop, so soldiers halted it with gunfire, killing two of the four people in the car. "It happens all the time," a marine warrant officer said. But an enlisted man I spoke with briefly who was privy to early reports implied -- but did not state explicitly - that the soldiers overreacted.
The soldiers have time to learn; their deployment will last at least a year. But I hope for their sake, and that of the citizens of this area, that they learn quickly.
Judging from the warblogs, the soldiers don't seem too impressed with the journalists either. What to do?
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