Bradley crew's shift: 19 hours in Fallujah shooting gallery

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20041114/ts_chicagotrib/bradleycrewsshift19hoursinfallujahshootinggallery&cid=2027&ncid=1480

After nearly 18 hours in the claustrophobic urban canyons that constitute the front lines of the battle for Fallujah, the crew of the lead Bradley Fighting Vehicle was cramped, weary and low on ammunition.

Then they came under heavy enemy fire for the first time all week.

Within 15 minutes, as shooting erupted around them, their radio crackled with the news that their company commander's vehicle, blocks behind them, had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The blast killed an interpreter and severed a soldier's arm. A Bradley that sped to the rescue was hit by another RPG that slipped under its high-tech armor, wounding the driver.

A block away, they heard the boom as a third rocket from insurgents took out the transmission on a huge Abrams tank. The tank's turret wouldn't move. Nor could the tank drive in reverse or pivot.

more

[saigon68]

1. SWATING A BEES NEST WITH A CRICKET BAT, BLIND FOLDED.

Yikes

[madrchsod]

2. saddam ,where ever he is must be smiling, cause

this is what he planned for urban warfare-suck the us forces into the cities.

[ilovenicepeople]

22. I.m sure Saddams body double is smiling from prison.

[gratuitous]

3. Low on ammo and hadn't been attacked all week?

What were they shooting at, I wonder? Or did they go into combat without proper equipment? Darn that John Kerry!

[UpInArms]

4. also from your link

"I'm hit!" Alpha Company's commander, Capt. Ed Twaddell, shouted over the radio at 11:43. The armor-penetrating RPG punched a half-dollar-size hole in his Bradley's back gate, then filled the troop compartment with light, noise, gore and flying metal before lodging in the turret where he was standing.

"I saw light and a flash down by my knee, and then the turret filled with smoke," Twaddell said later, his face still covered in soot and dust.

His interpreter, sitting behind him, had been killed instantly, a baseball-size gash in his side.

Two blocks north of Alpha 2-1, a Bradley maneuvered to help, disgorging a medic and soldiers under a hail of gunfire. Within minutes a penetrating RPG exploded under the second Bradley's driver compartment, wounding a man from West Virginia who had survived RPG shrapnel to the neck when his Bradley was hit in Najaf.

more progress :(

[Name removed]

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[Raskolnik]

6. I'm sure they appreciate your concern.

With insightful commentary like yours, its amazing that more troops don't vote Democratic.

Your compassion is remarkable.

[Name removed]

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[Raskolnik]

12. Huh?

I don't follow.

[Name removed]

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[livinbella]

17. barring access to the Red Cross is the ultimate in cowardice!

Those who stand and watch are as guilty as those who
commit the deed.
Who do you think you are defending here?

[Raskolnik]

19. Again...huh?

Who is asking you to approve of actions like this? No one is suggesting that our troops should be unnacountable, or are somehow morally spotless in every situation.

Who do you think you're attacking here?

[livinbella]

13. The mindless slaughter of civilians is neither brave nor patriotic

let us call a beast a beast

[Raskolnik]

16. Who is suggesting that it is?

You set up a straw man with that statement.

Is anyone asking you to approve of the mindless slaughter of civilians? Nope. Is anyone asking you to approve of the war in general? Nope.

You're just being asked to not place blame on the people that are in this situation because WE failed them. That isn't a lot to ask, in my opinion.

[Clovis Sangrail]

21. morality

The personal morality of what a soldier does, or doesn't do, has nothing to do with you, me, or the leaders we provide.


It is his, and his alone.

Ultimately, each soldier is responsible for their own actions... regardless of what they have been told to do by superiors.
If a soldier chooses to abdicate responsibility to superiors, that does not absolve them of guilt.

This concept was argued extensively in the Nuremberg trials.

[JNelson6563]

23. You impart ancient knowledge

Even in Shakespeare's Henry V such a view is put forward by the king. "Every subject's duty is the king's but every subject's soul's his own."

It's true, each person's morality is their own responsibilty.

Julie

[karlrschneider]

14. Yep, you got it. You'll get flamed and so will I, but fuck it.

:grr:

[leftchick]

9. wow! another month like this one....

and that draft will happen before chimpy*s coronation!

[Moderator]

18. WARNING

as posted before.

Any post advocating harm to the United States troops, or wishing them harm or ill fortune will be deleted.

Discuss this topic in a mature and thoughtful manner please.

[DS1]

20. Thank God!

:eyes: for some the things spoken here.