Monday, March 31

The embed's report on the shooting of the minivan

As an unidentified four-wheel drive vehicle came barreling toward an intersection held by troops of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed. From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat.

"Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"

That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.

"Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"



Plan B?

Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard says there seem to be more missiles coming into Kuwait that CentCom is acknowledging.

Sgt. Stryker says to watch the north.

At Nasiriya

A note before I sign off to work:

I am always grateful for my readers and their comments, but please remember that the reason I have reentered the blogosphere on a daily basis is to give you a place to discuss the war, especially from a spiritual and moral perspective. I am not happy with the tone of some of the commenters, especially from some of those supportive of the war who are responding to questions and concerns with jabs, name-calling and setting up of straw men. I seriously doubt that there is anyone who posts or reads here who believes that Hussein is anything but a tyrant, or who knows that the muted response Coalition troops are receiving is in large part because of the terror and fear of reprisal that still hangs over even the "conquered" areas. Everyone who reads and posts here is very concerned about issues of terrorism, the clash of civilizations and the rise of Islamofascism. As far as I know, Sheryl Crow is not a part of this community here.

So that means when questions are raised, either by me or commenters, you can bet they are serious questions that emerge from serious soul-searching and engagement with the Gospel, Catholic Tradition, and the realities of the present situation.

I would appreciate it if everyone would conduct themselves with that in mind and take each others' concerns seriously and respectfully and just stop the responses like Oh..you're have questions about the conduct of the war...and you think Hussein would have just left if we'd asked nicely, huh?

That's not helpful.