As I said before in a comment I saw those check points in Iraq, it is a total chaos miscommunication between the American soldiers among themselves or American and Iraqi soldiers. It happened when I was sitting beside my father while he was driving and approached an American check point, the first soldier gave a gesture, waving with his hands to continue driving and the next soldier shout STOP, so we been in a situation “doomed if we do and doomed if we don’t” according to the soldiers theory “all Iraqis are suspicious” but the accident passed without any victims.
That why I say lets the American soldiers work under Iraqi commands in the check points because believe it or not we Iraqis have our own AURA around us and we see each other through, from the first look (social status, education…etc), from way the Iraqis talk and the words we choose.
If (most likely) the Americans will not believe my story about the check points maybe they will believe their fellow citizen a journalist from The Christian Science Monitor
As an American journalist here, I have been through many checkpoints and have come close to being shot at several times myself.…..
You’re driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the side of the road — but that’s a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so you don’t think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in your direction, and you didn’t even know it was a checkpoint.If it’s confusing for me — and I’m an American — what is it like for Iraqis who don’t speak English?
Another problem is that the US troops tend to have two-stage checkpoints.….Your driver, who slowed down for the checkpoint, will accelerate to resume his normal speed. What he doesn’t realize is that there’s another, American checkpoint several hundred yards past the Iraqi checkpoint, and he’s speeding toward it. Sometimes, he may even think that being waved through the first checkpoint means he’s exempt from the second one.
Read What Iraq’s checkpoints are like
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Ladysweetie,
I’m glad nothing happened to you during your checkpoint excursion and I mean that sincerely.
Were you frightened during the experience?
How about your father — did he get nervous?
MG
In the years I worked for the Red Cross I made it through six wars alive do you think I will be scared from a few soldiers with guns? I was more worry about my father and his infrequent heart attacks problem.
Thanks for asking ;)
With those testimonies, it seems like innocent people should be dying at checkpoints at least every other day, but, I will say that they might be exaggerated a little by bias, so I will say they should be happening about once a week… Hmm… how often are they happening?
This check point thing is a real problem, and has been from the beginning of the war. I was reading about the Marines who lead the “tip of the spear” into Iraq. Already from the first few days they were having problems setting up check points. For instance at nighttime they would set up a rodblock by putting barbed wire across a road. If a driver did not see it at night and passed it they would fire warning shots. If he tried to speed up (as one might naturally do when being shot at) they would destroy the car. This is such a tragedy because if they would set up road signs etc it could all be avoided. Maybe the soldiers do not want to do this because they do not want to make themselves a target or to warn crimminals who would be captured in their checkpoint.
Best thing to do about this situation is train the Iraqi Army and police units as quickly as you can without losing training quality and have the Iraqis man the checkpoints.
The only thing the American forces should be doing is staying out of the cities and being a heavy reaction force to support the Iraqi Army if it gets into a big fight.
I’m sure most Iraqis realize this…
A CHECK POINT SHOULD BE MARKED SO THAT THE LOCALS CAN READ POSTED CHECK POINT MARKER DAY & NIGHT.WHEN THE CHECK POINT TEAM MOVED THEIR WEAPONS INTO POSITION IT WAS A SHOW OF FORCE. THE INTENT WAS NOT PUT FEAR IN THE HEARTS OF THE FRIENDLY PEOPLE.HOW EVER YOU CAN NOT STOP OR PREVENT A (VBIED) CAR WITH AN IED INSIDE WIRED TO BLOW-UP.WHEN YOU SEE AND HERE OF ALL THE LOST LIVES DUE TO IEDS YOU CAN NOT TAKE A SOFT APPROACH AND LIVE OR PROTECT YOUR TEAM OR THE LOCALS.WAR IS NOT LUNCH AT MOM’S
Jerry under the Geneva Convention it is solely the responsibility of the occupying force to provide security. It’s your war don’t ask Iraqis to fight it for you, you want the oil, you fight for it.
Jerry you’ll have to excuse Michael…He’s the village idiot around here. He preaches about the Geneva Conventions, but says that it’s ok for the terrorist to use IED’s and Behead their prisoners because they didn’t sign up for it. We also like to refer to Michael as: Googleboy the Jihadist” Also, keep your farm animals locked away when discussing something around Googleboy the Jihadist…It kinda has a thing for them. ;-)