Monday, September 05, 2005

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the FOB

I was in a convoy a few days ago heading to another FOB, and midway on our trip we saw a civilian car turned on its side, with several Iraqis and their cars and little pickups milling around. By the debris on the road and the charred weeds, it was clear that an IED had just exploded.

Seeing no other military on the scene, except a couple of Iraqi police, we stopped to check it out. All the Iraqis, including the police, took off immediately, leaving the scene to us.

I couldn’t tell what type of car it had been, other than color and that it was a fairly new sedan, because the IED rent it asunder. Tires stripped off the wheels, frame bent, glass blown out, large chunks and tiny pieces strung all over the highway. The blast flipped the car up on its side and torched the weeds on the other side of the road.

There were also remains of the driver, although he was pretty well rent asunder as well. I don’t feel too sorry for the guy though. After an investigation was complete, it turns out that there were two guys killed in the explosion. They had emplaced an IED up the road a little ways – which by the way exploded with a deep BANG and a tall column of dust and black smoke while we were there - and they had stopped to emplace another. Apparently the 2nd one went off while the passenger was putting it down next to the car, and it killed both of them.

I’m not sure how to characterize this event. Human Tragedy? Just Desserts? Natural Selection? I have to admit, I’m not charitably inclined toward the former.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Natural selection.