There are tragedies within tragedies in the Iraq saga — and here’s one with both human and political dimensions:
THE HUMAN DIMENSION:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces fired on a car Friday that was carrying a freed Italian hostage, injuring the hostage and at least one other person and killing an Italian intelligence agent, according to military sources.
The shooting reportedly occurred at a roadblock in western Baghdad. The car was traveling at high speeds and it refused to stop, which prompted American troops to open fire, military officials said.
The editor of freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena’s (search) newspaper Il Manifesto, Gabriele Polo, said the intelligence agent was killed when he threw himself over Sgrena to protect her from U.S. fire, according to the Apcom news agency in Italy.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (search), an ally of the United States who has kept troops in Iraq despite public opposition at home, demanded an explanation from the U.S. ambassador, Mel Sembler.
“Given that the fire came from an American source I called in the American ambassador,” Berlusconi told reporters before the U.S. statement acknowledging that coalition forces shot at the vehicle. “I believe we must have an explanation for such a serious incident, for which someone must take the responsibility.”
President Bush expressed regret over the loss of the life, the White House said Friday afternoon.
What could be worse? She’s freed, then mistakenly fired on, and the intelligence agent is killed trying to shield her from the fire by American troops — who never would have fired if they knew who she had been and where she was going (see below for more on that).
THE POLITICAL DIMENSION:There are several political dimensions to this tragedy:
- It’s politically tragic because Italy’s Prime Minister has taken lot of heat for his at home for sending troops to Iraq and loyally backing the U.S. According to Fox News, he has demanded an explanation from the U.S. Ambassador. In diplomatic speak, that means a)he wants an explanation, b)he knows he’s going to come under political fire for backing the U.S. even moreso now.
- This event will be exploited to the hilt by those who oppose U.S. policy. There will invariably be talk about trigger happy soldiers (see below. That does NOT appear to be the case at all).
- Political/military fallout from something like this could be deadly. When something like this happens the tendency is to put extra constraints in place. That could indeed avoid a repeat of this kind of incident, but if not done correctly it could also lead to a situation where a constraint could mean valuable seconds that eventually cost military lives. So there’s a kind of Catch 22 in this situation.
So why did it happen? Michelle Malkin notes that it turns out the car was speeding to the checkpoint — which is understandable…but also creates an uncertainty if the soldiers don’t know why it’s speeding (a car bomb?).
The Jawa Report has a lot of details such as this:
Sgrena’s vehicle was warned to stop but continued speeding toward a US checkpoint on a road which has been the scene of frequent terrorist attacks. US soldiers signaled for the car to stop, flashed lights at it, and then fired warning shots at the vehicle before opening fire on the car. The troops then shot the car’s engine block, not the passengers. The car spun out of control. It was the car accident which killed one occupant and wounded Sgrena.
A FEW OTHER VOICES ON THIS STORY:
—Outside The Beltway: “Talk about your bad luck.” (Regarding what happened to her.)”Talk about your stupid.” (Talking about the speeding car).
—Secular Blasphemy:”Obviously, if the events unfolded as described by the US military, it is impossible to blame the soldiers for opening fire. Yet, this incident is obviously not what Silvio Berlusconi needs locally.”
—Steve Soto:”The woman survives a month with the insurgents but is nearly killed by us after she is freed. Swell. Don’t our forces talk with their coalition partners, or is there a reason why we didn’t want her to leave the country?”
UPDATE: Click here for hostage Sgrena’s account and more info on how some in Italy are suggesting this wasn’t an accident. (Scroll down to two UPDATES on this post).
UPDATE II: Is this issue becoming one more issue where political ideology influences how facts are filtered? Here’s there case that it is.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.