Road Rage - Iraqi style

[Mr_Spock]

I was reading some post's on an automotive site today. I was in the lounge and the post was to recount road rage stories. One of the guys is currently stationed in Iraq and he posted the following story:

Re: Share your road rage stories...

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I have a decent one. We were travelling about 45 minutes south of our base here in Samarra Iraq. This is a weekly event, because we make supply runs to a base halfway between here and Bahgdad. Anyways we are traveling in an 11 vehicle convoy down a double lane Highway, sort of like any interstate you would drive along in the U.S. About 15 minutes into our trip back we ge hung up by a group of vehicles travelling about 30 miles an hour. Large trucks carrying grain or something. Its common knowlege in this country that if you see a U.S. convoy overtaking you on the road, you pull to the side to let us pass. Well, these asshats obviously didnt understand that, and even with repeated yelling and waving, flashing lights and honking it still took our lead Humvee swerving at them to make them pull over......Every one of them in fact. a total of 8 trucks. Another Big No no in this country is to cut into or get too close to our convoys. Our gunners are instructed to fire warning shots at vehicles that get too close, and if they dont get the point then; well lets just say its not going to be a good day for them. We had some rocet scientist decide that he wanted to drive on THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD into oncomming traffic to pass our convoy. I'm in my gunners seat watching this lunatic driving straight at cars.....and a red light goes off in my head. Sure enough, right as he gets past our truck he swerves accross the median at us. I unload seven rounds at this Idiot from my 50 cal as a warning to him that he is just about to screw up. But he keeps comming at us. He almost made it in between our truck and the one in fron of us when I unload about 100 rounds into theis guys hood, doors and wheels. He spinns out, and we come to a screeching halt ( Interesting while hangin out the top of a humvee going about 60..... We pull a perimeter and Start to clear up the scene. This guy's Volvo was just mangled.....50 cal rounds tore through his engine block, tranny, doors, hood all the glass, gas tank....it was ugly. The guy made it out without a scratch. Unless you consider pissing and shitting yourself hurt.....when questioned about why he tried to cut into our convoy he said that he was late to his job.......What a moron. damn near kills himself by running into oncomming traffic, and then almost gets me to do the deed by trying to cut into our convoy.....I guess he was afraid he was going to miss his turn. LOL I was just Livid at the time....so I suppose this counts as a "Road Rage" Incident....lol At least I got to shoot at him though LOL }( :patriot:
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I'm not going to comment on the post myself - just thought I'd post it here and see what the reaction is.

[Goldmund]

1. The guy sounds like an arrogant bastard, if you ask me.

Of course Iraqis resent having to "pull to the side" and abide at every whim of US soldiers, "common knowledge" or not.

[Mr_Spock]

3. Yeah, the "common knowledge" part struck me as American arrogance

It's kinda the reason we are respected more than liked. Is our only way to deal with people "well, if you don't like it we'll just kill you"?

[Worst Username Ever]

2. Mixed feelings.

I don't like the flipant attitude, "at least I got to shoot at him," but that Iraqi has GOT to know better. Our guys over there are dealing with people driving suicide cars into their convoys all the time, so given his actions, he is lucky to be alive. I don't think the gunner did anything wrong, and in fact, I am surprised (and happy) that he had the forsight ot fire warning shots.