Don’t Go Throwing, Trying to Scare or Kill Me

An Iraqi throws shoe at US Army combat troops and they defend themselves. It is entirely fitting and proper, that in a city swarming with terrorists; if an individual jumps up and rears back to throw something at our troops they should immediately fire and prevent that attack. In all previous experience such attacks have been with lethal explosive devices.

Following are some excerpts from the news source.

An Iraqi man who witnesses said shouted abuse before throwing a shoe at a US army vehicle was shot dead on Wednesday in what the American military said was a suspected grenade attack.
SNIP
"Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding the attacker," the army said in a statement. SNIP
The incident came a day after Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi was freed after spending nine months in jail for throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush during a visit to Baghdad.

What’s unfortunate about the situation is that al-Zaidi should have been shot while raring back to throw the shoe at President Bush. Only incompetence and negligence by the Secret Service prevented this from happening.

It is also unfortunate that when al-Zaidi threw the shoes at President Bush, nothing of consequence happened to him and this emboldened others to throw their shoes at Americans.

However, there is good news. At least several Iraqis now know that US Army combat troops are cut from a different cloth than are Secret Service agents. I hope that the rear echelon, administrative type troops in the US Army do not decide to discipline the combat troops for defending themselves.