I’m not sure if this is a rant or not, although I do have a minor bug up my ass about it, but it probably isn’t really a debate either. I’m also anticipating a rebuttal asking me why hate America, I suppose (it’s okay, I’m used to it).
Anyhoo …
… so I’m reading the paper this morning, and I run across a story on the back page of the front section about troops and Iraqi security forces celebrating American Independence Day with a fireworks show along the banks of the Tigris.
My immediate ensuing thought was … what the fuck? Isn’t this a really really stupid thing to be doing? I don’t mean the celebrating, I mean the fireworks. If Iraqis out in the middle of fucking no where shooting off guns in celebration (as is their custom) merits a gunship up their ass, where’s the logic in chucking up a few incendiary devices to explode overhead? – as is our custom.
If an insurgent or two would have witnessed the spectacle and attacked in what they thought was defense, would our troops have been “asking for it?” And don’t give me … “there’s a big difference between fireworks and artillery” because if you’re an insurgent in that shit-hole with your weaponry and your fanatacism … there’s no difference.
I don’t know. It still seems like a pretty stupid thing to be doing, if you ask me.
That’s interesting; I don’t know which paper you read, but I spoke with a Marine who is over in Iraq right now. He said that their Independence Day celebrations will include barbecues, shortened duty hours, competitive sports, fresh fruit, but (explicitly) no fireworks, because the locals would not understand it, and because it is so similar to the unsettling noises they deal with on a regular basis. My friend in the Marines is in the 3d/7th (3d Battalion, 7th Marines). What unit did your newspaper’s article refer to?
Without a cite, my guess is that the reporter in question was ‘elaborating’ on the sketchy details they had to hand, and didn’t think it through too carefully.
My paper is the Portland Press Herald. Alas, there is no corroborating picture or article on their website (Portland Press Herald, but the article (Associated Press) has the date-line: Camp Victory, Iraq … “For those not on duty, July Fourth featured the food, sounds and games of home in Iraq.”
A big picture accompanies the article; the picture shows what looks like a hundred or so men on the side of a hill looking up at the fireworks and the hill side from where they were fired awash in smoke. In fact, (if I may editorialize) take away the top part of the picture and it looks like a battle going on in the distance.
The caption reads: “As firework explode, members of the Iraqi National Guard and US troops from the 1st Infantry Division celebrate the Fourth of July on the banks of the Tigris River in Tikrit, Iraq.”
The only thing I can find on AP’s site is this, where the only reference to fireworks is a non-commital opening cliche. I can’t believe it, but I’m still giving the US troops the benefit of the doubt.
Looks like some of the officers there had the good sense not to use fireworks, and some didn’t. My guess is that Baghdad is gradually becoming a safe enough city that a fireworks display won’t freak anyone out, and that wherever the other units are is (conversely) still a live-fire area where fireworks are a Bad Idea[sup]TM[/sup].
Nonetheless, I attended a fireworks display last night and thought, “goodness gracious! Those sound like grenades going off!” and so I must concede the point: fireworks are not an appropriate medium for celebration in a war zone.
