Double Check

Nobody really knows for sure what happened at the checkpoint in Iraq at which Italian agent Nicola Calipari was killed while attempting to escort freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena. Even the people who were there can only tell us what they thought they saw and heard. But in this article, written before the shooting in question, a reporter who has spent some time in Iraq gives some context--and it becomes painfully clear how something like this can happen:

You're driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the side of the road - but that's a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so you don't think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in your direction, and you didn't even know it was a checkpoint.


If it's confusing for me - and I'm an American - what is it like for Iraqis who don't speak English?


In situations like this, I've often had Iraqi drivers who step on the gas. It's a natural reaction: Angry soldiers are screaming at you in a language you don't understand, and you think they're saying "get out of here," and you're terrified to boot, so you try to drive your way out.

There's some history, too. Thanks to Saddam, Iraqis don't respond to the military as Americans do; the author's driver balked at waiting outside a government building.

"If you even looked at this building before, you'd get arrested," he said, his voice full of disbelief. Before, he would speed past this building, gripping the wheel, staring straight ahead, careful not to even turn his head. After 35 years of this, Iraqis still speed up when they're driving past government buildings - which, since the Americans took over a lot of them, tend be to exactly where the checkpoints are.

Before you judge, read the entire article, and put yourself in the shoes of the driver of Sgrena's car, and of the young American soldiers. What happened was a tragedy, in the purest sense.