Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Checkpoints and the Gray Area of War

James H. Joyner has an article here describing, from several points of view, the gray zone of the military checkpoint as it exists in Iraq.

Interesting perspective, but I think this still is denying the natural instinct of self-preservation that troops in these situations have. It does fully point out the panic reaction that drivers have when driving up to a checkpoint. He also has quotes from people that show that a checkpoint doesn't always look like the checkpoint that you'd expect.

He does state some interesting ideas on making it clear that it's a checkpoint, but I'm not certain how applicable the military will think these are. Especially the point of letting the public know what to look for also lets the terrorists know exactly what to aim at for the best kill.

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