On Eschaton today, we celebrated and passed around word that "Riverbend," a(llegedly) teen-age girl blogging from Bagdhad was still alive and posting--for the first time since early November.
Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
.
I was reminded of the cogent targeting advice to revolutionaries under assault from government functionaries and agents, offered by G.Gordon Liddy, the ex-con, former Watergate burglar, and genuine gunsel, who cautioned his listeners (yes, he had and perhaps still has a syndicated radio program, even with that resume):
"Aim at their heads. They're wearing body armor."
Advice I believe either was adopted by or adapted from the Branch Davidians' tactics when confronting the ATF raid that led to their self-immolation...
And now finds its way, in practice, even in childrens' games--albeit without sourcing--in the bloody streets of Iraq.
Not that that makes it wrong, per se: the head IS the second-biggest target, after the torso.
6 comments:
Weren't the ATF raiders killed by 'friendly fire'?
:rockets:
rats...dint work
One minor correction to your post - "Riverbend" has never been described as a teenager, at least not over the years I've been following her writing. She was (allegedly) 25 years old when she started posting in September 2003. My quickie search didn't turn up an "original" post addressing this, but this site offering a book of her collected postings for sale matches my memory of who she is (by her own description).
The wingnuts who regularly trashed her did so largely on the basis of the apparent relative affluence of her family, concluding that she must have been a beneficiary of Ba'athist rule, and therefore her opposition to the US invasion can be readily dismissed as pro-Saddam/Ba'athist propaganda. FWIW, my opinion on that is that, yeah, she and her family probably were beneficiaries, with one or more family members perhaps even members of the Ba'ath party; but her critical analyses seem to generally be spot-on, when compared to other information out there, and as such I take her seriously. In fact, one Army reservist wingnut who served as an officer (LT) early on in Iraq, Jason van Steenwyck, blogrolled her during his stint over there, and claimed that her posts were quite educational for him in his dealings with the locals, even as he acknowledged the differences in their views. (The dude has since gone on to drink fully from the spiked Kool-Aid; no more pesky introspection for Adventure Boy!)
A good post as always. Thank you for this and your other posts. Best health for the New Year, to you and the hounds!
Steve-MD/DC (Eschaton lurker)
Oops, need to correct my own comment...
Mr. van Steenwyck was a Florida National Guardsman, not a reservist as I stated above. [Got his promotion to CAPT not long after he was rotated stateside.]
Damn shame he left his thoughtfulness back in Ramadi (IIRC). I haven't actually looked in on his blog in ages.
Steve-MD/DC (Eschaton lurker)
Hey, Woody, did you get banned from Eschaton and if so why? Tena seems to have a new blog in response although she does not specifically name you.
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