Our soldiers would never do anything like this:
Clearly what you saw did not actually happen, because it is not SOP to run over cars. Anyone with a little bit of military training can tell you that is something is not SOP, it never happens.
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Dreggas
Bah, wish I could see the video, hard to get snarky when work blocks it >
Jon H
I await the detailed toy-model studies of M1 motion relative to stationary taxi cab sedans, demonstrating why this is impossible and thus the video must be computer-generated.
The Admiral
With gas as expensive as it is, they were just doing him a favor. Now the car’s owner will get to walk and enjoy the fresh air while saving lots of money.
Svensker
My first thought was, who was recording this and why? Does the car actually belong to an Iraqi civilian, or was something else going on?
Nothing in the above contradicts my absolute horror at our illegal war against the Iraqis.
Davis X. Machina
The taxi had it coming…
Notorious P.A.T.
Funniest thing I’ve read all week.
At least an M1 tank can win a confrontation with a compact. This being the Bush years, I half expected the car to win.
Punchy
With as many bomb-laden vehicles as there probably are in Iraq, I look at this as Russian Roulette. What happens if that thing is loaded to the hilt with C4 or something similar?
Good to know the Iraqis will love us so much. Can’t wait to see the U.S. gov’t respond with a $200 check and a form-letter apology.
Crusty Dem
I think the insurgents fighting our troops are really just jealous of our freedom*.
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* to crush them with our big fucking tanks
Jake
“We’ll be greeted as liberators”
The Other Steve
Winning hearts and minds
The Dangerman
Nothing. Just looks like San Diego a few years ago.
Something is wrong with that video; why the car where it was, why the video focusing on it for so long, and, of course, why the tank squashed it.
I’ve had some bad taxi service in my days; this gives me ideas. Thanks, US Army!!
Original Lee
Did they think this was an IED or something? Was it really stupid of them not to be buttoned up inside if they thought the car would explode? (Sorry if this is explained by the narration – my sound isn’t working well today.)
Tsulagi
Well, here you can be thrown under the bus, there under the tank. Same diff. Tread marks from a M1 maybe a little harsher.
Looked like there were bullet holes in the windshield. If the taxi driver earlier encountered some projectile flowers or candies from locals celebrating The Surge, the tank crew were probably just showing compassion. No one else will drive his beloved cab. Hearts and minds, bitches.
IanY77
And there goes someone’s livelihood. I’m sure the owner of that vehicle will be a lifelong supporter of US foreign policy from here on out.
The Moar You Know
Those are tread marks of freedom!
For dramatic effect, they should have given the taxi a 105-millimeter injection of democracy first. Or at least a burst of .50 caliber American justice.
mr2wheels
And when they laugh they sound just like Beavis and Butthead.
Beej
Didn’t I see an arm sticking out of the car’s window? Or was I hallucinating?
Randy Paul
I can’t see it at work either, but is this the one where they claimed the guy was looting wood? If so, it’s a few yearts old, not that that makes it any better.
Chris Johnson
Stupid and wasteful and makes it more difficult to move the poor car and clear the fucking street even if you AREN’T going to patch up the car and get it going again, and all for lulz.
Maybe we don’t DESERVE to get out of there safely. here’s hoping the soldiers who aren’t up to this bullshit get home safely. As for the guys who fling puppies and spend probably $50 of gas just to flatten a car into the street and render it immovable, they can stay there- as corpses. We gotta have SOME standards.
Michael57
Jeez, at first I thought you said CATS, not cars. I was prepared for something a little more gruesome. It was a relief to see the tank looming over the car.
RSA
Wow. It reminds me of coming out to my car once and finding a big dent in the door. I was pissed. If I’d realized that it could have been U.S. soldiers just blowing off steam, it would have been easier not to worry about it.
D-Chance.
Evil, cowardly US soldiers. It’s no wonder they’re losing. What a disgrace to our nation. But we get the army we deserve.
Not sure what’s wider… the yellow streak on the road, or the yellow streak running down the backs of the videoed troops.
The Other Steve
If it was an IED, it’s incredibly irresponsible. The underside of a tank is it’s most vulnerable point… especially the tracks.
They’ve got vehicles like the MRAP with 20-30 foot arms on them which are designed for the purpose of removing IEDs. You wouldn’t run over it with a tank as a way of removing it.
GSD
I noticed the kerning on the tank was all wrong. It’s an obvious forgery.
-GSD
Z
Even if it was real, it is only because these poor soldiers have been dispirited from a lack of support, at home, for the Glorious Imperial War(TM). In other words, its Beauchamp’s fault.
/wingnut
The Moar You Know
Fuck you, ratfucking piece of crap.
cyntax
Seriously dude: WTF? They ran over an empty car with a tank. Definitely not SOP and not winning hearts and minds and any number of other things, but cowardly? How?
OTOH, maybe you’re just a yellow streak expert.
maxbaer (not the original)
At least the justification for the occupation continues to grow and grow.
Ella in NM
This is what we get when we hand bunch of 18 year-olds the keys to a tank.
As the parent of 3 of them, take it from me: if they could get away with it, I would bet 50% of American high school boys would GLEEFULLY to run over their principle’s car in the parking lot as a senior prank. So why not an anonymous person’s car, in an essentially lawless, absurd unreal world, eh?
It’s amazing. One day, you’re grounding them for getting pulled over for not wearing a seat belt or breaking curfew, and the next, they’re expected to have the maturity and judgment to cope with the complex existential ambiguity of this fucking immoral, illegal war. I honestly mean it when I say my heart is breaking for all these young people who will be carrying this for the rest of their lives. They just shouldn’t be there.
Bill
Actually, that taxi had a John McCain sticker on it, so it’s all okay. Just some Dem troops having a spot of fun.
neal peart
This happens in most major American metropolitan areas all the time. You are totally safe in Baghdad.
Punchy
I expect to see excerpts of this comment plastered all over RudeState and Protein Milkshake as proof that Cole hates teh troopz and is gay and wears tighty-whities while eating boiled hot-dogs.
DougL
Squashing taxis over there so we don’t have to squash them here at home.
oh really
I wasn’t aware they allowed high school sophomores to operate tanks.
trollhattan
That damn taxi had solid oak countertops. Jess sayin’
schooner
The soldiers were facistic Obama supporters running over the taxi because the tires were underinflated.
joe in oklahoma
and there was plenty of room on the left side of the road, so that it was not necessary to do this.
al qaeda doesn’t need to recruit. we seem to be doing it for them.
John Cole
Why would they do that? I am reasonably sure D-Chance is a Republican.
NoahC
Thank you for the most awesome video I have seen today.
DUDACKATTACK!!!
When / where specifically in Iraq was the video taken? I’m certain that this is not SOP but ROE (rules of engagement) were bent, especially during the early phases of the invasion (excuse me, liberation) where any impedance could be a hazard or they are denying the enemy transportation, despite all the needless and silly giggling.
I’m not sayin’ it’s right or wrong -just sayin’
Zuzu's Petals
Couldn’t agree more. It really is heartbreaking.
Faux News
POTD. I half expected the tank to fall over on its side.
As another poster noted: winning the hearts and minds. I guess the owner of that car will appreciate the practical joke the US Army played on him. Doesn’t matter that he can’t use it for a taxi or for supporting his family any more. Ha ha. Joke’s on him.
jake
Why don’t you focus on all the cars U.S. Troops (TM) haven’t crushed with tanks?
CWD
CWD
Hell, I’d do it now and I’m 37.
binzinerator
Yup.
Reminds me of a vid I saw a couple of weeks ago on youtube. It was taken from the top of a Humvee on patrol in Iraq. As they passed an Iraqi herding a flock of sheep along the shoulder of the road, one of the dumbasses in the humvee tossed a grenade among the flock. Which then blew up a bunch of sheep.
If that sheepherder ever spots an IED along the road, he sure as hell won’t tell the guys in the next humvee that passes. You know all he’s going to want is to get some popcorn so he can better enjoy the show. Hell, he might help plant it himself.
Tsulagi
Well….duh!
That percentage sounds a little on the low side. Shit, I think I would still do it. If I could get away with it.
Come to think of it, in the past there were a couple of superior officer’s cars begging to become low riders. But then there’s always that damn “getting away with it” caveat. Wouldn’t hurt for a couple of overweight pain-in-the-ass wingnuts I work with now to go walking either.
Don’t get between a boy and his toys. This is America goddamnit.
donovong
Hey Chris Johnson:”As for the guys who fling puppies and spend probably $50 of gas just to flatten a car into the street and render it immovable, they can stay there- as corpses.”
People like YOU are the fucking reason anyone who openly opposes this fucking war is considered to be “against the troops.”
If brains were shit, yours would not amount to a goddam skidmark. Dumb fuck.
John Cole
Chris Johnson,
That is a pretty god damned vile sentiment.
CDB
It’s all fun and games till you throw track.
JWW
I would guess the bullet holes in the windshield might suggest that a ground encounter took place while the tank was in some type over overwatch mission. Tanks very seldom tavel through neighborhoods that are not cleared just before they enter. They cost too much and are easy prey in a confined area.
Seems as though bad guys were in that car not long before the tank arrived.
Ian
Going bigfoot on the principal’s car with a tank sounds like a great idea as the content of a daydream. Destroying someone’s livelihood for entertainment is horrible.
THOSE evil soldiers in THAT tank are a disgrace to America. It’s quite possible to think of the average American soldier in Iraq as a person who is nobly trying to serve his/her country, despite having to serve alongside a few scumsucking criminals like those found crewing that tank, and despite being obliged to follow the orders of incompetents and war criminals.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off imagining myself attacking Tokyo as Godzilla…
JWW
And for the pinheads, that car was searched, and friendly guys took the video. That tank was unbuttoned, and new it did not contain explosives. Our guys are not stupid, some of you just suggest they are.
You senior pinheads need to remember what their #1 killing machine is. A car full of explosives with a madman at the wheel.
JWW
John,
I say again you mock. That TC was on the horn, he went down to here clearly what the order was. I say yeah it could be SOP, with verification.
You never got that far, you are not there.
dmhlt
Well, if that doesn’t win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis over (people who we were supposed to be liberating), I just have NO idea what will.
John Cole
JWW-
For christ sakes, no one is claiming to know what happened in this situation (well, some of the more excitable commenters are all pissed off about it). I am merely mocking the notion that was widely spread among right-wing bloggers that no one ever runs over anything (berms, curbs, cars, dogs) in our track vehicles because it just isn’t SOP.
Which, as someone who ran over a lot of shit in an M1, was utter bullshit.
JWW
John,
I find the post a little deceptive and mocking. You attepted to play both sides of the fence for your own gain.(Comments)
“You” know specifically by viewing this video, all the bases were covered before that tank destroyed the car. Like I said, our soldiers are not that stupid. The video clearly shows no crazy GI getting his kicks.
Yeah being assigned with your 19’s many, many times I do know it is fun to run over shit. But not at the cost of your crew or vehicle.
You should have made a comment “This is how the bad guy gets his Geico payment”
John Cole
JWW-
This is another instance of you simply seeing what you want to see. If you go back through the archives, I repeatedly stated over and over and over again that for all I know, Beauchamp made up everything. What floored me, though, and what I mocked over and over and over again, was the “debunking,” in which sand table exercises and assertions regarding SOP made it clear that it was completely unpossible that anyone ever ran over a dog, etc. It was nonsense.
rachel
JWW has a strong affinity for nonsense.
JWW
John,
I’m not seeing anything other than your comments and the posted video.
I’m not trying to fill in the gaps, making my own sense of attempting to defend
JWW
Rashel,
Nonsense, is a luxury I can’t afford. You worry about the price of your plush toilet paper or anti-bacteriel handy wipes.
Your jest is ill, confine yourself to reading “Incredible Sid Finch”. It would fit your world of nonsense.
You are the .0001 percent that Lysol can not disinfect.
rachel
JWW then proceeds to illustrate and expand on my point.
Person of Choler
Beauchamp has been vindicated by the video.
The car belonged to a woman with a disfigured face who worked in the mess hall. The driver was so busy taunting the woman that he didn’t notice her car.
There was a dog in the back seat.
Jerry R
Unless there has been light-years of improvement in tread design, isn’t that a good way to throw a tread and immobolize the tank (making it, among other things, much more vulnerable to, say, a Molotov cocktail) and at least costing a lot to repair it and put it back in action? Even without a booby-trap in the car, it looks like a stupid thing to do. Maybe some of those recruits that they lowered the acceptance standards for.
LanceThruster
While it is true that we don’t know the specifics of why this vehicle was flattened, it was one of the less outragious things we have done over there.
My friend’s son was with Marines 1/5 for the fall of Baghdad. When I asked him about his experiences in Iraq at his welcome home party, the first words out of his mouth were, “We killed people for no reason.”
When I asked his father for more detail, he explained that Adam had been told to “light up” a vehicle that was approaching their checkpoint at speed. It was full of women and children who were shot up pretty bad. Lots of screaming and crying and anguish. He had to tend to the ones that were not killed. I was crying too when I saw a similar scene depicted in HBO’s “Generation Kill” episode #4 – “Combat Jack.”
He left the Marines because he saw Bush was unworthy of command. That’s a pretty together young Marine. Some of his Marine buddies at his party that went back are now dead or maimed. I hope he is able to deal with his emotional scars.
We killed people for no reason.
JWW
Lance,
Your story just about caused me too? But, I thought better of it and picked up my Vermont Teddy Bear and gave him a big hug. You just changed my mind about? I do thank you.
Rachel,
You need to stay up to date on your canine worming medication. Make sure you also get your shots. There are lots of bad dog owners out there and you walk and pee in the same grass they do.
rachel
JWW, thank you for the concern, but I don’t have any dogs.
LanceThruster
JWW – I have no idea what your point was supposed to be. Mine was that a whole lot of disagreeable (if not entirely horrific) things are being done in our name. That concerns me as I feel I bear some responsibility as an American citizen to help stop such occurrences.
I really couldn’t care less what you do with your Vermont Teddy Bear in the privacy of your own home. You’re both consenting creatures whose heads seem to be filled with stuffing.