And our success stories continue...

The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was taken hostage in Iraq about a month ago, and was finally freed by her captors on March 4th. As she was being driven to the airport with several Italian secret service agents, American soldiers opened fire on their car. One of the agents was killed, Ms. Sgrena was shot in the shoulder, and two of the remaining agents were wounded.

The Americans say that the car was travelling very fast, did not stop at a checkpoint, and that they fired several warning shots. The Italians say that they were not travelling that fast and that they had stopped. They claim that 200-300 rounds were fired into the car, and prior to calling for medical help, the Americans confiscated the Italians' cell phones and weapons, leaving them in comunicado with Rome for up to an hour.

Huh. Oops, I suppose.

Obviously, I don't know what happened, nor will the investigators. The only ones who can know what happened were the people who were there, and clearly, the two stories don't fit with each other. Regardless, we do know this: Americans fired at, wounded, and killed their allies, including a civilian.

Now, granted, any journalist who goes to cover a war knows right off that they are putting themselves in danger. For that matter, anyone who's ever so much as watched a war movie knows that often, wartime casualties don't come from enemy fire. It's chaotic: no one is arguing that Iraq is a bastion of calm rationality. Really, though - is this how we're reacting to things going slightly, minorly out of control? Shooting them?

I find this in a vague parallel to Sophocles' play Ajax: After loosing an election (for the right to wear Achilleus' armor) to Odysseus, Ajax decides to kill Odysseus and his company. Athena (the goddess) casts a spell over Ajax, causing him to slaughter all their sheep and cattle, instead. When Ajax comes to his senses, he is so deeply shamed that he commits suicide. My interpretation of this is that Ajax is, quite simply, a horrendous control freak. A situation has spiralled so far out of his control, he regains the upper hand the only way he can fathom - killing himself - regardless of other consequences.

Our troops in Iraq see a car coming to them. They're stressed out, probably exhausted, and probably want nothing more than to go home. Maybe the car was going to fast, maybe it just seemed that way, either way, the troops feel like they're not being listened to. So, they take control the only way they know how: overwhelming force.

An interesting parallel, I think.