The explosion of a bomb in a taxi that killed four Army soldiers today at a checkpoint north of the city of Najaf stunned and angered commanders, who saw the division's war dead double in the suicide bombing.

"I don't know what motivated this guy to kill himself," said Capt. Andrew J. Valles, the First Brigade's civil and military affairs officer. "To me, this is not an act of war. It is terrorism: a man in a civilian vehicle killing himself at a checkpoint."

[link|http://nytimes.com/2003/03/30/international/worldspecial/30BOMB.html|http://nytimes.com/2...ecial/30BOMB.html]

What part of "I have but one life to give for my country" don't these poor bastards understand? When will it begin to dawn on our Brave Boys and the lunatics who deployed them that the Iraqis are serious in preferring their own appalling but homegrown despot to Dubya's Pax Americana? Hello?? Has anyone reviewed the performance of the goddamn Sovietskis under Joseph Fucking Stalin? Anybody???

irritably,