Girls with Guns.

But... he was OK afterwards, right?

yeah zoomies

I can imagine this gave the sniper plenty of time to climb down the tower and stroll leisurely away before part 2 happened.

I think there might have been one or two marines watching the door at the bottom in case he did come out

NERD!!!

... I, I was actually thinking the same thing. "Silly sniper, snipe from an inconspicuous spot on or near ground level. The PLA infantry and artillery crews will zero in on you in seconds up there!"

From an insurgent point of view it's actually the perfect place to snipe from. You get a great vantage point AND you get the locals pissed at Americans after they hear a mosque was shot up.

Strategically speaking, blindly firing back at every potshot with massive firepower in a civilian area is about the worst possible reaction in a counter insurgency occupation. The insurgents know this and agitate accordingly. They are the world's deadliest trolls =(

I too, am often disgruntled about such things. What's up with Portal of Livelink lately, anyway?

When someone shoots at you it makes perfect sense to shoot back, doesn't it?

that depends on whether or not you're supposed to be there

I'm pretty sure that minaret wasn't built as a sniper perch, so you've got a point. Shame on that guy for using it as such.

WhiteWater5, I cannot believe you actually exist. Are you trolling?

The minaret kind of loses it's beauty when it's shooting at you.

So actually you give two shits about "senseless destruction of beautiful architecture" and are just using that sentiment to voice some other beef you have. Why not just come out and say that first?

holy crap i didn't know that disliking destruction of native culture and art was a totally separate issue from disliking aggressive war and occupation thx for the info broseph

Here's a question: why is it that when people go to Europe, they never call what they find there "native culture"? "Oh, I'm off to the Louvre to view the wonderful native artwork", "my, the natives sure can brew some strong fire water here in Germany", "when visiting Ireland, be careful and courteous around the natives, as their long ethnic history of Western occupation predisposes them to be leery of foreigners".

Is that all the Iraqi people are to you, Mr Whitewater? Natives?

Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz on your five grand stereo.
Braggin that you know how the niggers feel cold and the slums got so much soul.

Fuck you, Whitewater5, and your hip moral relativism. Fuck you very much. If this were a bar I'd break your goddamn nose.

If I'm not mistaken, that's the Saddam Mosque in downtown Ramadi, near OP Hotel and just down the road from Corregidor, the ghetto-ass Marine base. I almost died near that mosque several times, because insurgents used to use the minaret as a spotter position to set off IEDs and drop mortar rounds. I once saw an EOD Humvee get hit by an IED there so goddamn hard it blew the vehicle's doors open, and I saw some guy just hanging halfway out the open door. The thing was, my squad had been standing on that patch of ground a minute earlier- I guess either the spotter hadn't been paying attention or his device briefly malfunctioned.
At the time, the brass said we couldn't destroy the place for fear of offending the locals. Officially, US troops never destroy mosques, no matter how much the insurgents abuse them.
However, I am proud to say the Saddam Mosque no longer exists.

ew man i was gonna say that

So the Marines should just let the guy shoot them, then?

You know what else works, instead of standing around getting shot at? Fucking leaving.

I didn't say they shouldn't shoot him, but what would you think if the Chinese Army took out a church or a mall?

Depends on what church and what mall. Wipe the self-satisfied grins off the faces of those Unitarians downtown, get rid of the mall that stopped serving Cinnabons, I'd think it was pretty awesome. Take THAT for throwing me out for loitering when I was a teenager!

Blindly pouring massive amounts of fire into a civilian area every time someone takes a potshot at them is going to turn opinion against the occupiers even more and then you're going to have even more snipers and IED triggermen gunning for the troops.


So in the long run, yeah shooting back like that wasn't a good idea.

What do you expect a marine grunt to do in that situation? "Oh shit Smith just got hit. We should respond, but that *is* a pretty nice looking mosque with an undoubtedly important cultural significance. Maybe I should sneak up and strangle the guy to death while taking care not to touch any artwork I pass. Hopefully there will be velvet ropes to let me know which bits of 'native culture' are important. I might get shot in the process, but I'll die knowing that no one will need to rebuild a minaret because of my horrible brutishness. You know what? Forget all that. I'm going home. I shouldn't even be here anyway! I'm sure my CO will understand."

Stop being such a queer. You'd have reacted the same way if someone was shooting at you.

You know, from some of the comments on this site, I'm not surprised that conservatives hate us so much.
Roachbud, as a bouncer, you're obviously a great authority on Infantry tactics. Please keep us informed about what our troops in Iraq should be doing.
Senator Unger, you make a good point: those Marines should have just left Iraq then and there.
FABIO2, you should be a Drill Instructor; those Marines should have really paid attention during Armchair Assaults: Firefight Tactics for the Long Run.