U.S. soldier kills tiger in Baghdad

[dArKeR]

ADIL SALMAN MOUSA told Reuters a group of U.S. soldiers were having a party in the zoo on Thursday night, after it had closed.
       “Someone was trying to feed the tigers,” he said. “The tiger bit his finger off and clawed his arm. So his colleague took a gun and shot the tiger.”
       The night watchman said the soldiers had arrived in military vehicles but were casually dressed and were drinking beer.
       There was no immediate U.S. comment.
       At the tiger’s now-empty cage, pools of blood showed that the soldier passed through a first cage intended only for keepers and was standing right up against the inner cage’s narrow bars.
       Mousa said U.S. officials came to see him on Friday to discuss the incident.

http://msnbc.com/news/969412.asp?0cv=CB20

[Darranar]

1. If that's the callous uncaring some show to tigers...

I fear greatly for the innocent Iraqi civilians.

[lanlady]

2. so, he was feeding his own arm to the tiger

and the tiger paid the price?

[dusty64]

3. Assholes!

I certainly hope they are made to pay a price for this. WTF were they doing in the zoo to begin with?

[Paschall]

15. What was he doing in the zoo?

Remember what they were saying pre-invasion?

"We own Iraq!"

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Baiting a tiger? Sounds like

a metaphor for US policy in Iraq.

[R Hickey]

11. A metaphor for US policy in Iraq.

You got that right. Its a microcosm of the world of shit we're in.

[Lorien]

46. Actually, had the man offered to feed the tiger

after beating the shit out of it, THEN the tiger had struck back, been condemed as a terrorist and shot dead...well, that would have been the perfect metaphor, but reality is pretty damn close!

This entire incident disgusts me completely. That soldier is far too stupid and unstable to be allowed to serve in the military.

[Flubadubya]

5. When human (Iraqi) life is so cheaply valued over there...

what's a tiger?

[Lorien]

48. A highly endangered species

that belonged to the people of Iraq, that's what it was.

[Mokito]

6. ROTFLMAO

I feel no empathy for such acts of sheer stupidity! Except for the tiger.

[saigon68]

8. I WONDER WHAT THEY WERE DRINKING

Or maybe smoking ????

[LeftistGorilla]

36. Or

snorting....

[Rose Siding]

7. Having a "party"?

That would be a euphemism for getting blotto, right? So some drunken soldiers with guns in a war zone behave like criminals.

The surprise is that msnbc gave it a few paragraphs.

[markbark]

9. It's a pity

the tiger hadn't a little more initiative.

The injured soldier seems a prime candidate for a Darwin Award


--MAB

[markses]

10. He who wears the pee of a tiger is assured luck in the new year

- Henry Cabot Lodge, ambassador the the Republic of Vietnam, after being urinated on by a tiger at the Saigon zoo during a ceremony for the Vietnamese lunar new year, 1963.

Comment by Michael Herr, in his classic "Dispatches":

"Nothing is so unfunny as an omen read wrong."

[Tracer]

12. A very unfortunate incident ...

... for the tiger.

The Baghdad Zoo is actually one of the very, very few places in Iraq that has been put to rights.

[AWD]

13. How DARE you???

I'm ASHAMED of you all!!!

How DARE you defend that tiger??? That tiger was a TERRORIST!

Don't anybody dare call it a "freedom fighter", because it's clear that it was a TERRORIST!

</channeling CentristDemocrat>


--

On edit - of course, it would be proper if you called it a "feline fighter"

[MasonJar]

14. Tiger

That is the attitude bred in this country. I see it constantly in my high school students. Americans are so uneducated about the world and its people and creatures. It is not as if man has not already killed off most of the world's tigers for his personal amusement and aggrandizement. This jerk deserved to lose his finger; the tiger should still be alive today.

[soupkitchen]

16. Detroit Fans for sure

Maybe they'll have a welcoming home rally for these "heros" at the San Diego Zoo when they get home. Then GW can put on his lion tamer outfit and have another photo ooops.

[olmy]

17. Spectacular in repugnance

Any medals for the guy? I mean this guy is Whitehouse Aide material. He would be a perfect match for Rove as one of his evil remoras.

[Cappurr]

18. Actually....

He may well qualify for the purple heart. Any injury that draws blood gets you a purple heart. I know a guy who fell out of his bunk in Vietnam when their was a air raid warning, cut his head and got the purple heart. :shrug:

[saigon68]

24. Running through broken glass

At Tan Son Nhut the first casualty in a rocket attack was usually the florescent tubes that came down. Guys would run through the glass. Later they made us tape them up, then the fires satrted.

[Solly Mack]

19. I mourn the tiger. The soldier got what his ignorance brought him

and hopefully, the other soldier will also have to pay for his stupidity

No sympathy here.

[Q]

20. Now we can see the difference between an occupation and liberation...

- I can't help but wonder how WE would feel if our country was occupied and such stupid, arrogant acts were committed against us in our zoos?

- It's bad enough that our soldiers are ordered to go house to house and tie up and gag women and children as their homes are searched. Now we're killing rare and beautiful animals that would pose no danger otherwise.

- America the lost.

[saigon68]

25. Media Blackout. I want to know the name of the IDIOT that did this.

-- Oh I'm sorry Mr Saigon that information is classified as you know.


Not in MY WAR, they let the Press roam all over the place.

This will go on as long as the SHEEP allow it.

[Southsideirish]

58. My thoughts exactly - I want the name of this piece of garbage! (N/T)

[InkAddict]

66. SaigonPM - See PM

eom

[LizW]

21. Partying at the zoo, drinking beer, out of uniform and armed?

Who the hell is in charge over there? Why was this allowed to happen?

[saigon68]

26. Sounds like rural Texas

but without the tiger.

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

44. Include the Tiger..

Texas has the largest population of privately owned Tigers in the U.S.
So it does indeed sound like Texas..

My question is, when is the Count Martial??????

[kwolf68]

37. Good freaking question

What you have is a bunch of masochistic males with guns and beer...!

What a pathetic example this is. They say they want "our support"...I say fucking earn it by being great representatives of our nation.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. R.Hickey hit the nail on the head when he said that this is a metaphor

for our Iraqi policy.

Bushco went over there feeling ten feet tall and bullet-proof. Now we're being eaten by the situation. One finger at a time.

It was a supreme act of ignorance You don't fuck with a big cat that you don't know. Even if you do know the cat and have raised it from a cub, you still have to respect it or it WILL turn around and reaffirm the food chain.

[Chomskyite]

61. And

You dont fuck with a small cat you don't know either. You'll end up with an arm full of red lines and some nasty puncture wounds that might necessitate antibiotics.

[prolesunited]

23. My prediction

and I may get blasted for this, but I predict that this story will gain some traction — not because of the troops outrageous behavior (an ultimate show of arrogance and emblematic of an occupying invader) but because the tiger was killed.

Unfortunately, many will value the life of this tiger in the zoo than than of Iraqi women and children who have been slaughtered since the war began. Just an observation that there is a tendency for some to feel more sympathy for the plight of animals than people. And, yes, I know there are some who will argue that the animals are more deserving of it than people.

Whatever the rationale, I do hope this story is picked up and spread because I think it will open a lot of people's eyes.

[Cappurr]

27. Well...

Its certainly not another Mai Lai. And believe me, I love animals.....I have six tigers (well, they are cat but they THINK they are tigers) myself. The problem is these guys are young, bored, in incredibly uncomfortable situations (heat, no water, no electricity, etc). They are probably not trained for the jobs they are supposed to be doing and when you get guys in a situation like that they are gonna bust out and do damn fool things. The drug addiction in Vietnam was no accident, you know. They guys are gonna get drunk, do whatever they can to escape the horror that surrounds them and the fear they may be dead in the next 10 minutes. And unless you've been there, it is hard to criticize.

[koopie57]

35. I agree yet,

The stress they are under is unimaginable to me and I have absolutely no idea how bad it is. And I have always used the arguement you used whenever they did something difficult to understand. But this tiger was not a threat to them in anyway. And they were not in an environment where they felt threatened, or an intense amout of stress anyway. So, this does concern me that killing is such a quick choice for them to make. I think too, that this type of thing needs to be made a big deal, not to punish the soldiers but because it is a sign of what is going on in their heads. They are over in this environement and we see what is happening to them, how stress is affecting them, and I don't want to see any of them come home and not be acclimated to society and then end up in trouble cuz we ignored these warning signs. And of course, this is just an opinion or thought.

[prolesunited]

39. I'm sorry if you misinterpret my statement

to read that I don't have empathy for those soldiers. I KNOW I could not handle what they are going through. I think it would be particularly hard for those in the National Guard, who were living civilian lives at home with their families and be uprooted from their lives like that.

I don't blame them per se. I blame those who put them in that position and who have warped their minds in order that they survive in a war zone.

[koopie57]

64. oh no

I understood what you were saying, not only from your comment but cuz I have read many of your previous comments. I was just sharing thoughts going through my mind at the moment.

[janx]

43. This wasn't stress. This was stupidity.

The beer/zoo idea was stupid, and the feeding of the tiger was REALLY stupid.

That soldier had absolutely no business doing such a thing.

[bitchkitty]

71. Nobody is so drunk that

he could shoot a caged animal and be justified.

[Lorien]

50. Why do you believe that love for animals excludes

an equal caring for human beings? I hear this all the time, and as an animal lover AND humanitarian I find it very upsetting that anyone believes one has such a finite amount of love to give that both cannot be encompassed.

I am infuriated that the US has killed over 10,000 innocent Iraqi civilians! Hell, most Americans don't give a shit about them because they think that if you show compassion for an Iraqi, then you don't care about US soldiers! It's not "Either/Or"! The tigers life was valuable too-and symbollic, because it belonged to the citizens of Baghdad and in all liklihood was both the pride of the people and beloved by many, as high profile zoo residents often are to a city's population. I am both sad for the Tiger, for the people of Iraq, and for our soldiers sent over there on lies for the profit of a few.

[glitch]

52. Thank you

I have been dealing with this false dichotomy all my life, thanks for responding to it with such clarity.

[silverchair]

28. well,

if we weren't in iraq in the first place, this kind of shit would not be happening.

[TeeYiYi]

29. Remember when the marines where killing and eating gazelles? . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51267-2003May28?language=printer

TYY

[Robin Hood]

45. YEah, they hate us because of our freedoms.

it couldn't be because were a bunch of ignorant trash?

[Robin Hood]

30. Great!! can't wait for these "heroes" to come home.

How many people are they gonna take out here when someone pisses them off.

[prolesunited]

32. You mean like Muhammad and McVeigh?

Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad's attorney told a judge Friday that his client may have been exposed to nerve or chemical agents during his military service in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/17/national/main549807.shtml


The man convicted of the worst instance of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States started becoming disillusioned with the U.S. government during his service in the Gulf War, he told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview aired Sunday.

Timothy McVeigh said he killed enemy soldiers there but grew to question whether he was doing the right thing. "I thought ... what right did I have to come over to this person's country and kill him? How did he ever transgress against me?"

That disillusionment grew after he returned to the United States and failed to pass a tryout for the Army's special forces unit. "It was (a disappointment)," McVeigh told CBS from the maximum security prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, in an interview that was taped Feb. 22. "But at the same time, I was losing motivation. This was during a period when I was coming to grips with my role in the Gulf War."
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/13/mcveigh/

And, no, I don't blame these soldiers as much as I blame those who put them there. In order to kill, they must render other human beings less worthy of life. What happens when they come home and can't recognize the difference?

This is an interesting site that explores how propaganda is used to dehumanize the enemy to gain support for war.

No longer in print, Sam Keen's book, Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination, is a masterpiece.  In it, Keen explores the psychological quirks that make us susceptible to wartime propaganda.  As I interpreted it, his basic message is that before ordinary humans will kill or support killing in their name, they must believe that an enemy has shown himself to be less than human, a bestial being no longer worthy of life; and that "we" (whatever group we happens to be) are pure, just, strong and resolute.  War propaganda from all nations and groups fosters these beliefs. 
http://www.classroomtools.com/faces.htm

[Robin Hood]

33. Jesus Christ!

That's absolutely what I mean. And that doesn't even cover domestic violence. If I were a military wife, I would be scared.

[prolesunited]

34. Your exclamation

indicates surprise. Did you not know this? And, yes, military wives need to be wary as well. It could even be deadly.

Fort Bragg killings raise alarm about stress
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The killings of four military wives in the past six weeks -- allegedly by their husbands who are based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- have led commanders to take a new look at whether combat deployments may be causing undue stress.
<snip>

Officials acknowledge that three of the men had recently served in Afghanistan, and at least one of them had been brought home early to deal with unspecified family problems. But authorities have not established any connection between their service in Afghanistan and the incidents.

Military and local authorities say two of the Special Operations soldiers committed suicide after their wives were killed. Two of the women were fatally shot, one was strangled, and one was stabbed to death. All four killings took place off the base. http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/26/army.wives/

[Robin Hood]

41. Yes, I knew about all of these incidents.

I guess the exclamation point was more from me thinking about the sort of mess that's coming back home.

[kwolf68]

38. Do you think

They will EVER seriously study the links between teaching men how to kill other people, how to be violent and aggressive and how they treat their wives?

As corny as it is...I'm all for a Dept of Peace. Teach men how to be stewards of the earth, compassionate toward all your fellow man, how to build instead of blow up, how to create and not destroy.

Of course, there isn't much money for the Military-Industrial Complex when you teach men how to come to a compromise instead of waging war. There are more Halliburtons to feed at the troth when you promote a world with war, violence, hatred and vengeance.

I believe one day our nation will wake up...I just hope it isn't too late.

[Robin Hood]

42. Imagine.

Dept of peace. I love it. Man, I couldn't agree with you more. Though I think that the millions of people from all over the world, that came out in protest of this war. Shows that the people are tired of war. I think it's a sign of good things to come, I hope.

[prolesunited]

49. I agree

I think people around the world are standing up to to say the will no longer be pawns of the global war machine. Feb. 15 was an unprecedented demonstration that humanity's consciousness is evolving.

This Quicktime video shows scenes from around the world that day set to John Lennon's "Power to the People."
http://homepage.mac.com/prolesunited/iMovieTheater5.html

[Robin Hood]

51. Hey, thanks for the great link.

it is weird that the whole world is being run and devastated by a vocal American minority.

[david_vincent]

62. The military realized it had a problem

I read somewhere that in studying combat during WWII, the military came to the conclusion that the vast majority of rounds fired were not directed toward the enemy, but basically shot into the air. In the course of investigating this, the brass realized that many, if not most, men are naturally reluctant to shoot toward another human being. Wish I knew what magazine I read this in... anyway, the figure was really surprising. Something like two-thirds of the rounds fired were just poor scared bastards trying to bluff their way through the whole sorry mess and get home. These days, the brass knows that a good deal of indoctrination is necessary to turn the average guy into a killer.
By the way, I've spotted Faces of the Enemy at Half Price Books, for anyone who wants to track down a copy.

[sspiderjohn]

31. Do this in the US and you're up on criminal charges -- why not in Iraq

nm

[InkAddict]

40. Law of the Jungle

It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge
Of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And his fortune must always be
Eye of the tiger

POOR KITTY! That dumbo is lucky he only lost his finger! Put the shooter in the cage!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

47. this asshole shot his ticket home.

it's going to be interesting to see if these guys were enlisted or officers. also, maybe he'll be charged with destroying government property... his hand.

[teryang]

53. Drunk and carrying loaded weapons?

That's a crime in most states. I can't think of any applicable offense under the UCMJ. Maybe drunk and disorderly? I think that there is an offense for the intentional destruction of property of another under the code.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

54. "and Bush immediately called to congratulate the tiger's killer saying:"

"I never graduated beyond frogs, you are twice the man I will ever be."

[0rganism]

55. "Never get out of the boat"

First damn thing that I thought of when I saw that headline was the scene from Apocalypse Now where Chef goes ashore looking for mangos, and gets startled by a tiger. He comes running back screaming, and the boat crew opens fire on the jungle, thinking there's NVA.

But R_Hickey's right, as a metaphor for the invasion, it works damn near perfectly.

[Swede]

56. This calls for Purple Heart with stripes

[roguevalley]

57. courtmartial his ass.

Then put him back in the cage.

[Karenina]

59. Tony the Tiger is dead.

Watch your tank! This incident IS truly a metaphor for the entire FUBAR clusterfuck.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

63. Wasn't that Esso's slogan?..."put a tiger in your tank!"?

(now exxon) If so then you are correct. It is far more metaphor than any fiction writer could come up with. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Stranger than any mortal could imagine.

[Chomskyite]

60. As an LSU student I am incensed

I demand an investigation, and let the guilty be caged with our Mike the Tiger. This time with no firearms available!

X(

[Kool Kitty]

65. I doubt if these soldiers were trying to feed the tigers.

What the fuck were they doing partying at the zoo after the zoo was closed? They got drunk and thought that it would be fun to tease the tigers, probably, and realized too late that these aren't house cats. So the tiger had to die. The dumb bastards. I have a great amount of sympathy for what these soldiers have to endure over there, but this is rank stupidity and I feel sorry for the tiger. The tiger is an animal acting out of instinct. The soldiers were fools, acting out of a bottle.

[jiacinto]

67. It is sad

that some peopel care more about tigers than US troops.

[minkyboodle]

68. It is Sad

that you interpret this thread that way... sad but not a suprise

[boilertommy]

69. Trivial

Soldiers are noted for drunkeness and rowdy behavior; it goes naturally with reckless young men in a stressful, ne, dangerous, situation (many modern Americans know stress but very few know danger). I say indulge them their fun. Warriors need to blow off steam. Better they shoot tigers than people.

Imagine how trivial this tiger story would have sounded in September 1863 or December 1944.

[not systems]

70. Dude it's not 1863 or 1944 but...

the bengal tiger is an internationally protected
endangered species.

Yes, I know you don't care.

It is more like Paris 1940.

From this link:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12796568,00.html

"The soldiers don't have the right to behave like that," said Mr Musa.

"That was the most precious and valuable animal in the whole zoo. It was 14 years old and had been born here."

Mr Musa said US soldiers often held parties in the zoo in the evenings. "We have no way of stopping them," he said.

[oldcoot]

72. Have you ever heard of the Lippizaners?

The Lippizaner is a famous horse breed found in Austria. During World War II, General George Patton rescued the Lippizaner horses from the Russians in Austria. Although Patton was a real warrior, he still managed to show sympathy for animals. I doubt he would have been too pleased if his men decided to start killing zoo animals. Indeed, this is the first time I have ever heard of American soldiers deliberately killing zoo animals.

I am afraid that this behavior may be a symptom of a larger problem. I understand that the soldiers are under stress and are afraid but this is true for any war. I am concerned that the actions of these soldiers may be a sign of poor morale. The combination of the Bush administration's poor planning and broken promises to American servicemen and women is no doubt contributing to this poor morale.

However, this does not excuse the behavior of these "warriors." I am shocked at these soldiers' behavior because of their appalling lack of common sense. I do not think that it is smart to wander off and get drunk in a war zone. I even wonder if they even told anyone where they were going.

Tormenting a large carnivore was even more stupid. Most people learn at an early age to treat large predators with respect. These men should have known better. Indeed, I suspect that these men are simply bad apples and are not typical American soldiers. I am sure that many of their fellow soldiers are disgusted with their actions. Their superior officers need to take appropriate disciplinary actions to prevent other "bad apples" from behaving in such as foolish manner.

I also am shocked be the arrogance of these men. This tiger and zoo was not property of the United States but belongs to the Iraqis. Bush has stated that we were not at war with the Iraqi people. Unfortunately some of the soldiers and even the press have treated Iraq as their own personal playground. We have heard reports of Americans smuggling stolen works of art into the United States from Iraq and now we have a bunch of drunken idiots who decided to shoot an animal in a zoo. I wonder if the Iraqis think we have any respect for their heritage. No wonder they are angry at us.

The United States must start showing respect for the Iraqi people in order to stop the spread anti-American sentiment. The U.S. government should replace the tiger as soon as possible and make efforts to prevent such things from happening in the future.

[boilertommy]

73. You're making sense

You're making sense Old Coot; this may well be a sign of poor morale, poor disipline and stupid policy and as such could indicate bigger trouble.

But I still don't give a damn about the cat itself.

Patton had the aristocratic warrior's sympathy for horses, understandable given his social class and his personal view of himself as a modern knight, a sort of 20th century Bohemund. The horse has always been a powerful social symbol. Foot-sloggers and proletarian soldiers have usually had a more detatched view of the horse. As have horse-nomads like Mongols and Commanches who had little attatchment to individual horses, often rode horses to death and kept large herds of them so they'd have plenty of spares.

I better tie-off, I'm drifting. :-)

[Pert_UK]

74. I beg your miniscule pardon?!?!?!?!?!?!

"Soldiers are noted for drunkeness and rowdy behavior" - well that makes it OK then? Soldiers are naturally disposed towards mindless random violence, and therefore we should just let them do it...

What the fuck have you been smoking?

"it goes naturally with reckless young men in a stressful, ne, dangerous, situation " - I say again...so that makes it OK then? These guys are supposed to be "winning the hearts and minds" of Iraqi people. If you hadn't noticed, the US is currently under attack by various terrorist groups, and I'm not entirely sure that you'll overturn views of US arrogance and armed invasion if your soldiers go around demonstrating complete disregard for the local population and the things it cares about.

"Warriors need to blow off steam." - well obviously they do, but do you REALLY consider that this is an appropriate way for them to do it? The mindless, totally pointless slaughter of an endangered animal is now to be regarded as "playfulness" or "a necessary evil" is it? Uninvited soldiers who invaded under false pretences are now allowed to disregard any standards of decent behaviour if it helps them relax after a hard day?

"Better they shoot tigers than people." - well certainly, we agree there, but wouldn't it be better if they didn't shoot anything??? It's still wrong, either way....."Better they rape the women than the children" eh?

Just for your info, the world has come a long way since September 1863, but to be honest I think that in December 1944 people would still be asking, "Why the fuck are our soldiers shooting animals in the zoo?"

[Selwynn]

77. Simmer down maybe?

The word "trival" is probably a bit inflammatory. However, implying that the poster must think its "Better they rape the woman and children" is pretty inflammatory and uncalled for as well.

While not perahps trivial, I think this is slightly different than a soldier walking into the zoo and just shooting animals for the joy of it. Yes it was stupid to get drunk in a zoo - stupid things are bound to happen. And I agree I fear this is indicative of overall morale problems which is sad. But at the same time the shooting happened after the fact of a buddy watching his friend (drunk or not) get his finger taken off - I trying to imagine my buddy -whether he had done something stupid or not- suddenly screaming and writhing in agony. And I must confess that in that adrenalene charged moment its very likely that I would have put a bullet in the tiger myself, even if regretting it later.

So it may not be trivial, but I also think we should not perhaps stretch the signicance of the event to far. It was a shame, but it wasn't perhaps the most significant event ever, either.

[not systems]

80. The word is felony.

If this happened here it would be a felony, period.

I don't think "the troops" should be exempt from US laws.

Or does the army act under special rules that allow
any sort of cruel acts of barbarity to be dismissed
with a simple "boys will be boys".

Acting like a bunch of drunken members of the Wermach
is not what we should expect from the "professional"
army.

[Pert_UK]

81. You misread and misrepresented me...

I didn't say, "Better they rape the woman and children".

I said "Better they rape the women than the children" - I was using exaggeration to draw attention to the fact that the original poster seemed to be saying that a callous act of unnecessary violence (killing the tiger) was OK because it wasn't as bad as something worse (killing people).

This is nonsense - you can't write off a crime simply because it wasn't worse, and if you do then you open yourself up to all sorts of criticism and absurd conclusions, like the facetious comment that I made.

And if it came down to it, obviously I'd shoot a tiger if it was attacking somebody, even if that person put themself in harms way with an act of drunken stupidity. I agree with you there.

However, while my actions might be regarded as regrettable but necessary in the circumstances, the overall circumstances are still immoral, illegal and criminal.

[Pert_UK]

75. Bollucks....that's not what people are saying and you know it.

US troops don't get a free-pass excusing them from decent standards of human behaviour just because they happen to be in a war zone.

Of COURSE I support our troops in the difficult job that they're doing, but that doesn't mean that they're beyond reproach when they do something as stupid as this.

It's not like they're involved in jungle warfare and this guy got attacked by a wild tiger and DUers are criticising him for defending himself.

P.

[Solly Mack]

79. My soldier hubby thought it a pity the tiger didn't eat them

that would be my husband IN Iraq.

Acts of stupidity can get other soldiers killed. What those 2 soldiers did was stupid and that kind of stupidity has no place in a combat zone.

I know of plenty young soldiers who are scared out of their wits...but they aren't off getting plastered and feeling bullet-proof..or in this case, tiger-proof.

[PennyLane]

76. Where.........

......did they get beer in a Muslim country??

[Solly Mack]

78. Homebrew...Iraqi's make it

and the soldiers buy it.

My husband is over there and he told me about the problems he was having with drunk soldiers.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

82. what the hell ? your husband is in IRAQ??

your husband is over there? Is he in the military or is he an Iraqi?
What "problems" is he having with drunk soldiers?
Please share.

Maybe he can tell us why the hell these idiots were getting drunk in a zoo in the first place.

We need to get out of Iraq now!
These types of soldiers are too idiotic to carry weapons.
Somebody could get hurt.

[Solly Mack]

83. He's a soldier

and drunk soldiers make for bad soldiers who get others killed.

Can't perform their jobs when drunk mainly...