MRAPs can resist IED explosions, but they are very heavy and uncomfortable to ride in. You feel every bump, the air conditioning cannot keep the vehicle even reasonably cool on sunny days and there is no room to stretch out your feet. I bet they will have to come up with a replacement for this vehicle, one that can go off road without making an omelet of everybody sitting in the back.
We went to see a police station. In the jail they had some terrorists they had recently caught. I was happy to for the diligence of the local authorities. I don’t understand these guys. Some brag that they would gladly kill people like me along with dozens of the local children given a chance. I take no pleasure in seeing these guys in jail and I avoid going in if I can. They are mostly young, stupid guys. Some older, clever bad-guy has convinced them to do this evil thing and has ruined their lives and destroyed their futures. It is sad all around. The face of evil is not always ugly or easily identified.
Of course we have different sorts of terrorists. The really bad ones are usually foreign fighters from various other countries around the Middle East. They are professional. Life has become shorter and much more difficult for them in Iraq and this is good. Their goal is to hurt Americans and they will go where they think they can do so easiest. If not here or Afghanistan, it might be Europe or America. They are just bad and every one of them killed or captured in Iraq is one that won’t be plying his nefarious trade elsewhere. I have no regrets about them getting what they deserve.
The Iraqis involved in this sort of thing are often sadder cases. They are usually dumb young men, whose families really had no use for them or, more cruelly but correctly stated, they had more value as dead martyrs than live losers. Many don’t seem to have actually figured out the real meaning of what they were getting into. As the insurgency increasing overlaps with ordinary crime, they are coming more and more to resemble young gang members. I am really glad that they are taken out of society and put where they can cause no harm, but the whole thing is a human tragedy on all sides and I cannot feel triumphant or vindicated in most cases. I wouldn’t make a good judge.