My Motivator

as i've mentioned before, back in the old days of the "overseas contingency operation" iraqi civilians making use of an automobile were required to pull off to the side of the road when military convoys passed by. the reasoning was very simple and the same reasoning behind not letting people walk thru our formations. given terrorists tactics, they could go boom. and since vehicles have a lot of space to work with, it could turn into a big badda boom.

however, as i've mentioned before, according to the sofa agreement (you can call it sa if you want, but i don't have time for you to make up your mind on which name to settle for) iraqis are now allowed to drive beside this. but that doesn't mean i have to like it or respect it, (remember, big badda boom) or that iraqis have to trust it.

most still pull off the road when we come by. if we're going down a main highway with a divider of some sort between north and south bound traffic they can drive on the wrong side of the road to pass us and we don't much care. but we still frown upon iraqis driving right beside us.

anyways, (that was all setup to get to this point) a few days ago i was gunning a .50 cal on a MRAP. we were driving down a road with a civilian car in front of us. instead of speeding up to avoid us or pulling off the road, he simply slowed down and kept driving along the curb. i thought he was going to stop, but by the time my vehicle passed him (we were lead) he still hadn't stopped. to demonstrate my displeasure at his failure to stop, i spun my .50 cal (renamed my motivator) to the back to the MRAP pointing at his windshield. he quickly got the hint, pulled the rest of the way off the road and came to a complete stop.

something must have been wrong that day, cause about 20 mins later we were going down a different road and another vehicle decided he didn't want to stop, but this one was coming in the opposite dirrection. 3 other vehicles driving with him pulled off and stopped, but he kept coming. now, a car going in our same direction at a slow speed is probably nothing, but i still like to be cautious. a car coming at us with some speed is a problem, because if it is a vbied (vehicle borne imporvised explosive device, car bomb) we have very little time to react.

technically, at this point i have every right to open fire. i could have dumped 30 rounds into that car with a simple explination that i felt my life was in danger. however, things have been relatively quite lately and i'd feel pretty bad if i killed an innocent civilian just because he was being stupid. so instead i decided to give him a chance to prove his innocence. i once again swung my motivator into action, pointed directly at the drivers side of his windshield. it took about half a second for him to swerve off the road and come to a sudden stop.

maybe this could turn into a children's book. "My Motivator and Me." i'll have to take a break from working with trump, but i'm sure he'll understand.