U. S. Soldiers Found Tortured To Death

Possibly the victims of a procedures breakdown. These patrols are supposed to go out in units of three vehicles, reports say.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman, wouldn't speak in detail about the condition of the bodies. But he said it was clear that the two had been killed in a violent way and not from wounds received during the initial battle with the guerrillas.[...]

He also said the military was investigating how three young low-ranking soldiers -- the vehicle's driver was killed in the attack -- ended up alone on the road in a town regarded as one of the most hostile in all of Iraq.

"There was a single vehicle there with three American soldiers when they came under attack," Caldwell said. "We do know that the chain of command is looking at the entire situation."

Ugly stuff. The jihadis ritually slaughtered them, just like the ritual slaughter of sheep and camels during the hajj. Makes sense, as these creatures believe jihad to be a religious obligation.

The "bomb 'em flat" brigade is all over the talk shows today, and I suspect in the dextro-sphere, too. I haven't checked thoroughly. But not in the milblogs. They understand the mission better than anyone, and they know that we can't let ourselves be goaded into a blind fury over this. A fury, yes; but not a blind one. Says John over at Castle Argghh!!!:

I personally don't think we can get that much tougher, without throwing restraint aside and becoming a terrible mirror of our foe. We're already killing them at a rate greater than three to one, and they revel in the dying, do the jihadis.

Donald Sensing isn't so sure we can restrain ourselves, though. But, there's positive precedent. We didn't obliterate Fallujah after the jihadis murdered some of our contractors (to the infamous applause of a certain prominent left-blog.) Instead, we went back in and secured the place the right way, as you can read in tanker Neil Prakash' archives (at least until OpSec makes him take it down.)

Nonetheless, I hope that we roll up a lot of AQ cells quick-like, thanks to Zarqawi's captured laptop. And I won't mind a bit if our soldiers take more satisfaction in their work than usual.

While we're on the subject, why not pop over to The USO and donate something for the soldiers?