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VIDEO: How not to make friends in Iraq while driving a HUMVEE
This video is pretty shocking to watch, as it's difficult to imagine anyone being able to get away with driving like that in the U.S., even the military. But then again, Baghdad isn't Boston and slowing down a HUMVEE for a traffic jam creates a target that's much easier to attack. Nevertheless, it's not difficult to understand why some Iraqis have a distaste for the U.S. military's presence in their country after watching this video, especially if they're car nuts. As we said earlier, though, we wouldn't want to see a video of what might have happened if the HUMVEE had stopped.
If you have a comment, please keep it respectful of the members of the U.S. miltary and the citizens of Iraq.
[Source: CarScoop]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
British_Rover 3:48PM (1/31/2007)
At least he slowed down before he tapped them. You can tell who the smart drivers are because they pulled over to the side of the road right away.
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Chris 6:47PM (1/31/2007)
What exactly is shocking about this? It's not like he's tapping cars that haven't been tapped a thousand times before already. He could have tapped them a lot harder if he wanted, but he did it in a slow controlled manner so that they'd just move over and not crash.
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felipe 5:31PM (1/31/2007)
I gotta get these videos back, I'm not paying lat charges.
well give me an AK47 and watch how fast I can get home too.
Honestly, for all we know, he had some guy bleeding to death inside the hummer, who knows....
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SSBR 3:53PM (1/31/2007)
Are they test driving the Victory Red Edition?
http://www.rolesor.com
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vectorbug 3:53PM (1/31/2007)
To be fair, we don't know what the context of this video is. Let say, for instance, there is a wounded soldier in this particular humvee (or they just got a call that there is one on the other side of this town that they need to find), I'm all for them doing whatever it takes to get to where they're going.
I am disappointed that autoblog is getting into the world of politics though and I'm not exactly pro-war (I life in SF, where no one is pro-war). I hope you guys stick with awesome spy shots of new cars coming out rather than lame commentary like this.
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alan 9:41PM (1/31/2007)
Was that the HUMVEE honking, or all the other cars??
I mean, wouldn't that be the worst way to make a HUMVEE look dumb? Give it this cheesy, "beep" horn?? The horn on my car sounds better than that, and it's a Beretta.
At least he was polite in tapping those people. I would've just been like "Move!"
That last quote was great: "Look at that guy, he's picking his nose, not a ------- care in the world."
Oh, no, there's just a civil war in his country.
Nope. Not that he cares. Nuh-uh. He's in la-la-land.
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jscro 3:53PM (1/31/2007)
That's just it, they can't stop. If they do, they are are a target. As disrespectful as it looks, wtf are they supposed to do?
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trevor2k 3:54PM (1/31/2007)
Sometimes I wish we could do that here in the states to all the 55mph drivers in the left lane of a 65.
In all seriousness, we don't know the context of the video. They could have been en route to assist soldiers under fire, or it could be a medical humvee. I doubt they just drive like that for shlts and giggles.
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Steve Miller 3:54PM (1/31/2007)
Does anyone else find this disturbing? If they were going some where with purpose, they should have lights and siren... but just to get somewhere faster, just because they can. Lack of respect is being shown.
The old saying comes to mind... "do as I say, not as I do"
Steve
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Evotec 3:55PM (1/31/2007)
agreed on no.5 comment
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scenturion 3:56PM (1/31/2007)
i agree, its impossible to tell without context whether or not is was justified. they were laying on the horn, and i doubt those hummers have sirens, so who knows. id prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt
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mkbruin 5:23PM (1/31/2007)
"it's not difficult to understand why some Iraqis have a distaste for the U.S. military's presence"
"If you have a comment, please keep it respectful of the members of the U.S. miltary and the citizens of Iraq."
Take your own advice asshole.
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Homero 3:58PM (1/31/2007)
Is that the people they went there to protect and liberate? It doesn't look like.
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James 3:58PM (1/31/2007)
"Use the bumper, that's what it's for!"
-from Goldeneye.
Further on context, we also don't know if using the bumpers in Iraq is an acceptable practice. For all we know, every driver in Iraq might drive that way--in which case, it makes all the more sense for the Army to do that considering stopping is tantamount to suicide in some areas.
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John Neff 3:59PM (1/31/2007)
I think it's great you're all recognizing that we have no context for this video. We posted it because it shocked us, and that's it. As far as Autoblog getting into politics, we talk about cars and trucks, which in this country often overlap with politics of some sort or another. We're also bloggers, so our biases bleed through often and for that we don't apologize because a lot of good discussions are sparked. With this video, we tried to walk the center line as much as possible obviously and present a reasonably theory on why a HUMVEE might be driving like that, but also how that looks from the perspective of someone being tapped in the back by a HUMVEE. Anyway, good discussion here, thanks.
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Ben 4:48PM (1/31/2007)
To # 6 ... I would only find this disturbing if they stopped and some idiot blew them up. I do not blame them in the least and from up here in Canada to down there in the USA ... Thanks!!
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Mike 4:00PM (1/31/2007)
Our troops are dying in that country every day. A lot of them in vehicles because of IEDs on the side of the road or because of ambushes. That driver was driving that humvee in a manner consistent with the current situation and in a way to minimize danger to the occupants and damage to the Iraqi vehicles.
If a looming AM General grill and .50 caliber machine gun (not to mention the constant horn) doesn't encourage you to move out of the way in a combat zone, then you deserve a slight tap.
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MB 11:54PM (1/31/2007)
Steve Miller,
While I thought of the siren idea as a good one in civil, stabile environments where the "law" is the law....
in Iraq, all sirens would do is scream electronically "please shoot me!"
Oh and remember, Iraq probably doesn't have a proper Driver Education nor traffic policies in effect. They've got more important laws to uphold. I'm sure most of those drivers don't hold any sort of an official license.
I'm by no means a die hard Republican nor a war supporter. I'm pointing out an observation. Like others have said, its all about the context. Wartime is unpleasant and unpleasant things have to be done. I think bumping a few cars is a small price to pay.
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paul34 4:01PM (1/31/2007)
I like how people aren't even reading the article or comments at all. They do this so that they don't end up on the nightly news as yet another RPG attack.
It's so comforting to know that some of the people who are commenting to this entry are the same people who live in this country. If we had more common sense and not be so quick to make judgements (as in, if we actually thought for ourselves), maybe our country wouldn't be headed for destruction like it is now. Congratulations, folks, you destroyed your own country.
I hope when your kids' primary language is Chinese.
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Doug Rixmann 5:51PM (1/31/2007)
Thanks for asking folks to keep it civil towards our military and the civilians. I agree #1, just a tap here and there. Says alot about the bulk of a HUMVEE shaking that bus like that with a tap! We wouldn't like it but we don't have scumbags blowing up cars and launching rockets at every corner, thanks to our brave people over there.
What the hell? The weapons that cause this reaction are mostly coming from Iran and our troops have just recently been given the permission to engage Iranians caught on the wrong side of the border. I know this mostly has to do with the wishes of the Iraqi government, but it's gone too far. I'm sure if the military didn't let them run the show as early as they did, the "occupier" cry would be even louder than it is. Seems to be pretty loud anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
We have to win this war folks! At least the most recent news sounds like they're doing just that.
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