The Americans began firing their cannons before they had even braked, encircling the building fast as if they thought it was going to run away.
The trouble with Dexter Filkins is: He makes war sound exciting. Insurgents are shooting at the Americans from a building in a neighborhood of Baghdad called Karada.
I could feel the wind of their bullets flying up the street. I moved in closer.
Absolutely, the right decision. Because readers want to know.
Earlier in the day, a Humvee full of American marines had stopped at Al-Warda (“like a 7-Eleven in the United States”), presumably for “candy and sodas.” The insurgents had been waiting. As soon as “the soldiers cut the engine on their Humvee the insurgents fired their rocket-propelled grenade from an open window and the Humvee exploded.”
Knowing the American retaliation would be fierce, the wise decision would have been for the insurgents to hightail it out of there. But they stayed put, waiting “for more soldiers to arrive so they could fight it out with them and then die.”
And because Filkin is such a good reporter, he stays put, too:
I walked in closer, pressed against the windows of the shops, which were pulsating against my flattened palms.
Now self knows exactly what it is like to be caught in the middle of a street battle. This information might come in handy one day. You never know.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
