Why don't US troops put a barricade in front of any road

[Eric J in MN]

...which they don't want people to drive through without stopping?

After the car is checked, move the barricade, then put it back.

It would be better than this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq May 31, 2006 (AP)— U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women one of them about to give birth when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Why don't they just leave the place. Then people won't have to

worry about stopping.

[Karmakaze]

2. Here is why...

The majority of these shootings happen at random checkpoints - ones set up with zero notice and formed of a few vehicles and some troops. The Iraqis don't know they are there until they come across one, and if they are in a hurry for some reason (say rushing a woman in labour to hospital) they can suddenly find themselves in the killing zone going too fast with nervous soldiers pointing powerful weapons at them.

These random checkpoints have a dual purpose - the first is to catch insurgents unawares, the second is to prevent insurgents being able to plan attacks on them.

So remember when you see deaths like this and wonder why the civillians didn't stop - the answer is they probably couldn't and they probably didn't even know there was a checkpoint until it was too late.

On edit: Just to point out why the purpose of these checkpoint CAUSES these innocent deaths:

To catch insurgents, the checkpoints are sited in locations where approaching vehicles can't see them untill they are right on top of them - this is so the insurgents don't just bypass them. Also no notice is given of a checkpoint being errected - the troops will just suddenly stop somewhere, set up a makeshift barricade and start searching vehicles.

No one knows where they are, nor can they see them in plenty of time to slow down and appear unthreatening.

[Eric J in MN]

3. Where did you get that information? nt

nt

[Eric J in MN]

4. What do you mean by "makeshift barricade"?

The article doesn't say that the car smashed through a barricade blocking the road in this case, nor do articles about similar shootings of civilians.