A single shot rang out...

[livvy]

This is just so....unacceptable. It is so very, very wrong.

Death of a soldier: US losses mount in Battle of Baghdad

by Dave Clark Fri Oct 6, 2:11 PM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A single shot rang out and Staff Sergeant Jonathan Rojas dropped lifelessly into the cramped hull of his armoured car, pitching forward as bright red blood spurted from under his helmet.


His team reacted instantly.

Platoon medics piled in through the 17-tonne Stryker's rear door and one of his men stepped up to replace him in the squad leader's open roof hatch and guide the vehicle out of an east Baghdad slum.

"God damn it. He's hit in the head. He's shot in the f(expletive) head" -- "Roger, roger, gotcha" -- "He's got a pulse, got a pulse" -- "Is he breathing? -- "He's got a gunshot wound to the head. He's got pulse. He's not breathing."

>more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061006/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestusbaghdad

[Erika]

1. And for what?

W's war of choice. Good thoughts to his family.

[classof56]

2. Damn, I hate Bush and his evil minions and his miserable, ugly war.

He cares NOTHING about any of this--the death, the agony, the futility of it all...

Words continue to fail me.

Tired Old Cynic

[razors edge]

3. snipers only get better with time and practice. n/t

[Selatius]

4. Unfortunately, that's one product of continuing the war

They evolve the longer you fight them. I'm talking about guerrilla fighters, in general.

[razors edge]

5. human nature requires it,

any and all levels of resistance to powerful influence will evolve. too bad they don't believe in evolution or they might have learned that by now.

[never_get_over_it]

6. This makes me so fucking sick

I was bummed all day yesterday when I heard how many soldiers we've lost this week. I posted a while back a long post about a family experience - so I won't go into great detail again but the summer of 2005 my nephew was killed in a horrific car crash - and I WILL NEVER FORGET that phone call - or NEVER FORGET watching my brother bury his only child - and EVERY time I hear of a soldier dying or Iraqis for that matter I think of the family and the notification and the sheer horror of it all and my heart breaks...

This has got to stop it is so so FAR BEYOND WRONG....


On edit: I'm sure I would feel terrible even if I had not had the experience of my nephew's death - but somehow it is VERY real to me because I can actually imagine/feel the family notification and all that goes with this loss

[livvy]

7. I visit this website every day.

It hurts so much to read the articles, but I feel like I owe it to the people the articles are written about. It is the least I can do, to learn about who they were, and what they meant to others.
This "war" is taking such a toll on my psyche. War is just plain stupid...period. It is not a solution, nor a strategy, but waste of human potential. Those who wage war have not evolved. They are stagnant and insecure in their own worth.

[uppityperson]

8. RIP Jonathon the the 276 others

http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=10049

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rojas, 27, of Hammond, Ind., died on Oct. 3 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered from enemy small arms fire while performing security operations. Rojas was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Ala.

http://iraq.pigstye.net/article.php/RojasJonathan

He was a 27-year-old man who never wanted to grow up and was never given the chance. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rojas was shot in the head by a sniper Tuesday in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, and he was supposed to be headed home two months ago.

When asked, however, he agreed to stay a little longer, promising his family in Hammond that he'd see them for Christmas. Instead, his family was visited by reporters and television crews all night Wednesday, and they struggled to hold back tears in order to form sentences and tell the world how wonderful Rojas was.

"We always used to joke around, we shared a lot," said Rojas' sister Isaura, who couldn't finished the sentence before crying. "We're going to miss him being himself, doing stupid things, his company, having a brother, someone to talk to," said William Rojas, Jonathan's brother.

Rojas was a playful spirit, his family said. In August, he put himself on the waiting list for Xbox 3 so he could play the newest football games. When he graduated from Hammond High School in 1997, the high school goofball, as his brother called him, didn't know what to do with his life. One day, he'd decide that he would study to become a police officer. The next, he'd tell his father that he wanted to join the family's landscaping business....(more@link)