Through a Cold Glass

(Warning: graphic descriptions of violence)

The cynical side of my nature tells me the senior editorial staff at the New York Times had this week off. As a result we get this glimpse through the looking glass into the cold world of the military sniper.

...Their words reflect a certain icy professionalism instilled in men who say they take no pleasure in killing, and try not to see their Iraqi foes as men with families and children.

"You don't think about it," said Specialist Wilson, 24, of Muncie, Ind., speaking at an austere base camp near here after a late-afternoon mission. "You just think about the lives of the guys to your left and right."

Sergeant Davis nodded in agreement: "As soon as they picked up a weapon and tried to engage U.S. soldiers, they forfeited all their rights to life, is how I look at it."

If the individuals say they take no pleasure in killing, I would believe it. Thus I'd rewrite that first paragraph:

Their words reflect the certainty and icy professionalism of men who take no pleasure in killing...

Otherwise the reporter (or editor) does an admirable job of presenting a view of a world likely alien to him. The story even goes on to note that the Army is capable of adapting and training to meet the needs of a situation. (Again my cynical side cries out that the senior staff were on holiday this week.)

As the Army faces more conflicts in which terrorists use the tight confines of city blocks and rooftops to stage hit-and-run strikes, the sniper school has placed increasing emphasis on urban tactics. That makes sense in places like this city of 250,000 people, a hotbed of Saddam Hussein supporters 65 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The training paid off on Dec. 18. Dusk was setting in here, and Sergeant Davis was wrapping up a counter-sniper mission when he spotted an armed Iraqi on a rooftop about 300 yards away. He said he knew the gunman was a sniper by the way he sneaked along the roofline to track a squad below from Sergeant Davis's Company B.

"The guy made a mistake when he silhouetted himself against the rooftop," said Sergeant Davis, who has 20/10 vision. "He was trying to look over to see where the guys were in the courtyard."

As the gunman rose from the shadows to fire, Sergeant Davis said he saw his head and then the distinctive shape of a Dragonov SVD Russian-made sniper rifle. The sergeant drew a bead on the shooter with his weapon of choice, an M-14 rifle equipped with a special optic sight that has crosshairs and a red aiming dot.

"I went ahead and engaged him and shot him one time to the chest," he said, matter of factly. "I watched him kick back, his rifle flew back, and I saw a little blood come out of his chest. It was a good hit."

Three days earlier, Company B walked into an ambush in downtown Samarra in which gunmen on motorcycles used children leaving school as cover to attack the patrol. Sergeant Davis, armed this time with an M-4 rifle, shot 7 of the 11 attackers that American commanders say died in the 45-minute skirmish.

"We don't have civilian casualties," the sergeant said of how he avoided the schoolchildren. "Everything you hit, you know exactly what it is. You know where every round is going."

Cold hard certainty. As Hugh Hewitt notes in the post that led me to the story:

Capturing Saddam was a crucial step in the pacification of Iraq, but the dead-enders that didn't get the message are getting a much more lethal one.

Yep. Curtesy of the Stryker Brigade, from Fort Lewis, Washington.

And here's a blog dedicated to that Brigade.

(Already Installanched. Heh.)