Did we deserve to be attacked? Are we an army of occupation? Have we been killing civilians or even making their lives difficult? This "man" was a terrorist, plain and simple. I doubt if he was even an Afghani.
We were on our way to a Malik(mayor) meeting that morning. No different then any other morning. There was a taxi in front of us, when isn‘t there? There were some children in that Taxi, they were waving at us, just before the look of utter horror swept over their faces. The taxi didn‘t stop, and I don‘t blame them.
What did I think, when my ears were ringing from the blast? Well, the first thought was disbelief. Then the CSM‘s voice was in my head, firmly reminding me of the drills that we go over every time we go out. I looked at the OC to make sure he was ok, good to go. I moved about 10-15 more meters until pulling over. I said "I‘m going back", he said "OK".
I ran back there as fast as I could, cocking my rifle on the way. It seemed like it had been an IED, but it looked like it had just missed the jeep. The guys were moving, trying to get out of the jeep. When I reached the jeep, I saw the legs. Do you know how that feels? Suicide bomber hadn‘t crossed my mind. First thing I thought of was those were our legs. That‘s what Mac thought too, at first. None of us had seen it coming.
I quickly checked the guys, I jumped up to check Murph. Mac was saying "He‘s gone", but I wasn‘t listening. I checked his pulse, I held his head in my hands, I saw my reflection in his sunglasses. I carefully laid him back, I had to help the others. I ran back to my jeep to grab my first aid kit, gave the OC a quick sitrep. He was on the radio, trying to sort out the QRF and 83 c/s(we wouldn‘t know until after that one of our radio‘s had been hit, and was useless, lucky for us, it wasn‘t the one that we were using) I ran back to the guys and started moving them back to my jeep.
Some Bisons happened to be making their way south toward Julien. The OC quickly got them into a cordon while I tried to find all the injuries. I bandaged them up and tried to comfort and well as I could.
It wasn‘t until after Jay got evaced that I noticed how much our jeep got hit. Both rear tires were flat, there were holes all over the back of the jeep. Shrapnel had gone right to the backs of our seats. The blast blanket that hangs from the roll bar, behind my head, was riddled with shrapnel, and pushed right up to my seat. There was a big chunk taken out of the roll bar, right beside the OC‘s head. Our translator was hit in his back plate so hard that it left a bruise on his back.
It happened at about 0825, I didn‘t leave till almost 1400. I left with Jamie.
How do you think we feel about "Suicide Bombers"? Are they cowards? Do we really care? Does it even matter? Honestly, I think it‘s a stupid question. It doesn‘t matter if he/she is a coward or not. They have still made the choice to do the most disgusting act that I can think of. There is nothing honourable or respectible about it. These people are the scum of the earth, these people are terrorists.