This week we'd like to share this article with you from the Philadelphia Inquirer. You can read it here.
Tom Lasseter writes from overseas about the grueling conditions our troops are facing in Iraq. Never mind the 115 degree heat and the day to day terror of living in what is literally a war zone. Lots of the troops are having trouble, as Lasseter says, "telling friend from foe." One word that gets passed around, multiple times between the troops he interviews, is "Vietnam."
Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Vidler, 23, of Syracuse, N.Y., said: "It's a lot like it was in Vietnam, when the VCs [Viet Cong] would come out and pretend to be your friends. You're fighting an enemy on his home ground, and you don't know who's who."
That's not the only Vietnam reference in the article. One Captain tells his troops not to be "like Col. Kurtz" from the movie "Apocalypse Now." But the scariest reference comes right at the end, from Army Sargeant First Class Tom Coffey from Burlington, VT:
"There's been reports of a .50 [caliber] sniper rifle out there. Maybe they called this in just to get us out here and take a shot. A .50-cal would go straight through our [body armor] plates," Coffey said, looking at the buildings across the river. "Why do I feel like I'm in a... Vietnam movie?"
That .50 caliber rifle he's talking about is the same one we've been telling you about. It can tear through body armor, it can take down planes on takeoff, and stay effective up to 2000 yards. It's threatening our soldiers overseas in Iraq. And yet it's readily available for purchase to anyone in the United States.
We and the Violence Policy Center have told you that it's a threat from terrorists, and the article by Tom Lasseter proves that they have access to the rifle and they know how much of a threat it can be. What our brave soldiers are already facing in Iraq is the same thing we'll have to face here on American soil.
That is, if we don't work together to prevent .50 caliber terror.
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