Topic: The US Military
While traveling inside the International Zone from the Convention Center back to my compound, I was stopped by an uparmored humvee. It had parked itself right in the middle of the road. The gunner poked his body through the top of the vehicle and pointed his mean looking machine gun at all the cars that patiently waited for the humvee to continue on its way.
Off to the side of the road I noticed a soldier inspecting a pile of rubbish. I think he was searching for an improvised explosive device (IED). IEDs are essentially makeshift bombs. "Each [IED] is unique, but all contain a fuse, a detonator, explosive fill, a power supply for the detonator and a container. The jury-rigged explosive devices have been concealed in everything from ready-to-eat meal boxes to animal carcasses and can be detonated by cell phones, pagers and remote control toys. It could be a hand grenade with the pin pulled placed in a glass filled with mortar. It could be an old shell rigged with a fuse." Thankfully, I believe IEDs are very rare inside the International Zone.
If the soldier was searching for an IED, he was nuts! I saw him using his foot to push some trash out of the way to get a better look at what could have been an IED. While I strongly appreciate that a soldier would take the extra effort to make sure the International Zone is nice and safe, no one should ever search for an IED using his foot.
Eventually the soldier concluded that everything looked fine. He hopped back into the humvee, which took off down the road. As soon as the humvee began to move off, we continued on our way back to the compound.
