The Coke bottle, weapon of choice

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert quotes former soldier Aidan Delgado on the nasty treatment dished out to Iraqis by his comrades in arms:

"Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads."

This doesn't ring true.

I emailed the passage above to a soldier currently stationed in the region. His response:

Oh, horse shit!

We get our normal drinks in either plastic bottles (water, Gatorade, milk), cartons (juice, milk), or cans (soda). There are very few glass bottles.....and none are Coke. Most of the softdrinks are in fact produced in the Middle East (complete with Arabic script), and they prefer cans.

Apparently glass soft-drink bottles are not commonly available to US forces in the region. Maybe they were getting them from the local market just to use as weapons but this seems iffy.

Even if glass bottles were available, the HMMWV is not the ideal vehicle from which to launch a mobile bottle attack. The window openings are small, which would make it difficult for a fully kitted out soldier to lean out to smash an unsuspecting pedestrian in the head. And, how often would a Humvee be within head-striking distance of a pedestrian anyway? Surely Iraqis aren't stupid enough to allow a military vehicle moving at speed to pass within a foot or two of them.

There's also the matter of the shrapnel potential of glass bottles contained within a military vehicle. The last place any soldier with any sense would want to be is inside a military vehicle with a bunch of glass bottles floating around inside.

Sure, some US soldiers might have attacked Iraqis with Coke bottles; arseholes are arseholes whether at home or serving abroad. But, I doubt Coke bottle smashings were the regular occurence Delgado makes them seem.

Aidan Delgado has credibility problems but, so does The New York Times.