I Smell A Scapegoat

Damn, I hope I'm wrong.

It's 2100hrs and dark. You're at a checkpoint set up on the most dangerous road in the area - the road to Baghdad airport. Suddenly a car comes at you at a high rate of speed. You signal for this vehicle to stop, using hand signals, lights and finally by firing warning shots. No reaction from the car.

Finally you fire at the engine to disable the vehicle. When is stops, you find that the passengers are a recently released hostage from an Italian Communist newspaper along with two Italian security agents. One is dead and the other two are wounded.

The Italian government told no one that this operation was planned or had begun. All you knew was that a vehicle was trying to run your checkpoint.

And now the weight of diplomatic pressure is landing squarely on top of you. All you can think is "Am I going to be sacrificed for doing my job?"