Prior to the 101st crossing the berm, we had heard stories of Iraqi's beheading prisoners. We vowed that we would never surrender, at least, not completely.
What I don't understand is how this family can blame anyone but the guy himself. Noone forced him to go there. I'm also not sure that he was innocently driving around Mosul. I know a good portion of the Mosul cops - they aren't the most motivated guys in the world. They also love us. The only reason they would have detained this guy at a checkpoint is because he was driving after curfew or had a weapon with him. Both are big no no's and both can get you shot really fast, depending on who finds you. I doubt we'll ever find out what this guy was doing, but I don't buy the communications thing - especially in Mosul. We had the bulk of the infrastructure running reliably before we left. The only reason we would detain him over there is because the Iraqis caught him committing a crime. I think it shows quite a bit of professionalism on their part to have turned him over to us rather than keep him in an Iraqi jail.