Oh, Great. Another Opportunity......for our resident Sniper Worshipers to put themselves on display. Brace yourselves for some unhealthy stuff....
. . . .
You're Contradicting Basic Sniper Worship Doctrine....which stipulates that not just any rifle can qualify as a "sniper rifle." Only the Evil And Uninformed Brady-ite Gun Grabbers believe that, doncha know? A real sniper rifle can only be in a certain few calibers---generally the 7.62 that you mention. A .243 sniper rifle? Perish the thought, although, to use krispos42's charming, spittle-flecked phrase, it would indeed "do quite a number on a person."
Also, keep in mind those delightful DU Gun Dungeon threads during the time of the DC Snipers' reign of terror, where our resident gun obsessives stated that said shooters couldn't be considered honest-to-God "snipers," because they just used a lousy .223 (much lip-smacking commentary about how many more people they could have killed if they had just used a Really Cool Gun); and besides, their human targets weren't far enough away to be considered bona fide sniper victims. Thus the demand was made that the DC snipers be referred to as mere "shooters," instead.
Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up. This is where gun obsession in general, and sniper worship in particular, ends up. It's a stain on the respectable forums here at DU, and ought to be confined as much as possible to the depths of the Gungeon. The ongoing diligence of the DU administrators is greatly appreciated in this regard.....
You hijacked an Iraq thread in order to bash people who disagree with you about
domestic gun control policy? At least wait until the OP is about a politician who supports/opposes rifle handgrip bans or something...
Would you consider SSG Gann (quoted in the OP) a "sniper worshiper"?
FWIW, my reaction to the OP was, "geez, this Iraq situation just gets worse." Not "oooh, here's an opportunity to bash fellow DU'ers on unrelated topics."
"This guy knew what he was doing," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gann, who like Everson is assigned to Company C of the Army's 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment. "You get some guys with rifles who wake up and just want to take shots at Americans. But they don't aim around body armor," he said, speculating that the sniper's gun had a telescopic sight.
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A problem since the start of the war, soldiers and senior officers say the threat from snipers has intensified in recent months. Insurgent gunmen have honed their skills and acquired better equipment, notably night-vision rifle scopes to target U.S. troops after the sun goes down.
The Iraqi insurgents have, what, 4 years of practice now? And the Sunni vs. Shia civil-war-but-let's-not-call-it-that is just creating more chaos, with our people on the ground stuck in the middle of it.
Most of this was forseeable, and preventable. This is turning into a deeper and deeper hole.
As far as the increase in sniping, that's partly a Darwinian outcome. The insurgents who stand in the street with a short-range automatic weapon and blaze away would get eliminated pretty quickly, while the crafty ones with long-range rifles (or who use RPG's, or IED's) live and learn.
I expect that IED's are still by far the biggest threat, though (and there's no shortage of ex-Iraqi-army mines and artillery shells lying around).