THIS ISN'T GOOD

A U.S. soldier shot dead a rare Bengal tiger at Baghdad zoo after the animal injured another soldier who was trying to feed it through the cage bars, the zoo's manager said on Saturday.

Adil Salman Mousa told Reuters a group of U.S. soldiers were having a party in the zoo on Thursday night after it had closed.

''Someone was trying to feed the tigers,'' he said. ''The tiger bit his finger off and clawed his arm. So his colleague took a gun and shot the tiger.''

The night watchman said the soldiers had arrived in military vehicles but were casually dressed and were drinking beer.

A U.S. military spokesman confirmed that a member of the coalition forces shot and killed a tiger but gave no further details.

At the tiger's cage, now empty, pools of blood showed that the soldier passed through a first cage intended only for keepers and stood next to the inner cage's narrow bars.

Besides being senseless and stupid, this event does a disservice to all our servicemen and women who are over there doing a good and honest job.

A couple of things strike me as odd about this story.

The soldiers had beer. I can't say for all the divisions in Iraq, but 1st AD issued a General Order prohibiting consumption of alcohol. In fact CPT Patti told me last week that soldiers who get to take R&R in Qatar are limited to 3 alcoholic drinks per day...and they aren't even in the war zone.

The soldiers were "dressed casually". CPT Patti and her crew have only Desert Camouflage Uniforms and Physical Training uniforms and no civilian clothes. Were these soldiers wearing PT clothes...or civvies?

It also doesn't add up that they would be so dressed, but still be armed.

Discussing this with my neighbor last night he suggested that all these odd things adds up to special forces being involved.

I certainly can't say for sure...but its a theory.