How Rude!

Unless the Canadian diplomatic mission in Baghdad has been reduced to driving around in beat up piece-of-shit used Toyotas with doors that don't match the color of the rest of the vehicle, someone's itchy trigger finger almost caused a major international incident.

The U.S. military in Baghdad fired shots at the Canadian ambassador's car on Tuesday but there were no injuries, a U.S. State Department official said.

"It's an unfortunate incident. No one was injured. We are in close contact with Canadian officials," said the official, speaking on condition on anonymity.

Reached by phone in Baghdad on Wednesday, Air Force Tech Sergeant Stacy Simon confirmed the ambassador's auto had come under fire. "The Canadian ambassador's vehicle did sustain damage from U.S. military gunfire," Simon said.

"The incident occurred in the international zone on Tuesday," she said. "The ambassador's vehicle was attempting to pass a U.S. convoy."

The "international zone" is better known as the "Green Zone", the safest part of Iraq.

At least the Canadians are taking this in a neighborly way:

A spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. troops apparently asked the car to stop, CBC said in a report on its Web site.

"But when the driver didn't respond, the soldiers feared they were dealing with a suicide bomber and fired into the vehicle's engine block," CBC reported.

One round apparently pierced the passenger side of the car, the report said, adding that Canadian and U.S. authorities were investigating.

A similar, but more lethal, occurrence of this type happened a year ago. In that incident, our freedom hatin' Italian allies refused to let us hear the end of it.