So what the heck were the Italians thinking? What would have possessed them to try to run a checkpoint? All I can think is that they must have been trying to hide something.
If that's what they did, that's just plain stupid.
Anybody with half a brain knows you don't screw around with those checkpoints.
I've been stopped for random K9 vehicle searches at checkpoints near Baghdad Airport twice and I'm always as accommodating as I can be. They have guns. I don't. ;-)