Trigger happy US troops
22 April 2010, 10:58 AM
#122
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Leslie - The question re the lad who saved his captain and got an MC.
Honest answer - if I was Taliban, I'd have tried to shoot him. He was a combatant providing aid to another combatant - simple rules of war that, he's fair game unless displaying an internationally recognised symbol. We all know that.
If we want to talk about the wider context of morality - due to the various international laws and agreements regarding the rules of combat, we carry ammunition which is purposefully designed to maim and wound rather than kill. Is this because we don't want to kill more people than we have to? Of course not. It's because it takes far more manpower to look after a screaming wounded man than a silent dead one.
All war comes down to an immoral and evil decision on one side or the other, but once actual combat starts, excepting things that are clearly war crimes, I think it's wrong to point the finger of blame at a soldier/sailor/airman who pulls the trigger with the correct intent.
Simple fact is bad things happen in wars, that's why wars are bad things - and they should remain bad things. Maybe if our political leaders had experience of how bad combat can be, they wouldn't be so bloody keen on starting it.
Honest answer - if I was Taliban, I'd have tried to shoot him. He was a combatant providing aid to another combatant - simple rules of war that, he's fair game unless displaying an internationally recognised symbol. We all know that.
If we want to talk about the wider context of morality - due to the various international laws and agreements regarding the rules of combat, we carry ammunition which is purposefully designed to maim and wound rather than kill. Is this because we don't want to kill more people than we have to? Of course not. It's because it takes far more manpower to look after a screaming wounded man than a silent dead one.
All war comes down to an immoral and evil decision on one side or the other, but once actual combat starts, excepting things that are clearly war crimes, I think it's wrong to point the finger of blame at a soldier/sailor/airman who pulls the trigger with the correct intent.
Simple fact is bad things happen in wars, that's why wars are bad things - and they should remain bad things. Maybe if our political leaders had experience of how bad combat can be, they wouldn't be so bloody keen on starting it.
I agree totally with what else you are saying. War is an obscene activity and the pity is that the politicians who are so keen to enter it to show their "strength of character" are the ones who don't have to face up to the consequences of their decisions.
Les
22 April 2010, 11:04 AM
#123
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I'm sorry mate, but I really do have to call BULL**** here.
I was 42 for numerous years before being selected for that lot North of the border and eventually joining the Poole Canoe Club.
Every post I've seen of yours relating to your "service" has something that doesn't sit right with me.
Some of the things you come out with are things that those who really have been there and done it would never discuss with their friends or family never mind on a public forum where any Tom, Dick or Ahmed could read.
You might want to look like a hero to the majority but there are a few of us on here that know otherwise.
Sorry to be blunt but this sort of thing gets proper up my nose. Especially when those that actually do have the boll*cks to sign up, serve and finally give the ultimate sacrifice for you to be able to sit their and type the utter crap that you do.
I was 42 for numerous years before being selected for that lot North of the border and eventually joining the Poole Canoe Club.
Every post I've seen of yours relating to your "service" has something that doesn't sit right with me.
Some of the things you come out with are things that those who really have been there and done it would never discuss with their friends or family never mind on a public forum where any Tom, Dick or Ahmed could read.
You might want to look like a hero to the majority but there are a few of us on here that know otherwise.
Sorry to be blunt but this sort of thing gets proper up my nose. Especially when those that actually do have the boll*cks to sign up, serve and finally give the ultimate sacrifice for you to be able to sit their and type the utter crap that you do.
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