(April 6, 2010 at 10:02 am)Ace Wrote: Felt kinda sick watching them gun down civilians and the cold comments they made after killing them. War is a very sick game that effects everyone.
These trigger happy pricks had plenty of time to properly idenitify them and what they carried. They wern't being shot at or anything! So why kill them?
Also a van picking up bodies...what the fuck does that tell you? No one that comes out the van is armed nor are they displaying any hostile intentions so why fire on them? Seriously, a van picking up bodies...ambulance anyone?
What chance do you think anyone has when going against an attack helli? A pistol would do nothing to it, and I doubt an ak47 would either. It's heavily armoured! A van with two kids inside is considered a threat to it or something? The comments they made tell me they didn't give a shit about taking lives. Nor did they have any real concern with killing civvies!
Think before touching the trigger.
I understand your sentiment. However, you have to understand the mentality of a soldier before you call them trigger happy pricks. The thing is, you can't be sentimental and do what they do. The war has been going on for so long now that some of these men are doing their third, fourth or even fifth tours. If they got sentimental about every person they killed, they would never make it over there. This is a fact.
I don't know what your experience with returning soldiers is, but mine is, unfortunately, extensive. I'm willing to bet that each and every one of them felt regret that they deal with everyday now, when they learned that those people were civilians. They do give a shit about taking lives, but in many cases they have to. Also, soldiers don't have a way with words, more often than not. They all sound like that. Nonetheless, when they come home to tell their wives, their parents, their counselors, etc, about what happened, that callous language is coupled with an inner anguish that none of us civilians will ever understand.
Also, had it been an RPG, it could have easily taken out a chopper. That is what they thought they saw. Oh, and they had been informed that there were insurgents in the area. Troops on the ground had been taking fire. This tends to make soldiers suspicious of anyone on the ground. Why? Because when insurgents are about, most civilians (save careless journalists and idiots who don't wait until the chopper is gone to retrieve the dead) go inside. I've always said that any person who is standing about when a riot is occurring around them deserves what the cops do to them. Any innocent person would run away. The same goes for war, minus the exceptions I listed above.
Adrian is right. Their equipment sometimes hinders them, more than helping them. However, I'm almost positive that they can't just turn it off. When soldiers train, they train to use specific equipment, at specific times. They had not been given an order to take a closer look. They had been given leave to shoot. So, that is what they did. The language they used while doing so does not change the fact that they did exactly what their boss (the government) told them to do when faced with such a situation.
