War Crimes

[tavarish]

''Also, you would kill them too, if your comrades were on the ground and you were charged with taking out men that could potentially kill them.'' You have no idea what I would do. They were not 'charged with' anything. They made the circumstances suit their desires.
We'll have to agree to differ. I stand by my first analysis of the video. As Ace says..''Too trigger happy.''
Many more instances can be found of the same kind of gung-ho bullshit. No wonder the US makes so many enemies, is all I can say.

Wow.

They made the circumstances suit their desires.

So they just wanted to shoot something, and they saw a bunch of people, and went for it? Who cares if they were armed enemy combatants? The army should work the way you say they should.

The truth is, the US makes enemies for all kinds of reasons. When you're a socioeconomic superpower, people will dislike you, it's the law of averages. This video is an example of mistakes being made in war. It happens. It doesn't justify it or make it right, but in such a tense situation, these things are nearly unavoidable. There aren't any red markers separating enemy from friendly, this isn't Call of Duty, and the immediate threat of danger is very real on both sides.

I haven't been to war, nor do I ever plan to, but a few close friends have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have definitely earned my respect and made me realize that war changes a person. Don't think for a second that the people in the helicopter don't regret opening fire on kids, even if it was justified. They're going to have to live with that for the rest of their lives, in addition to comments from those who have no idea what the hell it is to fire a gun at a moving target and go to sleep later that night.