Even during Saddam.
The area was rife with combat (your words) so any weapons carried were probably for self-defense.
Imagine someone rolled into the US and started shooting anyone who owned a weapon on the basis that they were an enemy combatant.
See where I'm going here?
The most bullshit thing that can happen is people at home shrug their shoulders at a video like this, 'Well, they were in a combat zone, they should have expected to be blown apart by a helicopter gunship from over a kilometer away.' At least fucking admit that the helicopter crew made a mistake because every time someone is killed in this manner, you are throwing fuel on the fire; exacerbating an already immensely complicated and potentially explosive conflict that has far-reaching, global ramifications.
Every time to shrug an incident like this off you are just giving the soldiers a license to continue to behave in this manner.
This might have been acceptable wartime conduct up until Vietnam, but now the media is everywhere and whether you realise it or not, people are watching this all over the world. Some of them want to kill us just because of the country that you and I were born in. Why would you be so blase about our countrymen handing these fanatics ideological propaganda, a flag for others to rally to and a foundation on which they can easily continue their fight?
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2010 03:59AM by istirith.