as of my last deployment (edit: '07-'08), they were allowed one AK or equivalent rifle per household/family, and unless it was a special occasion like a wedding or funeral, they rarely brought them out in public. RPG's are no-no. They're the kind of no-no that you shoot on sight, ESPECIALLY if they have a cameraman who's filming you. They don't film just in case they shoot something/someone, they film because they're GOING to.
To reiterate, I think the gunner was an asshat. I dont think that's an attitude any soldier should have. I can understand it though, having been shot at god knows how many times, it can really get to you. Sometimes you just want to find out which one it is, and put an end to it, without dealing with the political bullcrap. To quote Chris Rock "I'm not sayin it's right...but I understand!"
Another point the media doesn't talk about is the age that the insurgents begin to indoctrinate and train their recruits. They have children suicide bombers (back when things were beginning--I think it was in early '02-- I had a guy in my unit that got really messed up in the head because he had to shoot a kid that was strapped with explosives. He was pretty tore up about it, even though the kid was trying to kill them.) I'm not saying the kids were suicide bombers, etc, but the likelyhood that they were being indoctrinated/trained is better than slim, to say the least. Still sucks though, kids should never have to pay the price for our idiocy.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2010 10:42PM by Guglielmo.