I agree Alan, Western and Israeli Forces are handicapped by being the only side in a war, forced by their own people / media to follow the rules.
This Asinine policy has costs many lives. And castrated the ability of our soldiers, to be warriors.

War, is ultimately about killing your enemy before he kills you. Yet, we are supposed to "Make sure he shoots first".

putting on my asbestos long johns

Sorry, but in this case I have to agree with the court's decision. He fired at a wall, but the bullet went through a window instead. First of all, firing at a hard object, with that many people around, is just asking for trouble. (As a corrollary, you don't fire bullets for crowd control; you fire them to disperse a violent mob, which was the case here.) He broke the #1 rule of firearms: always be sure of your target. Did it once occur to him that the bullet could ricochet?

Second, if you fire, fire with the intent to disable, or to kill, if necessary. He didn't intend that, but it happened. Hey, life sucks sometimes. But now it sucks a lot more for a family whose son and brother was doing nothing to provoke the situation in question.

Finally, from what the article states, it looks like it was totally coincidence that the bullet hit and killed a Palestinian. That a Palestinian was the victim, is immaterial to the situation. The bullet was carelessly fired, with fatal consequences.

Ummm... that comment was totally mis-directed. Cancel that order, please. I'll just have two cheeseburgers to go.

You want fries with that?

Israel admittedly still has a court system that takes on their own military from time to time. But sanctions are usually mild or non-existent.

On the other hand, this is how the Palestinian 'justice' system works.

http://www.command-post.org/nk/2_archives/010636.html

Get on the wrong side of Arafat and someone puts a bullet in your head. The upside, no Marc Ginsberg.

Gus proves my Point. When he said "He broke the #1 rule of firearms: always be sure of your target. Did it once occur to him that the bullet could ricochet?".

Our enemy doesn't have to worry about getting in trouble for " Breaking the #1 Rule in Explosive Suicide Vests". Not using enough Nails, Ball Bearings, etc. to insure the maximum number of Innocent casualties.

Our rules are a comparatively recent phenomena. The Korean war saw huge civilian casualties - something like two million. One incident involving a bridge had hundreds of civilians caught in the gun battle with no thought for the consequences of stray bullets.

I'm all for rules in warfare. The Nazi's had no rules when fighting in Russia yet it led only to defeat and cruel reprisals. Wanton slaughter is generally counter-productive and inefficient.

Angloamerican: the worse rules of war Germany didn't follow in Russia was logistics. They Forgot to bring the fuel & warm underwear.

I am dying to know what you changed your name from for Cap'n. He seems OK with mine.

Suddenly, The Princess Bride is ringing through my head.

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia', but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!' Hahahahahah!"

plop

Redneck Texan: It was only a slight change from AngloAmerikan. The K gave it an odor of klan I'm guessing. I thought it sounded kind of tuetonic. I must confess I searched the internet for examples where a k was used to see if it was bad but found nothing particularly offensive - it's a foreign spelling. Really I'm English but wish I was an American.

Lots of America haters in the US use Amerika as a derisive term in the states. Not sure why. It was big in the 80s in college.

I am not saying that is what you were doing, AA. But when I first saw the NIC I said Hmmmm.

Why not move here?

I agree with Cap'n. I would give the "first impression" of a Communist sympathizer.

Whereas " Redneck" gives the impression of a learned man of elegance and taste. :o)

English huh.... well let me thank you for being a memeber of the only other sane government on the planet, and at the top of our very short list of freinds.

I forgive you for that whole "Burning down the White House" thing.

Sorry, Alan. I didn't mean that Australia was not sane. If my country gets much more "Liberally Crowded" I will be coming to visit you.

Kasey Chambers Good, Bee Gees Bad. G'day.

Ah yes the burning down the White House thing. This "incident" is quite pertinent to this discussion as the British forces were quite restrained and only burned government buildings leaving the civilian ones alone. An example of gentlemanly conduct in warfare. Did you know that the White House is so called because the blackened and burned building was whitewashed afterwards as a quick fix to the damage? So I could flatly deny that we even burned down the "White House". Even so I am glad that the Americans have forgiven we British - only took a century or so.

I thought it was Canadians that burned it down? Any Canadian I've talked to about it is proud of that, in a silly sort of way. And they aren't too happy about the USian history books changing that. Yes, they were loyal to the Crown, but they were Canadians dammit!

Those crazy Canucks, they are like the Arabs of North America, driven crazy by their lack of accomplishment.

Thanks Gus, I was not aware this delusion (Canadians Burning White House ) was so common until you forced me to google it.

All I got to say to the Canadians, is if you believe that, PLEASE TRY IT AGAIN.

Redneck Texan : No matter what conditions are like in North America, you're welcome to come visit any time. Texas is about the same size as one of our smaller states, so you should be used to the distances. I myself live in Canberra, where it's over 100 in summer (sometimes) and snowing in winter (sometimes) so the climate should be familiar too.

It's a matter of some local pride that the (Australian) Byron Bay Chilli company recently won a Texas competition for the best HOT sauce, so the cuisine should be familiar.Tex-Mex with Thai-originated chillies...yum.

As for burning down the White House: If Bush gets voted out and Kerry gets in, are you sure that you'd want to stop them? I mean, if Kerry was in it at the time?

Finally, and on-topic of the original article, I for one am glad that the people on "our side" have to work under such onerous restrictions of civilised behaviour. There's a fine line between Avian Excrement and ethical conduct. But by conducting ourselves so that, even at our own risk, civilians are spared, that's what makes us different from who and what we're fighting against. May we never forget. And may we also never go too far the other way, getting our own people killed in the name of Political Correctness.

Hmm.. maybe this should have been an Op-Ed article.

Wow, That must me some killer Hot Sauce, I am somewhat a connoisseur of fine hot sauces, I will have to track some of that down. If I every get to the primordial frog pond, I will show you how to chug a gallon of it.

You're right, of course, about standing aside, to let the Canucks attack the Kerry White House. Hopefully Chiraq & Arafat will be in the Lincoln Bedroom......Together.

Don't forget Putin and Schroeder.

Quoth RT: "Our enemy doesn’t have to worry about getting in trouble for 'Breaking the #1 Rule in Explosive Suicide Vests'."

No need, it has built-in capital punishment.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: