[extropy-chat] Re: Meta: Too far

[The Avantguardian]

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

> Do you believe this in the only type of people our
> military forces  
> are firing at, bombing and so on?
> 
I can guarantee you that those are the only type of
people our military is purposely firing at or bombing.
In any conflict involving U.S. troops, rules of
engagement are very clearly spelled out, flash cards
summarizing them are issued, and violations are taken
very seriously. These rules explicitly spell out
exactly when and how a soldier is allowed to fire or
return fire on an enemy. Typically such rules are
mission specific. I do not know the specific ROE in
Iraq right now but in Panama they were something like:
Do not fire unless fired upon. Make sure you can
clearly identify and see the target before firing.
Fire only single shots or controlled bursts and do not
spray fire at hidden targets. These rules are clearly
designed to minimize civillian casualties. Especially
since the PDF (Panamanian Defense Force) was known to
drag women and children out into the jungle with them
during ambushes. All in the hopes that we would
accidently shoot one of them and make ourselves look
bad.    

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com