Posted by Bob Janova at 8:30pm Apr 10 '10Yes, it's very difficult to tell the difference between dangerous people and ordinary townsfolk when you're fighting a war in their town. That's why you shouldn't be doing that.
It certainly looks like this incident was poor judgement and undoubtedly it will have turned another 20 Iraqis against the US, just as you would be turned against a foreign army if they shot and killed your relative/friend in your own town. If you think your soldiers are going to be put into a position where they can't make a good judgement about civilians by a strategic decision, you shouldn't make that decision.
In this case the military seems to have been a long way too far towards 'if in doubt, kill' on the balance between their own immediate safety and the objective (of not pissing off everyone in Iraq).
The cover up is also disturbing â the military hierarchy knew it was wrong, but didn't want to do anything about it, so they pretended it didn't happen.
It certainly looks like this incident was poor judgement and undoubtedly it will have turned another 20 Iraqis against the US, just as you would be turned against a foreign army if they shot and killed your relative/friend in your own town. If you think your soldiers are going to be put into a position where they can't make a good judgement about civilians by a strategic decision, you shouldn't make that decision.
In this case the military seems to have been a long way too far towards 'if in doubt, kill' on the balance between their own immediate safety and the objective (of not pissing off everyone in Iraq).
The cover up is also disturbing â the military hierarchy knew it was wrong, but didn't want to do anything about it, so they pretended it didn't happen.
This is why you shouldn't fight wars of occupation - Bob Janova