Originally Posted by Osem

Yes and had they done so people would be wondering how it happened and trying to find someone else to blame for the preventable carnage allowed to happen.

Some folks need to get real and understand that war is dirty and this sort of war even dirtier. Things like this certainly aren't nice but they are understandable. It isn't like killing someone with a knife through the heart because he's looked at someone else in an odd way, shown 'disrespect', belongs to a different gang or supports a different team. This is the most awful type of conflict in which one side is asked (and tries) to obey rules the other side not only has no intention of honouring but would be quite happy to exploit to cause more carnage. Under those circumstances I can understand how these things happen and believe the mitigating circumstances are significant. And no, that isn't the same as suggesting out troops should have carte blanche to murder anyone they like on a whim. If our troops are going to have to fight against people with no moral compass I think we need to accept that occasionally theirs might get skewed and take that into account when judging their actions.