ultrafilter gives the correct answer.
I am sure that at ten years old, if Russia had invaded England and I got a chance to pick up and possibly use an rpg against the invaders I would have. Would gunfire have scared me away from the rpg, I dount know, I susspect it would just make me more eager to quickly get the weapon and run away with it.
The US soldier was a man doing what he had to do to do his job. The child was a fatally foolish hero. No winers in this situation only losers.
Hmm, in the OP’s linked article the self defense seemed more long term, at least to the soldier’s platoon leader:
(highlighting mine)
That doesn’t necessarily speak to the thinking during the heat of the moment however. See guy near gun->shoot. All too easy and understandable. But the phrasing makes one wonder if the kid had been running away with the RPG.
Pretty much the OP is “War is Bad.” Yup, war is killing. War is people having their bodies sliced in two in front of you while you watch them die. War children being killed; children hiding in their homes and children in uniform. War is never seeing you loved ones again. War is single-minded determination to kill someone with single-minded determination to kill you when you have more in common with them than the people who sent you out to do the killing.
Sometimes it is necessary, but we take it way too lightly in this country. Before we decide to got war people should have to watch video footage of the front line. They should have to see the gruesome things seen by our and the enemy’s soldiers, and the civilians caught in the middle. We should all have to see these things along with captions that say, “Even if the children we send out to war do not die this way, they will see these things and never be the same.” We see smart bombs and bloodless electronic battles and come to expect it. People should know what we are getting into when we choose war, and in that case I doubt we would have nearly the suport for it that we do.
If, however, our cause was deemed so just that it was still worth fighting for, we at least would not have people hypocritical enough to support war and then be horrified by it’s reality. If someone solemnly accepts this as a necessary step towards achieving a goal or decries it as a waste of life that should never have happened, well at least I respect their opinion. People who say we have to “go in there and get Saddam” and then get in a hissy when they hear about children being gunned down or others starving because their food supply was cut off piss me off. I want to say, “What the hell did you think war was?”
BTW, this is directed at no one in this or any other thread, but rather at some damn annoying people I have been talking with about the war.
And my post was only to take the edge off the idea that these were “child soldiers” that would have fired the rocket themselves.
Rather than the kid running away the lieutenant just probably properly thought that a 10 yr old would have a very difficult time successfully/accurately shooting a rocket propelled grenade.
(I immediately regretted my “running away” suggestion; the lack of editting here usually makes me think longer on my posts. Sigh)
Jonpluc, I’m curious as to what your title is supposed to convey.
I read the article. It didn’t blow my mind. Why am I not human ?
I truly don’t follow your line of thought here.
Wait, question: What’s an RPG?
Never mind, i get it. It’s a “grenade.”
Amen, flight.
I have a dream:
In my dream, someone on this side (possibly George W Bush himself) would host a one hour TV show about this war. Not showing the cutsie propaganda pictures of a US Marine helping an Iraqi child build a sand castle, but showing the pictures of destruction, the dead bodies, the charred limbs, the wreckage (human and material) on both sides. We’d have short interviews or sound bites from the wounded and families of the dead on both sides, finishing with an accurate assessment of the death count.
At the end, George W Bush will stand up and say, “This horror was wrought in the name of God and America. What we have done is horrible, but to have done nothing would have been worse. This is what it means to be Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful army on the planet, and I am here to make these hard decisions in your name. That is what it means to be President. Never forget the people who died here, and never forget why they died.”
But I doubt we’ll see that in my lifetime.
And as to the OP: sounds like a soldier made the correct decision. Now he has to live with it. In a war situation, there are often no happy answers.
Sorry for the tangent. I think I’m all done posting for the night.
Zoggie: With rocket propulsion.
Rocket Propelled Grenade, to be specific. Normally used as a light, portable, anti-tank weapon, it’s also generally used in the same role as the US uses grenade launchers.
More like a small missile launcher than what you would think of as a grenade, Zoggie. RP stands for Rocket-Propelled.
Scruff, I think Bush is a moron and the country is getting what it asked for when they elected him. If, however, he were to actually do what you say I would still disagree with him but would also consider him a great man. As opposed to the weasel I currently see him to be.
I’d rather get shot myself than kill a kid.
What if getting shot yourself led to the death of your mates?
-Bubba
Well, since we’re using little kids to tug on emotions, how about this:
Jailed Iraqi children run free as marines roll into Baghdad suburbs
So I suggest you amend your dream. How about a dream where the war never happened - a dream where you are walking down the cold, damp hallways of a dark prison. Little children fill the cells around you. Instead of being outside playing, or going to school, or sitting with their parents in their home, their empty eyes stare out at you, pleading for a scrap of food, a blanket, or just some human companionship.
Now imagine your dream lasting five years. Or ten, or twenty. Little children, growing up in a jail and dying there, because their parents didn’t belong to the right political party.
While your at it, picture a scene in your dream where Ba’ath party thugs come into your town, take your children away, and hang them from the light standard outside. Hundreds of tiny bodies, swinging slowly back and forth, their parents lying on the ground below them, crying.
These are the kinds of things this war has stopped.
Good thing you’re not a soldier.
Well, that’s an interesting sentiment, and a friendly thought.
That feeling may work fine for you in normal life.
Within the context of the OP, however, it’s just an emotional indulgence.
A soldier doesn’t have the option of emotional indulgences like this without risking his/her life, and the lives of others in the unit.
This war isn’t about Bush, although simplistic individuals would like to think that it is.
It’s not about 9/11 either, although that plays nicely into it.
Is it about oil? Yes, partly. That’s because the U.S. needs and wants more control over its oil supplies. No surprise there - there is no reason that the U.S., being the dominant nation on Earth, should be at the mercy of backward Middle Eastern countries for it’s crucial oil supply. Rather, the U.S. should go and get what it needs, so that it will survive and thrive.
Is it about Saddam? Not really, but he’s a good poster-child for the war effort for the masses to look at. He is an asshole, and that makes him a good target. No one will miss him.
This war is about the nation-state of the U.S., and it’s inherent ability as a nation to be able, at this point in time, to assert itself towards achieving greater security and strength.
We are at war because we can do it, and because the outcome will serve our national interests in the future. Nations per se don’t abide by the same rules of conduct as individual people do, and those folks that can’t make that distinction will remain mystified, angry, or confused about why this is all happening.
Actually, what disturbs me the most is the soldiers’ stated eagerness to get their first kill.
errata: What the hey do you mean by “soldiers’ stated eagerness”? I saw one person quoted in that article who said he used to think one had to kill someone to actually be in combat. Try not to project the comments of ONE onto the entire GROUP.