Why on earth would the colonists want to shoot an officer when he paid good money to be one! Seriously though, the rules of war are meant to limit military fighting and targets to legitimate military sites and personnel and to prevent intentionally endangering civilians. If it were not for the rules of war and the 'potential' international consequences for not abiding by those rules (war crimes being tried afterwards), all nations would be fighting as the Iraqis are now and there would be no civilians left after the war. Now if a military unit moves into a civilian area and engages the enemy, that area then becomes a legitimate military target from that point on according to the rules of war.


>>Mark
>>
>>>>These cretins are total cowards...
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>>You can hardly expect them to stand in ranks out in the open with their peashooters with no aircover or armor and be called "brave" as they get mown down... guerillas always adopt tactics that feel distasteful to better equipped enemies. The difference is that with everybody watching the USA army can't calm people down by hanging a few as the germans would have done during WWII.
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>>Regards
>>
>>JR
>
>John;
>
>I seem to remember the then colonies when engaged in a revolutionary war with Britain, used rules or war that were unheard of and not acceptable to gentlemen. Why, these colonists actually shot from behind trees and bushes to not expose themselves. They would shoot a soldier in the back and run. A proper soldier would never consider doing such a cowardly thing!
>
>Another act that was unheard of committed by the colonists was shooting officers. These “Americans” would actually shoot officers, who were gentlemen and indeed well breed and educated men. No one in the then current history of war would consider shooting an officer!
>
>I have always wondered how something as uncouth as war can “have rules”. It is like a baseball game. U.S. 25 – Iraq 500. Wow Iraq is ahead of us! Iraq must be winning! Oh no - that is the body count!
>
>Somehow the ”kill numbers” remind me of the Vietnam War and the television News of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. We gave the weekly “kill” numbers on a specific day and time and always showed how few of our men were killed and how many of the enemy we killed. Those numbers made everything alright. In fact I feel better already.
>
>Yes, Iraq must learn to fight fair. Now what is fair when you have been invaded?
>
>German invades Poland. The world looks on and look at the result.
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>The United States invades Iraq. Now we wait and see.
>
>Tom