"I doubt that they were a part of that firefight. However, when I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there. … You just don’t walk around with an RPG in Iraq, especially three blocks away from a firefight. …"
"And where the soldier said [in the video], “Well, you shouldn’t take your kids to battle.” Well in all actuality, we brought the battle to your kids. There’s no front lines here. This is urban combat and we’re taking the war to children and women and innocents."
and "I don’t think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. I think that the bigger picture is what are we doing there? We’ve been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we’re making more people hate us."
I admire this guy. He seems to take responsibility vs ducking it or explaining it away.
This is about the specifics of what happened here. It's about whether or not Americans in Iraq are living up to a high enough standard of ethical warfare in their day-to-day.
These conversations decay into "big picture" when people get tired. It's not the point though. The point of rules of war, engagement or otherwise is 'while there is war..'
"I doubt that they were a part of that firefight. However, when I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there. … You just don’t walk around with an RPG in Iraq, especially three blocks away from a firefight. …"