Reply #8: Let me try to be diplomatic -- you are completely, utterly wrong

[HamdenRice]

"Our" soldiers are in fact engaged in war crimes, and at this point the only principled thing for a soldier to do is to become a conscientious objector. Granted, shrub got them into this, but US troops are showing a shocking level of incompetence and murderousness. It starts with the officers who have devised idiotic tactics. One is aggressive patrolling. Do you know why so many troops are being ambushed in convoys? Because the tactic is to patrol, and draw fire, and then respond with massive overwhelming counterfire. Given that the vast majority of Iraqis are armed and don't want US troops there, this is a recipe for turning spontaneous potshots into massacres.

Another idiotic tactic is "reconnaissance by fire." US troops fire randomly down streets, using heavy weapons like 50 cal machine guns, to see whether they draw any counter fire. If they do, they "light up" the block. If there is not counter fire, if there are no "terrrrissts" on that block, oh well, they have shot up many families huddled in their apartments. The reconnaissance by fire mentality is what caused this horror in the original post: shoot first, ask questions later.

The logic is like medieval witch dipping. Take an accused witch, hog tie her, throw her in the river. If she sinks and drowns, she was innocent. If she floats and lives, she is a witch and is then burned at stake.

Finally US troops are mostly insular, ignorant yokels from red states who have never been overseas. Sorry to say this but it is true. They scream at Iraqis in English and use western hand signals that have completely different meaning in Iraq. For example, the American hand signal to stop (palm out) does not mean stop in Iraq. The Iraqis are not being idiots for coming forward in their cars. (Wherever I have travelled in the Third World, the universal signal to stop has been a policeman with his palm down, raising it up and down, like he is petting a dog.)

Contrast this to the British soldiers. NPR reported this morning how rare this kind of thing is in the south, which is controlled by the British. British soldiers face mandatory cultural and linguistic training before they are deployed. They call the US troops aggressive and "trigger happy."