Gotta stop talking to mirrors.

Seriously? What an a$$hole.

As phrased, it's pretty much a meaningless slogan. Maybe s/he lifted it from a video game.

Men are not potatoes; some... even many... do sign up for the very reason you give. Hopefully most do. Others sign up for other reasons, which I will not judge here. Personally, I have no problem with a SPECOP who passes the training, and who went for it because he liked it. No patriotism or moral incentive. I can't think of a better place for him.

However, our military *is* all voluntary, and I will argue against any association between this army and past armies made up of draftees, as "victims".

"You roll the dice, you take what you get", I personally think would be the best attitude for a survivor to have, in terms of coping with his injuries.

In Europe, at the end of the Middle Ages, small wars sprang up all over the continent. They were fought by mercenary companies. Most of these small wars were political or territorial, to settle disputes, not exterminate the opposition.

The Church and the mercenary captains came up with The Laws of War, a code of warfare that limited the horror inflicted upon civilian populations, and minimized the expense (in terms of men and munitions lost) for the mercenary companies.
This lasted, to one degree or another, until the Confederate War. Since then, the applicability of the Laws of War decayed.

Asian, African and other cultures never went through this mercenary period, so they didn't develop the laws of war.

An example is the Japanese treatment of PoWs. Our gentle treatment derives from the mercenary code and that era. The Japanese had no such transformation, and therefore developed the belief that surrender was unbearable shame, and if you let yourself be captured, you had no "honor", you were less than an animal (and were thus treated so).

thumbs down for bringing up Calley.

" An immoral person (such as the Viet Cong and NVA, or any communist) will not bother to follow any ROE"

FIFY

Agreed on how hard the decision would be.
Were I alone, I probably would let the non-combatant go.

If it means my life or the non-combatant, that's one thing. But if it means the life of one or more of my fellows...

I do know that, as CinC, if my boys are put in a position to make that decision, regardless of how they decide, I'll back them up to the hilt. Presidential pardons if necessary.

Thank him for me, please.

Too many didn't for the same reasons too many are making it home from the middle east today in pieces.

Thank you both for your service, and my apologies to both of you.

"We could not blow away everyplace we knew they were or there would not have been any civilians left."

As Commander in Chief, I would have found that an acceptable outcome. Not optimal, but acceptable.

Okay, so I come into the Last Survivor post from the "New" post list, and here are all the comments.

I come into the Last Survivor post from DaveM49's comment in the recent comments list, and there are no comments visible... including the comment I posted asking why I couldn't see any comments... said comment is not visible here.

I are very confused...

Oh, wait... NOW I can see my WTF post...

While Rules of Engagement are necessary, what has been laid upon our military since VietNam has resulted in unnecessary deaths - both US and enemy. This has gotten even worse under O with academics and lawyers having absolutely no military experience dictating unreasonable expectations - basically to a level of legalese one would find used by the police.

If you believe that you are fighting a "just war" then there should not be any "rules" beyond basic morality. The only one able to evaluate a situation and act is the one in the situation. An immoral person (such as Lt. Calley re: Mi Lai VietNam) will not bother to follow any ROE. A moral person will not need artificial constraints to behave appropriately. As said above, most ROE are created by those who don't have to answer to the bullets.

True. One of the options was to tie them up. They could have returned to untie them, since their mission was just surveillance. I was surprised that there wasn't any language skills represented with the team.