'Un-friendly Fire' in Iraq

[Gromit]

I know war is a dirty business, but the inquest into Sgt Steven Roberts which concluded he was killed by 'friendly fire' was illuminating. An Iraqi was throwing stones at him and he went to shoot him, his gun jammed, and he and the Iraqi were mowed down by machine gun fire from a tank.

Is it reasonable/acceptable, even in war, to kill someone for thowing stones at you? Is it not an over-reaction? Is it not bordering on a war crime itself?

No wonder the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people (not the insurgents/Taliban) was lost long ago.

[Gromit]

MrBen5
Mr Zaher, the killed Iraqi man was not a terrorist. The inquest has never claimed he was. It is accepted in court that he was a civilian. Sgt Roberts approached him armed only with a pistol. Both men were then killed mistakenly by 'Friendly Fire'. That is what the Inquest is about.

[anotheoldgit]

How do you know that these insurgents are indeed native to iraq, do you not believe that there are many who have crossed borders i.e. Syria and Iran or Jordon to join with the native terrorists. Until they don a uniform and show themselves for who they are, instead of cowardly hiding behind the law abiding citizens, then in my book noxlumos they are out and out dirty cowardly terrorists, who when captured should be put up against the wall and shot.

Since you also doubt that it was not a Demoractic Election, I would be interested to hear from you what constitutes a Demorcratic Election, other than a free vote of the majority.

As for Jump79's pathetic influx into this debate. It obviously show how very immature he or she is, and thank goodness they never get to have a loaded weapon in their hands. I cannot talk about the US service man, because I have no experience of them, unlike Jump79 who most likely gathered his/her knowledge from war movies. But I can assure you that the British Service man is the best trained in the world, and they know that the whole weight of the Military would crash down on them, if in anyway they were to behave in an unprofessional way.

Oh! how I would love to see the likes of some of these arm chair military experts that post on this site, suddenly transported to Iraq or Afghanistan, to face the murderous rabble, that our troops have to face 24 - 7.

[ummmm]

Mr Ben, you forgot to put Hmmm at the beginning of your sentence!!!