<strong>Written By:</strong> rearguard
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-08-24 12:21:40
<a href="/article/2140978-afghan-boy-shot-after-soldier-killed-by-bomb">Article Link</a>

The attack yesterday and its bloody aftermath occurred at about 3:15 p.m. just 700 metres outside the fortified camp in Kandahar City, where a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a returning Canadian convoy, engulfing a LAV-3 and G-Wagon in flames and destroying both. <br><br> <a href="http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=baef8e72-cba9-4b86-9991-24ce555218ae&k=57943">Full story here</a>

   

My take.

Ok sure, the kids were DUMB, riding their bike through a checkpoint without stopping.

But where I think we need to go, (and it may be further than the Canadian public's stomachs could tolerate) is to always use situations like this as a chance to prove our COMPASSION AND HUMANITY.

What does that mean.

It means that a soldier's life is less than the life of a civilian. It means to take the occasional hit, rather than succumb to FEAR. Why couldn't they stand out in front of this guy and stop him? This 'shoot first and ask questions later' policy, started in Iraq by the US occupation force, is only going to get you HATED by the locals.

Sure it might be safer for the soldiers, but at what cost? How many innocent civilians get shot dead so that the soldiers feel safer? It DOESN'T WORK. All you do is generate hatred, grow a new generation of car bombers, and portray yourself as a vicious occupier.

Shoot the car. Take cover. Knock people off bikes. Put up gated barricades you can quickly shut. There are lots of alternatives.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

No ones shoots first. There are ROEs to follow. If you were on tour you would know this.
Knock a guy off the bike? stand in front? Go for cover? Get real. Have you been faced with suicide bombers? It only takes one brick of C4 to blow up a block 1 cube Sq.. Suicide bombers just don't have one brick. The Brits shot one guy with 8 bricks, rapped around him. You cann tell me you know who the bombers are.
Look at the dick who, blow himself up after the car went off. It would be the same.
So one rd in the dirt, and then in the head is better than one more carried home.
Remember the old saying after Somalia. It's better to judged by 12 than carried by 8.

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27 yrs in the military, 9 tours and one more almost complete..