Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Has it really come to this?

We are now going to give awards to soldiers who don't kill innocent civilians?

Really?


Really!!

NATO commanders are weighing a new way to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan: recognizing soldiers for "courageous restraint" if they avoid using force that could endanger innocent lives.

The concept comes as the coalition continues to struggle with the problem of civilian casualties despite repeated warnings from the top NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, that the war effort hinges on the ability to protect the population and win support away from the Taliban.

Those who back the idea hope it will provide soldiers with another incentive to think twice before calling in an airstrike or firing at an approaching vehicle if civilians could be at risk.


People, please join me and other libertarians around the world in deploring and protesting these senseless, state-sanctioned murders.

6 comments:

ericmc said...

I would prefer my friends kill whoever they need to in order to come back to the U.S. alive and whole. They would also prefer to kill whoever they need to in order to make sure they come home to their girlfriends and families.
Soldiers kill people and break things, good soldiers kill more and break more with less. If you reward soldiers for being bad at their job you will have worse soldiers in the future, in addition to more corpses draped in pretty flags today.
Stupid wars + bad policy = more of my friends will die but I won't actually be able to pin it on the idiots that come up with this crap.

Angus said...

I would prefer that your friend were not over there killing anyone.

Anonymous said...

But he is. The relevant policy discussion on civilian casualties etc. is definitely one of optimization in a second-best context.

ericmc said...

yeah its lame, lets only fight wars were its ok to kill everyone on the other team.

Anonymous said...

We are now going to give awards to soldiers who don't kill innocent civilians?

As absolutely crazy as it sounds, maybe this is a small step in the right direction. Maybe this will save one, or two, or five innocent lives. It won't end war, but maybe it will make it marginally less horrible.

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that a commander who leases a plane to bring his troops home should get the Congressional Medal of Honor?