First Danish casualty in Iraq conflict

[Asmodean]

So, now our participation in the "Coalition if Willing" has cost the first Danish soldier his life. Apparently a group of Danish troops were on patrol yesterday, when they stopped a suspicious looking truck. A firefight then erupted, in which the soldier and two Iraqis were killed. Six Iraqis were arrested.

Now I wonder...why the heck didn't they kill them all, instead of arresting them. Why bother taking them in?

If it were me, with my comrade lying dead on the ground, it sure wouldn't take me long time to put my rifle on automatic, and start sprayin' them bullets.

That's probably why I'm not in Iraq, though

Asmodean

[Inverse Icarus]

we, and by we i mean the civilized western world, take the moral high road. we take prisioners. we try to be humane. and it gets us nowhere.

sure, we feel better about ourselves when the day is done, but what do we get? we get enemies who seem barbaric, and will do anything to take pot shots, which in turn leads to the general failure of operations due to public opinion shift (case in point, nam).

we also get torn to pieces whenever he have to do something that seems barbaric, like beat the hell out of some guy for information, or bomb missle silos near a residential village.

it's pure and utter bullsh!t.

oh, and this loss saddens me, but i am proud that the danes are with us on such a historic mission

[Asmodean]

Apparently the Danish soldiers spotted a group of nine Iraqis, stealing powerlines near the road. Supposedly powerline-stealing is pretty big in the area around Basra.

Think about it. Get yourself killed, trying to stop a guy stealing powerlines

Asmodean

[MichaeltheGreat]

We take prisoners for the potential intel benefit. You can't interrogate the dead.

Although, frankly, if the Danes had hosed those bastards (the trick is to not give them enough time to get their hands up), and hung the bodies upside down to rot from the powerlines they stole pour encourager les outres, I wouldn't have got bent out of shape.

[GePap]

If at any point the 6 Iraqis gave up, or the Danes overwhlemed them and got control of them, then they have to take them as prisoners legally.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Hence my clarification about how to avoid that "problem."

[Asmodean]

GePap: I know, I know. It's just, you know, frustrating. Especially when you think about the crime that was being perpetrated.

But yeah: I'm pro human rights, rules of engagement and all that stuff. The world wouldn't function without them.

Asmodean

[GePap]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Hence my clarification about how to avoid that "problem."

If a local Iraqi court wants to behead the men, fine, but if the danes go kill guys who were trying to give up and local family members find out, you porbably have more trouble with revenge seekers. The immidiate emotional satisfaction ain't worth it.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Thieves don't get much sympathy.

Besides, who's talking revenge? I'm just talking setting up fields of fire and deploying in such a way that if one even starts getting squirrely, you can hose 'em all then and there, before they get a chance to effectively resist.

Do that once or twice, then the word will be around that you don't **** with those guys when they move in to detain you.

[GePap]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Thieves don't get much sympathy.

They do from family members.

Do that once or twice, then the word will be around that you don't **** with those guys when they move in to detain you.

So now we arwe talking about arrests?

[MichaeltheGreat]

A firefight is what happens when they resist, an "arrest" is what happens when they don't resist. It's all the same process at the outset, it just depends on which way the *******s want to play.

[Az]

and hung the bodies upside down to rot from the powerlines they stole pour encourager les outres

I think it should be "discourager les outres".

[HershOstropoler]

I thought he meant encouraging Iraqis to kill some occupation soldiers.

[C0ckney]

no he meant 'to encourage the others' (it makes more sense in french) basically to show others what happens to people who resist.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Or steal infrastructure that's critical to other Iraqis.