{"id":36051,"date":"2013-06-06T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=36051"},"modified":"2013-06-06T11:37:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T15:37:46","slug":"but-we-couldnt-live-with-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=36051","title":{"rendered":"“But we couldn’t live with ourselves.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonn posted a brief story the other day on the guilty plea entered by Robert Bales<\/a> \u2013 the guy who claims he \u201csnapped\u201d after a night of unauthorized drinking, then went out and murdered 17 Afghan civilians in their homes.\u00a0 Even now there appear to be those who would excuse Bales\u2019 actions, either partially or completely.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to offer a short counterexample.<\/p>\n

What Bales did was nothing but thuggery.\u00a0 What the following three Soldiers did, on the other hand, was IMO the epitome of correct, professional conduct.<\/p>\n

During the first Gulf War a small US Special Forces team of\u00a0 3 persons was conducting strategic reconnaissance.\u00a0 They were well behind enemy lines.\u00a0 Indeed, they were north of the Euphrates river and were less than 100 miles from Baghdad.\u00a0 Their mission was to observe one of the major roadways between Baghdad and Iraq for signs of enemy activity in order to screen the western flank of the planned allied “left hook” through southern Iraq.<\/p>\n

They had secreted themselves in a dug-in, \u201cspider-hole\u201d hide site.\u00a0 (We\u2019d studied the Viet Cong\u2019s use of such during the Vietnam war, and had learned much.)\u00a0 The site was well camouflaged; observation was by a small periscope-like device raised through a small opening in the camouflaged door to the hide site, described as a \u201cslit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, no camouflage is absolutely perfect; children are both inquisitive and observant.\u00a0 Early one morning a small Iraqi girl \u2013 a child no more than 7, per later estimates \u2013 was out and about and saw something she though unusual.\u00a0 She went over to investigate.<\/p>\n

She found the slit in the hide site’s trap door – then lifted it open.\u00a0 In short order, she was staring down the muzzle of three silencer-equipped pistols.<\/p>\n

The three US soldiers had a choice.\u00a0 They could kill the little girl, hide the body, and continue their mission.\u00a0 Or they could let the child go, attempt an extraction with their cover blown – and maybe not get home.<\/p>\n

They chose the latter option.\u00a0 The child ran and got her father.\u00a0 Her father informed nearby Iraqi forces of what his daughter had found.<\/p>\n

The site was soon surrounded by around 100 Iraqi troops.\u00a0 Amazingly, the team was successfully extracted \u2013 although it turned out to be a truly harrowing and narrow escape under fire.<\/p>\n

The most junior member of the team was later asked why they didn\u2019t kill the child to preserve their mission, and perhaps their own lives.\u00a0 The title of this article gives his response.<\/p>\n

Like Bales, he was a US Army Staff Sergeant.<\/p>\n

The story above is not apocryphal<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0 Details may be found at pages 4 and 5 of this article<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s a short but incredible read.<\/p>\n

Those three soldiers knew the difference between cold-blooded murder and collateral damage.\u00a0 They chose to be military professionals instead of murderers, even though they knew it might cost them their freedom – or their lives.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Bales chose cold-blooded murder.\u00a0 For that, there’s no justification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonn posted a brief story the other day on the guilty plea entered by Robert Bales … “But we couldn’t live with ourselves.”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,10,84,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-army","category-historical","category-military-issues","category-real-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}