[techweenie]

Mul: here's a bulletin for you. We were trained to use .50 cal. against combatants but to have a 'reason' handy, since it was against the Geneva Convention.

I guess you don't understand the concept of a 'free-fire zone.' They were exactly that, shooting galleries. Man, women, children, dogs; cattle. All legitimate targets in free-fire zones.

Search-and-destroy missions were usually area (village) actions that employed 'scorched earth' tactics. and our troops routinely set fire to hooches. Because the enemy was not in uniform and because villagers supporting the Cong could not be told apart from other non-combatants, tens of thousands were killed. There was a popular shirt at the time that said "Kill them all. Let God decide."

Look at the testimony of Bob Kerry. Look at the testimony of the 150 vets in Detroit that J. Kerry speaks of.

Do you think brutality is only wrong if committed by the other side?

You, Mul are a moral relativist. But morals are not relative, they are absolute. Immoral actions, performed independently or under command of superior officers are wrong. Kerry did things he regretted -- almost immediately, it seems. Thousands of other soldiers in Vietnam did the same things, and worse. They were ordered to. Kerry had the moral courage to stand up and say these actions were not consistent with the America he believes in.