No way, I'm sure Chinese soldiers treated each civilian they encountered with much care in Korea.

What our disagreement comes down to is the definition of a civilian.

The Geneva Convention says "a civilian is any person who does not belong to any of the following categories: members of the armed forces, militias or volunteer corps, organized resistance movements, and residents of an occupied territory who spontaneously take up arms. If there is any doubt whether a person is civilian, then he or she is to be considered a civilian."

I agree with this definition.

Your definition is everyone and their mother is a "target" during a time of war.

As a soldier, I do not agree with that. I can live with the fact that I may kill civilians during combat operations. As I said, civilians are going to die in combat. As long as I do my best to prevent civilian casualties, I have done my duty. I WILL NOT kill civilians because they support soldiers or just because they are on the battlefield. You have to be out of your mind to do such a thing.

History has proven that Governments that use your form of warfare do not last as long as governments who DO NOT terrorize civilians. Russia, Germany, the Balkans, and Eastern Block states are just a few of those examples.

Yes, I will admit that American troops have deliberately targeted civilians in the past and it will happen again. The difference is that the American military does not have a standing order to kill civilians like many other armies have had.

Sorry FF, unacceptable. Im not at war with 3 year old Palestinian children, and my 3 years old niece is not at war with Arafat. She dose not know who he is....My mother is a retired LTC. However, when she is unarmed and not in uniform, she is not a combatent. She poses no threat to anyone when she drinks coffee in a coffee shop. I am a Police Volunteer. When I am armed and on duty, I am an acceptable target. When I take a bus to school, I am not. A soldier on leave, with out his weapon, is not a legitemet target, unless you can say 100% that he is a soldier. This is impossible. Attacking unarmed people outside of the area of combat, in hope of acheiving political rather than military objectives, is terror. Its wrong morally and leagaly. The 9/11 attacks were not acts of war. Neither was the attack on the Russian school in Baslan, or the attack on the resorts in Sinay. These are acts of Terror and evil.

The definition of "civilian" is good.

I doubt any government in this world NOW allows its troops to kill civilians, including the most "dictatorship" countries's governments.

I never said "civilians" should be treated as targets, my point is: civilians are more or less ASSOCIATED with the militaries, without support of civilians there can not be a war conducted at all.

SHERMAN:

First don't misunderstand my points. See my words above.
Second: how about USA dropping A-bombs in Japan? Isn't that bombing japans civilians a tool to achieve a better goal? Of course it is.

Then I guess those mass graves in Iraq are from soldiers. Even the bodies of little girls holding dolls...

I would advise you do look into the Sudan conflict a bit more. The specific targeting of civilians is still being practiced today.

I am going to take a brake from this topic since I am quite irritated at the moment. Off to the pool to work off some aggression!!!!!

Good luck Doody and relax a bit is good.

Here is just for exchanging views.

FF, many govs allow their soldiers to kill civilians. As to the A-Bombs, that was a horrible war, and all sides commited horrible thing. And by my book, that was a war crime.

On my opinion,terror in world is part of big new world order plan to keep
men dying and factories working,so in that case theres not pretty much u can do about it

Mod edit: Well, that is a useless post, isent it?

As öong as the Arab nation doesn't take care of the problem themself inseide there own countries we will always have muslim terrorists targeting US or western interests. The problem must be taken care of att the root. Kids in daycare in some muslim countries are tought that US are evil and that the white men will come and kill there parents.

Again as long as the muslim countries deal with this problem for real we will have terrorists and it will not matter if the US do like what you do in Iraq it will only stop the terrorists for a short period.