Quote Originally Posted by Atmoscheer View Post
fm I appreciate your perspective, but you've overlooked your own hypocrisy. You said at the end that you've been taught that enemy combatants stop being enemies when they stop being combatants, which governs your reaction to the video. But just before that, you said as an NCO, you'd have stopped it because you would have been looped in on the punishments. I'm not saying that's irrational or abnormal (i mean, find me anyone who played football in high school "to win" and not just "to avoid getting yelled at in meetings and practice"), but it is hypocritical, unless you doubt that they training they received was the same as yours.

I respect the opinions and experiences of combat vets because I know I'll never share them, but I also recognize the human shortcomings in recognizing and attributing one's own thoughts and feelings.
I realize I worded my earlier statement in a misleading manner. I have a strong moral conviction when it comes to desecrating the dead, and while potential punishment would definitely be in my mind, the very act being committed would be my motivation to end it. The line between right and wrong is sometimes blurred by all of us, and each of us sometimes has our self-interest in mind when we choose right over wrong. So, you may be right, I don't know as discipline in my units has always trumped putting ourselves into stupid situations.

Even the best training cannot overcome personal biases. One such example is my statement that "My views on the Taliban are much different than my views on the Republican Guard and Iraqi Army..." I will always view those Iraqi soldiers that fought against us and died in a positive light. They died defending their country against a foreign invader (us). The later insurgents (many of whom had thrown down their uniforms in 2003 or crossed the Syrian border as "freedom fighters") do not have my respect, just as the Taliban doesn't (I respect their ability to create casualties, but not their tactics or techniques). Despite my personal thoughts, though, they are all considered enemy combatants, and though they'd behead one of us given the chance, we must treat them humanely. War in today's world is unfair in some ways, but if we begin down the path of our enemies we risk having society go back to the Middle Ages or earlier.