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I'm very pro-Israeli. I was also a professional soldier for some time. Any standing order to shoot and kill unarmed women and children is an order that should be disobeyed without question. What this sharpshooter did was repugnant and criminal. Whether he was told to shoot them or not, he should not have done it. He did it anyway and should be prosecuted. This isn't a case of accidental civilian casualties with an artillery shell or an aerial bomb. This is a sharpshooter deliberately taking multiple shots and killing women and children.
And yes Goobieman, there is absolutely something wrong with any order that leave so much latitude in it's interpretation that soldiers feel that they are permitted to kill unarmed women and children.
The Israeli military is not "trained" to kill these types of people. They are very professional and efficient soldiers. This incident does not define the Israeli military. This was a tragic affair and the culprits should be dealt with. This woman and her children were not valid military targets regardless of any standing order.
If you read the article all the way through you will clearly see this is not a case of a soldier "doing what he was trained to do." The IDF doesn't train their troops to do this. The ground commander and his order to shoot anyone that comes out of the house is a bad example of combat leadership. This soldier killed a woman and her children for leaving their house. That's it. He knew who he was engaging, there was no mistaking these people for armed combatants. They had them under observation and house arrest for several days.
It makes me sick to my stomach, but like other examples, this is not indicative of standard IDF training or orders. This is a sorry douche bag killing women and children.
And yes Goobieman, there is absolutely something wrong with any order that leave so much latitude in it's interpretation that soldiers feel that they are permitted to kill unarmed women and children.
The Israeli military is not "trained" to kill these types of people. They are very professional and efficient soldiers. This incident does not define the Israeli military. This was a tragic affair and the culprits should be dealt with. This woman and her children were not valid military targets regardless of any standing order.
If you read the article all the way through you will clearly see this is not a case of a soldier "doing what he was trained to do." The IDF doesn't train their troops to do this. The ground commander and his order to shoot anyone that comes out of the house is a bad example of combat leadership. This soldier killed a woman and her children for leaving their house. That's it. He knew who he was engaging, there was no mistaking these people for armed combatants. They had them under observation and house arrest for several days.
The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said.
"The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he ... he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders."
According to the squad leader: "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.
"I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way," he said.
It makes me sick to my stomach, but like other examples, this is not indicative of standard IDF training or orders. This is a sorry douche bag killing women and children.