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Originally Posted by OneToughHerring
Not saying anything about the guilt or innocence of that guy or his family for that matter (I guess the family had to go too then. I guess they were guilty too, I'm not expecting a retroactive trial though).
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I personally struggle to believe any reports of civilian deaths in controversial circumstances caused by any coalition member these days.
No, I'm not denying civilian deaths occur - kind of expected when the enemy hides behind civvies as human shields then uses their deaths for propaganda. Yes, shock horror I'll even admit that there have been attacks by aircraft for example in which civvies have been mistaken for combatants and subsequently attacked and killed.
But lets face it. With most of these combatants today, if you take away their weapon, lo and behold, we have a dead civvy. Anyone reminded of the palestinian/french video a couple of years back, with the cowering child, proven to be fake? I've little doubt it happens all the time, and yes a US man was charged with fabricating evidence in a similar manner.
Lets look closer at the 'innocent civilians' Syria claims were killed. As I said before, the US would want you be very bloody certain about who they were after in a raid like this. Also, they wouldn't have sent undisciplined troops in. Disciplined troops don't open fire on civvies. The types of troops who would've been used are smart, you don't get to be an SF man by fighting skill alone.
Now, Syria claim that these civvies were all killed for no reason. Doesn't make much sense, does it, especially on such a high-profile, arguably criminal raid - why make things even worse?? But, if you take my earlier point about removing a combatant's weapon to create a civilian, suddenly there is logic. The only reason for these people to have been killed is that they were threatening or attacking the SF team. If you do that, your lifespan can be counted in seconds, not years.