Why didn't the author include the final casualty count of the dead civilians caused by the Vietnam War? The stats are available, accompanied by horrific photos of children running and screaming with their clothes burned off after the destruction of their village, following one of our "precision" bombing raids. Oh yes, I forgot those images make us look like the blood thirsty invaders we are. We need to have the PR behind us that we are moral "freedom fighters" fighting for the liberty of the poor people we are bombing, but don't worry, because we are using "smart bombs" or "smart munitions that only kill the bad guys."
That is BS!
I recall that we estimated that for every US soldier killed in the Vietnam War, 10 enemy soldiers died, and for every enemy soldier that died, 10 Vietnamese civilians died. So much for your pornographic "precise" weapons of war! And don't try to tell me that the new targeting information is so accurate that it knows who is actually in those buildings we bomb, or who happens to be driving by or walking by those buildings at the moment of impact. Those are only stories that US intelligence officials tell themselves to sleep at night.
After this current regime has ended (hopefully NLT January 2029, not only the DOJ needs complete sweeping and airing out, but also the Department of Defense (or War, whatever) needs it just as bad. The complete upper echelon of generals and admirals need to be put on war trials, just like Nuremberg. At least they should know that the orders they followed were - and are - illegal.
Kegseth is a political clown, but Caine is one of the worst offenders.
The Coast Guard needs some cleaning out, also. All the military who have and are participating in blowing unidentified seacraft our of the water in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
There is an excellent book by General (ret.) Mark Hertling called If I Don’t Return about civilian casualties embedded in the book. He discusses these casualties within the context of deployment as a Major during the Gulf War and as a General over 2 major actions as a commander in Iraq. As the military pushed forward into Iraq after the quick victory in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait, he reported about casualties from unexploded bomblets where children picked them up without knowing what they were, civilians killed in the bombing leading up to the invasion, infrastructure damaged in that bombing. It wasn’t investigated; it was observed by troops “on the ground “. He described the terrible devastation of the “shock and awe” bombing preceding the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the infrastructure of Iraq, roads, schools, and other buildings unrelated to military targets despite precision bombing. This was observed personally during the ground operation. I don’t think even satellite imaging can fully capture the extent of damage from precision strikes. It was acknowledged that many soldiers had “blast induced injuries (TBI) from the missile strike on an American site in Iraq. Damage extends beyond the site of the actual explosion. The explosion delivers blast waves from the explosion site that causes concussion with severity related to how close a soldier was to the explosion. An RPG that destroys a target can knock a man off his feet 20 yards away from the target. That rattles the brain around in its enclosed skull and can cause injury more severe than a concussion. How can that damage done to a nearby civilian be “investigated”. Claims by Iranians of damage to schools, Universities, hospitals, roads, etc. can only be verified by the eyes of a trusted source on the ground. Do we want to commit American soldiers in an invasion to observe the extent of this destruction?
Let‘s not forget that Iran, using ranged weapons, is also targeting civilians, even if wo the precision of our weapons. Arguably, the Iranian strikes are even more despicable, coming as they do from a heartless regime. I understand that the main focus of this article is on the unavoidability of civilian carnage even with precision weapons. But the article does also edge into the area of blame and guilt for these war crimes. In doing so wo pointing out, even parenthetically, the even more despicable - coming as it does from a heartless dictatorship - indiscriminate targeting of civilians by the Iran regime seems to me to normalize Iranian war crimes - so nach dem Motto - well, what do you expect? They do what they do. This is in no way to excuse callous US and Israeli war crimes. But it is against normalizing the crimes of dictatorial regimes like Iran‘s.
Some of the damage inflicted on civilians and Iraqi soldiers was caused by Hussein. Iran does not hesitate to kill their own citizens internationally or accidentally by their munitions,
From a Vietnam Veteram: There's no such thing as a "precision" explosion. There's also no way to differentiate a male or female adult civilian from a enemy soldier that isn't wearing a uniform. Civilians are killed in wars. Some by accident. Some deliberately. Just ask the Germans, Japanese, British, French, Dutch & Chinese. American civilians haven't known war since 1865. We live in a bubble.
Why didn't the author include the final casualty count of the dead civilians caused by the Vietnam War? The stats are available, accompanied by horrific photos of children running and screaming with their clothes burned off after the destruction of their village, following one of our "precision" bombing raids. Oh yes, I forgot those images make us look like the blood thirsty invaders we are. We need to have the PR behind us that we are moral "freedom fighters" fighting for the liberty of the poor people we are bombing, but don't worry, because we are using "smart bombs" or "smart munitions that only kill the bad guys."
That is BS!
I recall that we estimated that for every US soldier killed in the Vietnam War, 10 enemy soldiers died, and for every enemy soldier that died, 10 Vietnamese civilians died. So much for your pornographic "precise" weapons of war! And don't try to tell me that the new targeting information is so accurate that it knows who is actually in those buildings we bomb, or who happens to be driving by or walking by those buildings at the moment of impact. Those are only stories that US intelligence officials tell themselves to sleep at night.
Pure BS!
After this current regime has ended (hopefully NLT January 2029, not only the DOJ needs complete sweeping and airing out, but also the Department of Defense (or War, whatever) needs it just as bad. The complete upper echelon of generals and admirals need to be put on war trials, just like Nuremberg. At least they should know that the orders they followed were - and are - illegal.
Kegseth is a political clown, but Caine is one of the worst offenders.
The Coast Guard needs some cleaning out, also. All the military who have and are participating in blowing unidentified seacraft our of the water in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
There is an excellent book by General (ret.) Mark Hertling called If I Don’t Return about civilian casualties embedded in the book. He discusses these casualties within the context of deployment as a Major during the Gulf War and as a General over 2 major actions as a commander in Iraq. As the military pushed forward into Iraq after the quick victory in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait, he reported about casualties from unexploded bomblets where children picked them up without knowing what they were, civilians killed in the bombing leading up to the invasion, infrastructure damaged in that bombing. It wasn’t investigated; it was observed by troops “on the ground “. He described the terrible devastation of the “shock and awe” bombing preceding the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the infrastructure of Iraq, roads, schools, and other buildings unrelated to military targets despite precision bombing. This was observed personally during the ground operation. I don’t think even satellite imaging can fully capture the extent of damage from precision strikes. It was acknowledged that many soldiers had “blast induced injuries (TBI) from the missile strike on an American site in Iraq. Damage extends beyond the site of the actual explosion. The explosion delivers blast waves from the explosion site that causes concussion with severity related to how close a soldier was to the explosion. An RPG that destroys a target can knock a man off his feet 20 yards away from the target. That rattles the brain around in its enclosed skull and can cause injury more severe than a concussion. How can that damage done to a nearby civilian be “investigated”. Claims by Iranians of damage to schools, Universities, hospitals, roads, etc. can only be verified by the eyes of a trusted source on the ground. Do we want to commit American soldiers in an invasion to observe the extent of this destruction?
Let‘s not forget that Iran, using ranged weapons, is also targeting civilians, even if wo the precision of our weapons. Arguably, the Iranian strikes are even more despicable, coming as they do from a heartless regime. I understand that the main focus of this article is on the unavoidability of civilian carnage even with precision weapons. But the article does also edge into the area of blame and guilt for these war crimes. In doing so wo pointing out, even parenthetically, the even more despicable - coming as it does from a heartless dictatorship - indiscriminate targeting of civilians by the Iran regime seems to me to normalize Iranian war crimes - so nach dem Motto - well, what do you expect? They do what they do. This is in no way to excuse callous US and Israeli war crimes. But it is against normalizing the crimes of dictatorial regimes like Iran‘s.
Some of the damage inflicted on civilians and Iraqi soldiers was caused by Hussein. Iran does not hesitate to kill their own citizens internationally or accidentally by their munitions,
From a Vietnam Veteram: There's no such thing as a "precision" explosion. There's also no way to differentiate a male or female adult civilian from a enemy soldier that isn't wearing a uniform. Civilians are killed in wars. Some by accident. Some deliberately. Just ask the Germans, Japanese, British, French, Dutch & Chinese. American civilians haven't known war since 1865. We live in a bubble.