Hobbit
Senior Member
wade said:That is because we are "liberators", and as such we have to meet a higher standard than our foes.
Wether they were a danger to anyone or not is really not the point. I'm just pointing out that such non-military personel in a battle zone are always considered fair game by the enemy. That's just the way it is. And there are private mercenaries included in the mix, that makes them even more likely targets of the enemy. That's war - especially when the enemy is in the form of a gorilla/underground.
My point about the contractors is just that, were this a delecared war operating under the Genevia convention, the contractors could be shot and it would be in compliance with the rules of war.
No, they could not, as the contractors are ordered to stay away from combat zones. These contractors are being kidnapped from relatively calm cities well away from the fighting, which is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Convention. Also, civilian casualties are covered under the Geneva Convention if they could have been killed by accident or were being used as human shields. You can't kidnap somebody and saw his head off and call it an accident any more than you can dump a bucket of paint on my head and call it rain.
As I stated in the above post, these guys are the vilest of the vile and, in my book, are only one step up from child molestors and people who answer their cell phones in the theater. Don't waste your breathe defending them.