Comment by ARandomerDude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ARandomerDude | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Combat veteran here. One time I almost killed a civilian due to a split second misidentification. I didn't shoot because something just seemed a little "off" but to this day I'm not sure what. I'm so glad that I didn't shoot. No normal person wants to kill someone, and especially not a bystander.

The problem is the people we fought did everything they could to look like civilians. They would carry trash bags full of bombs, and dress like women to hide weapons under loosely fitting clothing. This has the obvious effect of causing Americans to suspect normal, everyday activities as terrorist operations. Add to that the facts that things are hard to see at engagement distance and a failure to engage the enemy effectively will result in greater casualties on our side, and it's a recipe for misidentification.

It turns out the woman I almost killed was "washing" her dishes in a pothole of a road after a rainstorm. I had never seen someone do that before and her dish was a large metal bowl that resembled a common type of armor piercing IED. I don't know why I didn't kill her. I can't imagine the regret I would feel had I taken her life.

Thanks for sharing and I’m glad you and her are both okay. Well, who knows maybe somebody else ended up shooting her since the.

I can’t help but feel like you are blaming the victims. The bottom line is that those are civilians who were killed by US military. When the most powerful military in the world invades and occupies a country it can’t expect its people to fight according to its rules and expectations. And when those occupied people indeed fight back it does not justify the killing hundreds of thousands of civilians by the US military.

The most powerful military in the world doesn't mean it can identify citizen from enemy combatants 100% of time. A lot of this is kinda meaningless to discuss without some sort of comparison to what other militaries false-positive rates are. Where is the US rank in mis-identification and accidental civilian killings in modern wars?

It's not as simple as placing all blame on one side. Had guerrilla tactics not been used then collateral would be greatly reduced. Both sides have to be equally willing to kill civillians.

The most powerful military in the world is not powerful enough to be completely invincible to modern weapons accessible to guerilla fighters. They cannot just come close and check that the person they are facing is actually a peaceful bystander, and not a carefully concealed guerilla fighter waiting to hurt them. They could try to, but the casualties among them would be significant. US Marines are not WH40k Marines yet.

>And when those occupied people indeed fight back

That too was my understanding for the longest time. However Jocko Wilink (today a podcaster, then a Seal commander fighting in Ramadi) specifically said that the people wanted them there and most of the people they fought were either teenagers being paid to plant IEDs (basically the same as the drugs gangs in the US who will pay teenagers to be lookouts and mules), former Sadam regime people or foreign fighters.

Maybe. But we need hard evidence which we can examine before we reject the most logical explanation wrt who is fighting the invading forces. Obviously we expect that the bulk of the fighters are the invaded are resisting the invaders.

Indeed, the bulk of the fighters were old Sadam people. When the US took over and destroyed the regime all of these people were out of a job, and used to being evil they began to fight back.

Thanks for sharing. This is my experience serving over there as well. The enemy uses civilians as a shield as much as possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com