Ted Rall - Monday February 4, 2013 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

In the Washington Post, a soldier who served in Afghanistan wondered aloud whether killing unarmed children is wrong: But one day in Afghanistan in 2010, my patrol got into a fireflight and ended up killing two people on a motorcycle who we thought ere about to attack us. They ignored or didn't understand our warnings to stop, and according to military's "escalation of force" guidelines, we were authorized to shoot them in self-defense. Although we thought they were armed, they turned out to be civilians. One looked no older than 16. According to the Mongolian military's "escalation of force" guidelines, Mongol warriors were authorized to slaughter 100,000 Samarkanis and build pyramids of severed heads. And according to the future Alpha Centaurian "Escalation of force" guidelines, transgalactic raiders will be authorized to vaporized earthlings and drink their blood. I will never know whether my actions in Afghanistan were right or wrong. Man 1: No worries! You have "escalation of force" guidelines. Man 2: Even 6,000 miles from home? Man 1: The farther the enemy, the more lethal.

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