When I was in Viet Nam in 1969, I was stationed at Long Binh, USARV HQ Company. For many months, we'd get indirect fire (mortars or RPGs) at night that'd awaken us and send us scrambling for cover. I saw people die in barracks hit by incoming. I've hugged the ground after a near miss.

We had fire control radar-equipped artillery in those days, too. That equipment could track the ballistic trajectory of incoming and fire off a computer-controlled round or more to within mere feet of the origin of such fire. It wouldn't take more than about 30 seconds.

But we didn't do it. We had the return fire disabled.

Why?

Because the rounds were fired off from civilian areas ... villages. We couldn't tolerate the idea that innocents might be injured or die and the VC may have didi-mau'd long since. We may have SUSPECTED that the villagers were complicit ... but we'd rather scramble and cover our butts ... even though some got killed ... than blow up kids and innocents.

I don't know of a single guy that disagreed with that policy. Not one.

We understood war crimes.

Why don't OTHERS????


The Israelis have radar and sirens and sound alerts when rockets are detected incoming. They have many fortified bunkers and a minimum of 15 seconds (quite long, when you're under fire, actually) to find cover. There's a REASON the Hamas rockets have inflicted so few casualties - less than 20 killed since 2004. (Compared to over 400 Palestinians in the last week.)

So ... I've actually lived under worse conditions. And I CAN LIVE WITH THE CHOICES WE MADE. I couldn't live with the choices the Israelis are making ... and I CANNOT SUPPORT THEM IN MAKING THOSE CHOICES. No way. No how.