If they took over his shop, he should be thankful they are gone. He was not shelled and fired upon if he was not part of the attack. He did not lose his livelyhood, his shop has some bullet holes. He is not angry at the attackers, he is angry at the guys who got rid of them. If he wants vendetta, he should go after the cause, not the solution. Unless, of course, the family member was in the group that attacked. And as far as a cultural thing, would he be talking this way if Saddam had killed his family member?
What would I have done? I would have thanked the troops for killing the bad guys, and thanked my lucky stars I only had to worry about bullet holes to plug, and not the Fedeyen taking over my shop, or killing my family. I would say, Next time, I will help the troups before it gets to a fight, and let them know where the bad guys are. Then I won't have bullet holes any more.
What would you have done? Tell the troups to hold their fire and be killed so they won't put any bullet holes in the hardware store? Don't fire, you might cause a vendetta? Don't kill anyone because they may have family members who might get mad?
Those tactics were tried in the last few months, and have not worked. More of our boys were lost. The only thing they have done is allowed the insurgents the opportunity to regroup and intimidate the civilians. If we are serious about the mission, we are going to have to get serious about accomplishing it.
That does not mean shooting for its own sake. If you have heard any of the reports, it was strongly emphasised that we do not shoot indiscriminately. We fire back when we are fired upon. That is as it should be, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Becki