Cool that you coached shooting! My father did when he taught high school, and I was on the rifle team in college and taught Intermediate Riflery (donating the proceeds).
I have NEVER heard Kerry say the VC was unarmed. He quite clearly pointed out that the "kid" had a rocket launcher! Believe me, I am no Kerry supporter, but let's get the record straight, else we are just helping our opponents marginalize us.
I also believe they are not all terrorists. There is lots of evidence there are multiple groups fighting us. The generic term is "insurgents," but I also refer to them as scum. That's probably not a good thing to do, as I can imagine some are just fighting what they see as an occupation (I'd do that if they came here!)
Regardless, they are enemies, shooting at us and using dastardly tactics. We must be smart to combat that without lowering ourselves just as much.
Gondring,
I recognize your voice of reason. However, these guys are not the colonials in the American Revolution. None of these guys have the best interests of their country at heart.
I believe that any of these terrorists who are battling our forces in Fallujah are guilty by association. I feel some sympathy for some of the impressionable youth who may have got caught up in it and ended up making common cause with people who slowly saw the heads off of innocent people, but you run with the big dogs, you have to accept the consequences.
This is not might makes right. This is war. Our opponents in this conflict are as fanatical as the Japanese our Marines faced in the Pacific in WWII. They are not asking for nor giving quarter. We would be sickened if we had to view on camera what American boys did to Japanese boys in the Pacific. But they did what they had to do to survive. I am glad there were no reporters with movie cameras to record the horrible things.
War is dehumanizing and inhumane by its very nature. We can not make it PC by imposing "rules", when one side has no rules. Do you think, for one second, that they would not slowly saw off the head of any poor young American who fell into their bloody clutches?
In a quick search I found this:
"According to Kerry's crewman Michael Madeiros, Kerry had an agreement with him to turn the boat in and onto the beach if fired upon. Each of the three boats involved in the operation was involved in the agreement." O'Neill writes that one crewman even recalls a discussion of probable medals.
Doug Reese, a pro Kerry Army veteran, recounted what happened that day to O'Neill, "Far from being alone, the boats were loaded with many soldiers commanded by Reese and two other advisors. When fired at, Reese's boat--not Kerry's--was the first to beach in the ambush zone. Then Reese and other troops and advisors (not Kerry) disembarked, killing a number of Viet Cong and capturing a number of weapons. None of the participants from Reese's boat received Silver Stars.
O'Neill continues: "Kerry's boat moved slightly downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. . . .A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher, which may or may not have been loaded. . . Tom Belodeau, a forward gunner, shot the Viet Cong with an M-60 machine gun in the leg as he fled. . . . Kerry and Medeiros (who had many troops in their boat) took off, perhaps with others, and followed the young Viet Cong and shot him in the back, behind a lean to."
O'Neill concludes "Whether Kerry's dispatching of a fleeing, wounded, armed or unarmed teenage enemy was in accordance with the customs of war, it is very clear that many Vietnam veterans and most Swiftees do not consider this action to be the stuff of which medals of any kind are awarded; nor would it even be a good story if told in the cold details of reality. There is no indication that Kerry ever reported that the Viet Cong was wounded and fleeing when dispatched. Likewise, the citation simply ignores the presence of the soldiers and advisors who actually 'captured the enemy weapons' and routed the Viet Cong. . . . [and] that Kerry attacked a 'numerically superior force in the face of intense fire' is simply false. There was little or no fire after Kerry followed the plan. . . . The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily armed Swift Boat and its crew and the soldiers carried aboard."
So the teenager may or may not have been armed...either way, he is dead.