Don't let the Schiavo threads see this or you'll be swamped with name-calling and accusations that the soldier is a "monster"...
Evidently you do not understand why schiavo supporters are upset: Although the woman has severe brain damage, she is not in pain, and sometimes interacts with her family, which makes her mom and dad happy.
The only medical intervention in her case is that she is fed thru a tube: the reason for this is that it would take a nurse a loooong time to feed her by hand. Nurses do not have all day to spend feeding one person- thus the tube. It is a convenience for her caregivers.
Schiavo's husband wants to have the tube withdrawn so that schiavo will die of thirst.
It is monsterous, and anyone who believes starving someone to death is an act of mercy is monsterous.
Consider this: If one of our soldiers were to capture a wounded Iraqi and let him lay in a cell, all the while withholding food and water for 9 days or so, until the prisoner died in agony of dehydration, that would be a crime.
And that's exactly what they want to do to this woman.
I don't see any parallel between executing an innocent woman and executing a war criminal. Even if the guy was perfectly healthy, by my rights our soldiers have a duty to put a bullet through his head.