[sinkspur]

Moreover, it is highly likely that a good percentage of those killed - including women and children - were in fact acting on behalf of the insurgents, or were aware of and sympathetic to their activities.

What is a proportionate response to being "sympathetic" to insurgents? To the children of those who are "sympathetic" to insurgents?

[Steve_Seattle]

"What is a proportionate response to being "sympathetic" to insurgents?"

The proportionate response is governed by the rules of warfare. My comment was not intended as a justification for killing insurgent sympathizers, but merely to point out that there are many civilian collaborators - including women and children - so that it is difficult to tell the difference between mere sympathizers and actual collaborators, especially when the insurgents base themselves in civilian areas.

[Steve_Seattle]

To finish my point: when civilians cozy up with the insurgents, act as lookouts, act as spies, offer aid and comfort, allow their homes to be used as staging areas for attacks, these situations become almost inevitable. It's a mark of the professionalism of our soldiers that there haven't been dozens of incidents like this. And keep in mind what this story is distracting everyone from: the deliberate killing of unarmed civilians is the DAILY practice of the insurgents, not of the U. S. Marines.