Asking a soldier to patrol an active hostile area carrying a weapon with no rounds violates any rules of war. You have created a situation in which the soldier is a legitimate legal war target without giving him any means to fight back or defend himself. This is against the rules of war.
I know the enemy would probably fire weather or not the soldier is ‘armed’ (and I say that lightly) but it is known that soldiers will shoot the threat first, i.e., an armed person. An unarmed soldier is less likely to garner the immediate ‘with extreme violence’ response.
An unarmed soldier is not a soldier, he is simply a target.
“An unarmed soldier is not a soldier, he is simply a target.”
I fully agree. However, in this case they are not unarmed. The magazine is inserted, they just haven’t pulled the charging handle yet and then go off safe. They are definitely going to respond slower to an attack, but they can still respond.
Now that being said, I do NOT agree with these restrictions on patroling soldiers. A few seconds of delay can get you killed, or others, very quickly. If our troops are going to “patrol” in areas where they could draw fire, then they need to be “locked and loaded.”