[Van Jenerette]

"... whether they be enemy or friendly, to be treated with dignity...

The code of honor for most American soldiers includes a respect for the enemy who has the courage to fight him. Unfortunately this code is seldom understood by 'outsiders.'

Van Jenerette - Maj. US Army(ret)

http://www.jenerette.com

[xJones]

Thanks, Van. Of course what the Afghanis did to live Russian POWs was unspeakable, but we are (and should be) held to a higher standard. There's a good reason why we shouldn't leave our wounded or dead behind in Middle Eastern countries. They don't just cut fingers off.

[Ecliptic]

Not sure whha you mean about respect for the enemy....when I was in we were taught and held the concept that anything we could do to get him to die for his country was fair game...being ruthless and unmercyless should be the mind set of a soldier...

I'm not saying I shot prisoners in the back.....but the way I always saw it was it was him or me.....and I'm still here...

[FairOpinion]

"... whether they be enemy or friendly, to be treated with dignity...
The code of honor for most American soldiers includes a respect for the enemy who has the courage to fight him.
=====
How about the enemy who murders our civilians, men, women and children?!
That code of honor is meant, when fighting other soldiers, who happened to be fighting for the enemy, and we may have to kill them to win, but shouldn't dishonor them, because they fight for their cause honorably.

This hardly applies to a bunch of ragtag cowardly terrorists who exactly don't have the courage to fight us, that is why they are attacking our civilian population -- or did you forget, that right now, we are on high alert for terrorist attack.

Those terrorists deserve no respect dead or alive. If anything, their bodies should be wrapped in pigskin, and buried that way, -- and televised -- so according to their beliefs, they won't make it to their paradise. The reason they are in a hurry to die, is because they think that they will go to paradise. Maybe that would serve as a small discouragement.

This Canadian soldier was accused of "desecrating" the body of an Al Qaeda terrorist. To even bring those charges, is ludicrous. The soldier should be decorated, not brought up on charges for killing Al Qaeda. Maybe he should have fed the Al Qaeda body to the pigs. That wouldn't be excessive even.

Or have people forgotten our 3000 innocent civilians, murdered by Al Qaeda, who are plotting to kill many more thousands, even millions of us right now.

[piasa]

This particular enemy doesn't have "courage." If they did, they wouldn't dress as civilians and hide behind other people's families in villages. They would instead have uniforms and do their best to steer clear of civilians so as to keep them from harm.

Al Qaeda are terrorists, not soldiers. Soldiers deserve respect, they fight for their country to protect their people and their people's ideals; terrorists fight in ways that make them a threat to their own people & a threat to their own people's ideals. If they were fighting for their own countries and their own people they would be wearing the uniform of their country. Terrorists are nothing more than selfish individuals who are outside of all law- even that of their own countries.

Terrorists deserve to be humiliated so that other stupid young men and women will never see glory in terrorism and will not wish to become such a martyr. We do not need palestinian style death parades honoring and celebrating the dead. It's much better that the dead be an embarassment that brought dishonor to their kin.

By all means, stuff their hides and mount them over the mantle; or better yet, sew them up in pigskin, or cut them up and let the ravens and vultures consume their widely separated parts. The latter is probably best; and let there be no record of them, that none may turn them into martyrs, or turn their exploits into legends.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Thank you for reminding everyone that we are the higher standard.