Salute!
The civilians caught in the crossfire of some mad man, who wants to kill everything until nothing's left, did not accept to be in that position. I therefore maintain my position that SASless' comments demonstrate a lack of compassion for the innocent.
I will guarantee that we attack pilots where SAS flew and was wounded thought a lot about innocent folks close to the enemy. Our compasion prolly resiulted in more deaths by we "good" guys than necessary to protect the friendly folks.
I never saw or flew with any "mad man" that wanted to kill everything in close air support missions or SAR missions. But all here are free to believe what they wish.
In all fairness, my body count was prolly 200 or 300 poor Vee. Am I proud? Gotta be kidding me. Most were shooting at me. Most were shooting at friends of mine from U.S., Australia, Korea, South Vietnam and so forth.
As I stated earlier, I do not support military actions to either impose or attempt to "nation build" .
There are reasons to support some folks that can play a role in our national interests, but that is not for we grunts to decide. We just ride into the valley and do or die. If we do not agree and live long enuf, then we get out and then call our press conference.
Gums opines...