..."Hopefully I'll find some bad guys and detain them so we can bring them to justice," said Ballance...
That sounds more like policework than the job of a soldier, imho, and I worry about that type of attitude causing losses on our side that could have otherwise been prevented...
The reason for that is the guys going over there ARE cops. They are military cops,psyops specialists,civil affairs specailists,engineers,water purification teams,medical teams,etc,etc,etc. They ain't sending grunts.
That sounds more like policework than the job of a soldier, imho, and I worry about that type of attitude causing losses on our side that could have otherwise been prevented...
No, sir, that's not why this soldier used those words. When you get these people alone they use savage language to describe what they fully intend to do to the bad guys. They know their ultimate mission is to kill, and so far they've done a wonderful job of it, too. We don't hear about the thousands of al-Qaida and Taliban who have been killed. But our soldiers can't speak of that publicly. It's impolitic, unacceptable, indiscreet. They're to use the phraseology of gentlemen when talking to the press.
A friend of mine used very blunt language about wanting to kill some Iraqis and was roundly chastised for it, even though every one of his comrades and his commander were smiling in approval. Our wonderful European allies would deride us as barbarians if we publicly mentioned in a forthright way that almost all Americans would like to see all these devils slaughtered.