It’s not like this is a really new problem… we’ve been dealing with it since the Philippine War.
But, when mothers are teaching their kids to be suicide bombers… are the mothers fair game?
And, for those who haven’t done a lot of thinking on this issue, although I don’t read him regularly, I would really suggest that the following essay by Bill Whittle, Sanctuary, should be required reading.
Happycrow's Eyeball Factory 
blackpine
/ March 4, 2008Yes.
If you don’t want people to fight while wearing civilian clothes, then send your finest soldiers to efficiently and cheerfully shoot anyone in the new enemy uniform. Explain that it’s hard to keep track, so you made it simple for your troops. Explain that if there was a uniform, then you might know how to tell the difference.
If you don’t want military sites in population centers, carpet bomb the centers. THen when the heroic resistance of whomever puts a missilie battery in an apartment block, the block will empty out, revealing its position. Explain that you consider apartment buildings to be bunkers.
And if you want mothers to stay out of troop training, then treat them as support personnel for military operations and kill them.
All of our accords came out of events like the 100 Years War. We weren’t civilized, we just got tired of armies who killed everybody. We didn’t mind killing everybody ourselves, but we wanted to come home and find our town above ground. So, we made a deal with their killers: we won’t kill yours if you don’t kill ours.
Mike
/ March 4, 2008I agree in theory, but the reality is we can’t do that. This is why we have such great door-kickers now. We had to develop them since the old school way of kicking the door in and tossing 2 frags inside is now un-PC. We have to kick the door in, enter the room through a nice murder-hole (a door which channels everyone into a small area and makes it much easier to kill someone), and while doing this be able to shoot only the badguys and no innocents. If we shoot an innocent non-combatant, we are automatically guilty of war crimes and should be imprisoned.
Honestly, I would love to have a commander do it the old fashion way and then just be brutally blunt about it. “Yeah, I told them to do it, better them then me having to write that troopers parents a “We are sorry to inform you…” letter. What, you would rather have a dead American? No, I am not changing the subject, that is the simple question. Either you want our boys alive or you want them in a situation that makes it more probable they die, sorry no middle-neutral what if ground for you today.”