We encountered the same
Posted By: situation in Vietnam on 2009-05-23
In Reply to: JTBB...I have posted this before and will keep posting until people realize that...... - MT and worn out
Our army was in uniform and quite identifyable. Theirs wore ''black pajamas'' same as most of the Vietnamese people. Their combatants used civilians as shields and decoys. Suicide bombing is not a new concept. There were Viet Cong suicide bombers there, dressed just like everybody else. How do you tell an enemy is an enemy if he's not actually shooting at you?
This is very similar to what goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq today. Do we simply quit fighting because the enemy chooses to endanger his own kinsmen by using them for cover? You cannot negotiate with someone who is eager to absolutely kill himself in order to get you, who is eager to rack up civilian casualties in the thousands for an ideology, or who is willing to use civilian shields or even to sacrifice his own children to wipe you out.
When the US is forced to abandon our usual rules of engagement we are in torment over it. I think it is a testiment ot the national character that we still are capable of feeling badly about this, but we cannot let it determine the outcome. Our enemy does not suffer from the same pangs of conscience.
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