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It is a tragic story.
It is our responsibility to rebuild after we destabilized the nation. Our men over there rebuilding hear the reports of daily deaths, just as we do. The surprise is not that this boy was killed, but that the US forces have shown such restraint so far seeing the positions they are put in daily. Many were saying we'd kill thousands. That did not happen. Today, these men are caught in the fog of war. Whenever someone is out there trying to kill you, this happens. It is tragic that this boy died, but to say it is murder is a too harsh after seeing the immense efforts US forces have taken to minimize civilian casualties in this urban environment. War is constant tragedy, but product is peace and order. The soldier did not mean to do kill a young boy. That is obvious. He meant to take down a sniper. The type of man that hunts him constantly in Iraq, hiding between other non-violent civilians, who racks up on average a US soldier killed per day is what the US soldier was trying to stop.
I beg you to understand this. If you do not believe it from me, please speak with someone you know personally that has seen combat. Maybe they can help you to understand why this is not murder, but a person who made a mistake after being successfully hunted constantly in the streets of Iraq; caught up in the fog of war. Please do not hang this on this soldier who already feels much sorrow for this young boy, and who will have to live with this for the rest of his life. And please give our forces credit for the clean manner in which this fight has been conducted.
We've dropped millions of pounds of ordnance and shot millions of rounds from multitudes of guns in Iraq with unprecedented accuracy and an unprecedented lack of civilian casualties.
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