I deleted it because you were right. it was badly said. that statement I made was not correct.
I'm not saying that it is too complex to figure it out, I'm saying that you can't have certainty, or even a reasonable degree of certainty, that whatever action is taken will be safe. there are legal and ethical questions to consider before the shot and they will be asked again after. With any shot fired there is a risk, right? it's impossible to prove, or even reach a high degree of certainty that something is safe.
Quote:
|
]It's all very simple. The legal justification for self-defense is not a blanket justification to endanger the lives of anyone nearby a threat. Of course there's always some risk once the shooting starts, but society expects people to be "reasonable".
|
I've said that. I never meant to say that one could just shoot and not worry about who else can get hurt. There are times that the carrier just has to stand down and hope for the best.
Quote:
|
Someone shooting from a car isn't justification for assuming that everyone in the car must be a threat and shooting back indiscriminately. We are required to be "reasonable" in our response. If we can't see a threat, we don't get to "nuke the area" just to be sure. The innocent people who would be endangered by that approach have lives that are no less valuable to society than our own.
|
You guys both seem to believe that I accept the idea of shooting at targets that may, or do have people in the background in order to save my own life. No, I'm not. I don't believe that my life is so valuable that I can risk the life of another. If you knew me you would understand that as a fact. I don't think that anyone should.
At amirayah we bombed a public building based on intelligence that identified it as a communications center. We knew at the time that it had been used in the past as a civilian bomb shelter. Yet we still sent bombers, knowing that saddam was using human shields, knowing that there were probably civilians. hundreds died.
It's the same discussion. I never touched on the legality because that's part and parcel about whether you can justify shooting at bystanders. quite often It's not possible to know beyond doubt that a background is safe.
Don't bomb the bunker. There will be times when a person will have to stand down because of risk to others.