Death Squads...

[scott.voigt]

This is from the Rumsfield thread. Please continue your posts regarding the moral and ethical problems regarding combat, abuse, and other situations regarding how death squads are illegal and current reasons to use or not use them in conflicts and current happenings.

[scott.voigt]

Here's a good place to start

Originally Posted by ebbabc

Who has said there are death squads to be let loose? I have not heard of this, what is the origin and the URL to confirm this?

And - just as a matter of curiosity, what do you call people who are taught to kill (soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen etc.) and sent into a war situation to fight and destroy the enemy? Why have they been taught for centuries how to use knives, guns, swords to kill those who would kill them? I guess what it amounts to is, trained military could be called 'death squads' - but infantrymen and bombardiers etc. sounds much more civilized and better.

Bottom line - Isn't the basic job the same? Just my inquisitive mind at work.

Originally Posted by caldrick

I will answer your And question first.

A soldier is an honorable and great sacrifice for their nation. Yes even those lowly Iraqi's who fought us in 2003 on a battlefield. Yet they are not "death squads" they are soldiers and they are honorable. They are taught the use of warfare be it knives, clubs, axes, or M16 is to defend and fight for their cause and nation. Trained military is not a death squad, they are an instrument of defense, they are our protectors and guardians of our freedom. They are not murderers or bandits. They do not execute a fallen enemy. They show them mercy because that is our way of life. We embrace life, and if our enemy drops his weapon in front of our awesome fire power and leaves us to his mercy then we are sworn to protect them. We are sworn not by some silly oath given at a MEPS station, but by an oath we are raised with. One that says human life is special and should be protected.

The infantrymen is a man of honor and duty. He dies for us, we should remember his name for eternity. The men who died at the gates of the Rhine River or the Potomac. These are not death squads who put another man on their knees (or even women and children) and shoot them in the back of the head. These are men who fight and live through a fear will never understand. These are honorable men who give their rations to children, who take a prisoner and treat him with respect of a fallen enemy.

The Death Squad is a killer, his sole purpose is to kill for political aims, no matter the justification. Germany in WWII had such men, they were normal people, lawyers, factory workers, fathers, husbands no different from me. They went into the field and they were told to execute their orders. First they started with men, because it is easier for a young soldier to kill men, later when they were hardened to their duty they started executing women. Terrorist, partisans they called them. Then they were so hard that they were ordered to execute children. They shot them and poisoned them by the millions. Many Germans balked at the idea of killing women and children, some still remained part of humanity. They justified killing "terrorist" in the cause of the greater good. They drunk themselves into a stupor at night to forget what they did during the day. Soon when the so-called "weak" where in hospitals because of nervous breakdowns they called on the core of harden men to lead millions of humans to their death. They shot them, children yelling and crying for their mothers, never knowing they were just a pawn for politics and racial ignorance. Never understanding that because they were born in a land they must be exterminated.

These killers started out as Infantrymen, they were honorable men who fought in France and gave water and food to their fallen enemy. They were men who had children who they loved. But they were turned through brutality and injustice into killers with robotic minds. They hated life, they hated the Jews and Communist Terrorist, they hated their families they once loved. They hated in their dreams in their waking hours. They had become the ultimate extermination squad. They were called Einzatgruppen, they were murderers and criminals who had once been teachers, lawyers, scientist, husbands and fathers. They killed in the name of protection against terrorist and insurgents. They were and became animals.

Is that far fetched? Maybe but when we brutalize our troops and make them think that extermination is the key to victory they are so honorable and duty bound they will execute any order in the name of victory. Some think of them as some alien that invaded us, this Nazi Death Squads, but they were not they were Caldric, or Odannyboy, John, Bluehawk, Hannible. They were great soldiers once. Some where infantrymen.


I will not give you many links just look at this one:
http://www.trackpads.com/forum/showthread.php?t=277794

But just do a Google on the subject and you will find all you need to know.

[RetPara]

Death Squads or a modern Phoenix program?

Phoenix worked until the locals started using it to even up old grudges and eliminate business competition.

Leadership cadre are valid ambush and raid targets. If you support an insurgency you become part of the insurgency.

Raids into Syria are best done by Iraqis.

Death Squads.... a little over dramatic I think...

[scott.voigt]

agreed

[Snowden]

Death squads. What, exactly, is meant by this term? Are we talking about guerilla warfare, where the civilians form groups to overcome an enemy as the French Underground did in WWII? To kill an enemy without the people being army trained?

Or are we referring to the more sophisticated SEALS, Commandoes of WWII, or Special Forces - which are trained for hand-to-hand combat and, sadly, are a very necessary part of our military?

The term is ubiquitous to me; I would prefer a precise definition if that is possible. If I think "death squad," per se, I am more apt to think in terms of the suicide bombers we see used against our forces in the Mid East. Now those are children and adults - and death is all they are after. Ours and theirs. I believe they are the true "death squads."

[Caldric]

Originally Posted by Snowden

Death squads. What, exactly, is meant by this term? Are we talking about guerilla warfare, where the civilians form groups to overcome an enemy as the French Underground did in WWII? To kill an enemy without the people being army trained?

Or are we referring to the more sophisticated SEALS, Commandoes of WWII, or Special Forces - which are trained for hand-to-hand combat and, sadly, are a very necessary part of our military?

The term is ubiquitous to me; I would prefer a precise definition if that is possible. If I think "death squad," per se, I am more apt to think in terms of the suicide bombers we see used against our forces in the Mid East. Now those are children and adults - and death is all they are after. Ours and theirs. I believe they are the true "death squads."

In general history they are both regular and irregular forces. It would be like creating terrorist cells and allowing them free reign to kill who they chose. That is how it always turns out. Actually they are terrorist cells, they bomb, murder etc.

In El Salvador the death squads started out doing as they should, by the end they were exterminating whole villages, nuns, preist, old enemies, political rivals, a man with a pretty wife so someone else could have her etc.