[Black Baron]

I believe that i had adressed the issue of rampaging soldiers before, but i am willing to do so again. These soldiers are a minority that journalists like to record. Since that everyone cries out loud when such things happen, you think that we have lots of it. Surprise we do not. More over, such cases (in percentage) are far less than the percentage of cases in USA Army. Our army has a very sophisticated and advanced code of honour, and code of behaviour. Mainly due to the fact that we cannot allow ourselves what USA Army can allow to itself.

Now to another point. Why does it happen?
True, we have some number of maniacs and lunatics.
In a war when you have HC involved (hostile citizens) apart from the main fighting force (Hamas, jihad etc), you as a soldier face constantly great strain. You know that any second you may get a bullet into your head from any direction (compare to a battle field when you are protected from the rear, and you know that the guys in green are friends and in grey are enemies). Every little kid (My captain had told us that once he was shot at by a 5 year girl while being in Tul-Karm. Considering the propoganda that the palestinians constantly feed to their children and youth, it is not that impossible) can produce a pistol and shoot you. A kid big enough to carry rpg may shoot you. But hey! Unless they show some weapon, you may not shoot them. The constant asking -Who is he/she? is he/she a terrorrist or a civilian?-bores into ones mind untill soldier goes nuts. Then he shoots just to relief himself of the strain

The same thing was by the way in vietnam. USA soldiers did not have that code of honour, so the percentage of soldiers wiping out villages (which we do not do) and soldiers killing civilians was much higher.

If you wish to understand how soldier truly feels, when he faces such a situation, talk to some vietnam veterans. One may compare PLO cities to vietnam in that aspect.