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RB, I have no interest in making a meta-argument. That would simply piss both of us off. I'll simply say that I don't agree with the idea that there's a great social prohibition against killing - the fact that murder/homocide is more prevalent than incest lends itself to my argument. Then again, I think that humanity is fatally flawed, and you probably don't.
As for the incident, let's remembering that the US actors in this are men who have VOLUNTEERED for the training you mentioned. That's important. For infantrymen, pulling the trigger for the first time in combat is the culmination of a life's goal. Well, for the 50% that aren't the slack-jawed yokels Plan9 mentioned.
Now, I'll conceed that it's possible that a "war crime" occurred here. I don't give it much credence, but it's possible. Perhaps our triggerman would admit under oath that pulling that trigger gave him the biggest stiffy of his life and that he had sticky shorts the rest of the day. More likely, he erred and mistook one thing for another. That's not a crime. It's a tragedy, but it's not a crime.
As Walt said, some of these people had no business being anywhere near this scene. Any self-respecting parent drives away from gunfire.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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