RE:RecondoJoe

[Woke Locc]

Originally Posted by RecondoJoe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There’s no such thing as a confirmed kill. A lot of times you don’t even know if you actually shot someone or not. Had someone fire an RPG at me once when I was behind a 240B. RPG was way over my head, but directly at my humvee. Instantly disengaged the safety and returned fire. It had come from behind a parked car.

Didn’t give it much thought until a few months later when the USA decided they would write checks to pay for collateral damages. One of the houses we stopped at was the same house where I had shot up that car. The man probably had no clue I was the person who shot it up.

He was angry, and I started getting angry when the translator said the guy implied that we shot it for no reason which irked me because I knew who ever owned that car was in on it and they tried to kill me. I got mad and left the house. Here we are handing my tax dollars to someone who tried to kill me. A few moments later, our translator comes out and says that the guy confirmed that I had shot and killed 3 of his sons during that incident.

Had no clue. I felt really confident that I had aimed in the right area for where the RPG came from, and it’s like.... you would think that who ever fired it died, but when you don’t see a body, you don’t believe it. Turns out I got an entire trio of insurgents without a clue in the world.

Have a lot of moments like those where I never know for sure whether or not I hit the person I was shooting at or not. It’s been so long now that it doesn’t even feel real anymore.

That might be a good example of soft power: small payments to the families of terrorists we killed to mollify them going forward.

Probably cheaper than forcible conquest