There are 8 choices, 12 votes for caylierose's debate

Is it murder if your at war with a country and you kill an inocent bystander?

if you are at war with a country is it murder to shoot inocent bystanders.
  • Yes, killing is murder
    For that matter, killing an enemy soldier is murder. While you may say it is done with just cause, i imagine most people believe their cause for murder is just, or at least justified. Whether it is a bystander, an enemy soldier, or a person rushing you with a knife that you kill, it is still murder.
    25%  Voted for by magicalhats15, Wild Wolf, pnktrky.
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  • Yes
    but we call it "colatteral damage". Its such bullshit
    16%  Voted for by Hardhittn63, inksplatterskitty.
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  • NO
    First off, two terms need to be defined: war and murder. Merriam-Webster defines murder as "the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought." And Carl von Clausewitz has given what has become the most widely accepted definition of war; "was is an extension of policy by other means."
    The awful, yet simple, truth is that innocent people die in wars.

    Let's say Country A and Country B declare war against each other. (That is to say they engage in a legal fight.) Country B orders it's troops to invade Country A, however Country A sets out on a counter attack. The two country's armies meet in a small village where a battle engages. Country B overpowers Country A; the last few troops from Country A call in an air strike to keep Country B from advancing. Causualties: as a result of the air strike the last remaning troops who called in the air strike are dead, as are the rest of the members of their unit, and nearby villagers who couldn't escape during the fighting. Are the soldiers from Country A murderers for calling in an air strike that resulted in the death of non comabtants? or did they save more lives by keeping the battle contained and cutting off Country B's opportunity to advance?

    Yes, soldiers shoot to kill but we serve to protect. Marksmanship and battledrills go hand-in-hand with the rules of engagement. You follow your training and your instinct, but sometimes shit just happens; sometimes non combatants are on the battlefield and we're not in a position to do anything about it. We try the best we can, but this isn't the movies and we're not Bruce Willis.
    16%  Voted for by sekmhet eye of ra, NeferMaatNetjer.
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  • yes its murder
    i believe if you kill some one its murder. even if we are at war with their country. it is not right to kill inocent people.
    Voted for by caylierose.
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  • Depends
    Is this an accident, or a purposeful killing?
    Voted for by Weydon.
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  • Killing in the name
    it is not in legal terms...but morally murder is muder. How can someone go to prison for murder yet as a country we can kill so many, because we think we are right? Why can't I go to war with someone I don't like? They cannot say because it is a combined choice for war...the people have no say regardless of vote. My voice has been murdered!
    Voted for by Wild Wolf.
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  • yes, if they are a bystander
    if you are fighting someone and your life depends on them dying, it is not murder, but if you kill someone who isnt trying to kill you, it is murder
    Voted for by Kazrith.
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  • No. there is a difference
    War is cruel. there is no two ways about that. it is brutal, and in war, innocent people die. that is the harsh reality of things. Civilians are not supposed to be targeted, but they are often cought in the thick of things. even combattants are usually not there by choice. often they are drafted involuntarily. But the artilleryman who's shells hit a civilian house, or the Air-Force pilot who's bombs hit a civilian building, is not killing innocent people intentionally. He is merely trying to end the war in the quickest way possible, by destroying an enemy's means of combat. In WWII, the USAAF carpet-bombed German cities and factories, places where civilains worked, and thousands of civilians died. Why? Because by destroying German industrial centers, we destroyed the means by which the Nazis could produce weopons of war. If we had'nt, this conversation might very well have been in German.

    Murder, on the other hand, is the selfish taking of another person's life, either for personal gain, revenge, or sadistic pleasure. Not that those reasons have not been behind wars, but that is the fault of policy-makers, not servicemen. Who were the real murderers during the Holocaust? the SS troopers who rounded up the Jews and sent them to the camps to be gassed, or the Nazi officials who brainwashed them into blind obedience, who told them to, and threatened to shoot them if they didn't?
    Voted for by NeferMaatNetjer.
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