I think people are missing the point here. Yes, war causes stress, and they were most likely under intense stress while they did what they did. Although that justifies the killing of the armed and unarmed people, it does not justify their behavior. I think this situation is similar to the one a while back involving the two cops who beat a man who was already on the floor with his hands on his head with batons, and then proceeded to high five each afterward.
In regard to the whole civilian and soldier issue, I'll say this. It's easy to criticize soldiers in war when you aren't the one in under huge amounts of stress, just like it's easy to call civilian deaths "unfortunate" and "unavoidable" when you aren't the one having bombs dropped near your home. I'm sure many here would have been offended if after 9/11 other countries came out and said, "although it's unfortunate, civilian deaths as a result of terrorist attacks are unavoidable when you have so much power and influence in the world." Really, in this thread, both sides are right. The deaths of the civilians should never have happened, but the soldiers shouldn't take the blame. Instead the blame for deaths should really be placed on those who are continuing this war (both the US and the terrorists).
Like I said before though, the behavior of the soldiers is a whole different issue.
Edit: I just spaced it out a bit.
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