Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Iraqi Assault: While Iraqi terrorists are dressing up as civilians and ambushing our soldiers, we're still not allowed to scare them. That seems to be the rule now that a U.S. lieutenant colonel has been charged with assault of an Iraqi terrorist working as a police officer there. During an interrogation, the U.S. officer was able to get information of a planned strike on U.S. soldiers in time to foil the attack.

According to The Washington Times, the accused U.S. officer says he fired his pistol away from the detained Iraqi to scare him enough to spill the information.

Remember that "assault", in legal terms, does not mean actual harm came to the victim. "Assault" means to threaten harm, whereas "assault and battery" means to cause physical harm. So because the U.S. officer scared his enemy with his gun to get life-saving information, he may be court-martialed and sent to jail.