Quote Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange View Post
Well, I have to disagree also and support Mike approach and understanding of humanitarian interventiuon.
The guy in front is not a nice guy and even if it's a child, he is using deadly force in some occasions.
ROE and TOE must be looked at with a practical point of view. Being deterent is often the best first step, even in "humanitarian operations".

The main question being how much weight 10 dead US soldiers against 10 kids of 12 to 15 years old.
Lets try this... if the bad guys providing the justification for the humanitarian intervention are all 20-30 year olds I suppose a shoot on sight / shoot to kill policy would be fine?

Now what changes if they, knowing the great concern among western countries (but probably not among most their combat soldiers) about ensuring they don't get drawn into combat with child-soldiers, push some kids into the front line?

Why only on a humanitarian intervention? Why not in Afghanistan also?