Kev – I anticipated your response by enclosing the word terrorists in inverted commas.

I would respectfully suggest that training a man to directly fire on civilians in the field of conflict is quite different from being trained to sit at a screen in an aircraft, ship or bunker and press a button, at the bottom of a chain of command from the President or Prime Minister.

I didn’t say we never needed benchmarks. I questioned their relevance in the context of the debate we are having.

Kev – I am discussing the point raised in the OP’s post when he talked about the unintentional killing of civilians by NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am not discussing the intentional killing of civilians by “terrorists”.

You allude to this is the first sentence of your second paragraph.

Weapons of mass destruction are indeed still stockpiled by the “superpowers”, although these have been reduced by various treaties in the last 20 years. I have no doubt that in the extremely unlikely case that a third party launched a nuclear weapon against the West we would retaliate and I agree in that case there would be massive loss of civilian life on all sides. However that has strayed from the point of the discussion.

Tornado – I don’t see the relevance of your comment in the context of this particular discussion. Whatever happended in the past is in the past. I am talking about NOW. What do we need benchmarks for?

I actually wrote “…IS NEVER the intention…..” not was. I am speaking of the present and present conflicts, which is what I thought the thread was about. Past conflicts have been debated elsewhere many times and will continue to be so.

From the latest reports it would appear that the BBC is wrong – not for the first time. Quoting fiction as fact is a symptom of the need to be the first with a story. As one of our members has as his signature – “never let the facts get in the way of a good story”.

:D:D

Or better still, “Eh”, the craft lands and a sensient being emerges to greet you!;):)

Actually it hasn´t anything to do with the Spanish cucumbers which are excellent. Millions of Spaniards eat cucumbers at a daily basis (in fact is a vital part of Gazpacho) and we don´t have a single illness case. Today analysis have shown that cucumbers are safe.

I wonder why some words said without thinking about the implications could harm a sector such as agriculture in Spain. We are not amused about it. :confused:

You are right – nothing has been proved yet. We suffered far worse with the cattle disease which was shown after the event to have been a massive over-reaction from just about everyone involved and decimated our beef industry for years. Such is the nature of foul rumour. So be thankful it is only cucumbers!!:)

BSG – that made me smile. How strange that there appears to have been silence following “that” soccer match. I fully expected to be regaled by dozens of happy soccer fans revelling in a wonderful match. But perhaps the wrong side won…….;);):diablo: