RE: Atchisson & Able Team...

["Robert J. Hansen" <rjhansen@xxxxxxxx>]

> 	Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is the .50 'I was firing at his
> webbing' tale?

It's not a tale.

The .50 Browning round was originally designed to hunt tanks, and it
still serves that purpose quite well today.  According to the Geneva
Accords, though, antitank weapons can only be used against armor and war
materiel--they cannot be used against infantry.

When I asked a Marine sniper a few years ago about the legality of using
a .50 on human targets, he pointed out to me the following things:

	1.  It's legal to destroy war materiel... like uniforms.
	2.  If somebody happens to be in the uniform at the time, they're
collateral damage.
	3.  The definition of a `war crime' is a construct of law, and war
crimes are tried in courts of law.
	4.  The Pentagon is the biggest employer of lawyers in the world.
	5.  The US never signed the Geneva Accords anyway, so the point is
moot.  But never forget that the Pentagon has hordes of lawyers.


... I have yet to find any evidence to suggest he was wrong on any
point.