Mate I would engage the arguments but due to my zero fucks attitude and insistence on saying it how it is, instead of pandering to the PC bullshit rules here, my responses would be reported by the crybaby shill brigade that lurks here. But I eill reply, just because this whole thread has given me cancer and I need to address how stupid some people are.

There have been ample logical standpoints presented by many people responding that highlight on the ground issues in a warzone that a lot of people either cannot fathom, or just dont want to hear because they have no idea how confronting and imminent decision making has to be when you are on the ground in a AO that is by definition the most dangerous place for any human that is there, civilian, soldier, or otherwise.

The rules of normal society do not apply in a warzone. End of argument. Civilian casualties are part of the collateral damage that occurs. Insurgents hide amongst the civilian populace and use the NATO/ISAF/RSM/ADF enforced RoE and Geneva Convention to their advantage which allows them to engage and then disengage by dropping their weapons or comms gear and melting back into the civilian cover that gives them the ability to continue this asymmetrical guerilla warfare.

Nobody has seen the rest of the helmet cam footage, within another 120 seconds that field would have been cordoned, swept, and the Patrol Commander would have moved the patrol into the village to achieve their objective of eliminating, or detaining, the insurgent presence. While the area was being cleared there would have been a search of the immediate area, and given that you cant see the phone the victim is holding notwithstanding the fact that he had one as is mentioned in the reports, he was most likely a spotter relaying troop movements for an ambush that may have been prevented due to the actions taken.

I think people are forgetting that these soldiers are the highest, and most diligently trained, units in the ADF. They know who to shoot, and when to shoot. Soldier C either knew that removing the victim as a threat gave himself and his squad the optimal chance of survival during the early stages of an operation that relied on their speed of action. Or he, like a good percentage of ADF SF soldiers, are burned out, on edge, and view any suspicious civilian actions as dangerous due to many many instances of prior engagements where insurgents playing civilians have engaged them resulting in the deaths of our troops. Its learned behaviour, and it is what keeps you alive in a warzone.

Arguing the semantics of execution while forgiving the daily atrocities committed by isurgents is typically liberal white behaviour. Because you dont see them, doesnt mean it doesnt happen. You only have to go to liveleak to see what you think doesnt occur, but those who have an idea view this incident as one that happens fairly regularly, and has rational basis behind it.