Inside a T72 Tank Turret

[old tanker]

I remember having the airborne qualified types taking umbrage when teaching how much lead was required to engage paratroopers with a coax machine gun. After they got done whining about the Geneva convention and all that, they were reminded that the stricture against shooting people in parachutes was for abandoning aircrew. Their airplane is broke. If the airplane is not broke, you can shoot at the people who willingly jump out of it.

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[Ovidio]

I remember having the airborne qualified types taking umbrage when teaching how much lead was required to engage paratroopers with a coax machine gun. After they got done whining about the Geneva convention and all that, they were reminded that the stricture against shooting people in parachutes was for abandoning aircrew. Their airplane is broke. If the airplane is not broke, you can shoot at the people who willingly jump out of it.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...fig68gif-1.jpg

Also, the Paratroopers should not shoot down at people, a thing the Warsaw Pact troops were taught to do, if I'm not wrong...
Actually, I remembered that thing about not shooting at Paratroopers too, but we too were told how to aim at them...
Still, with all due respect, I have never understood how people can really believe that those who fight, kill, maim and get killed, and maimed will all behave in a humane or fair way.
What is fair? Humane? To wait for an enemy to get dangerous to you and your comrades is fair or humane? Or is it plain stupid?
If you were prohibited to shoot at Paratroopers while they are coming down, would any of us really wait until they touch ground before shooting the hell out of them?
Also, many other military operations just won't allow troops to take prisoners, e.g. reconnaissance or combat patrols...
What is a war crime really?
What I consider criminal (shooting prisoners, for example) is something I might have ordered to do (or done myself in case of need) if I had found myself as patrol leader (which was one of the things we trained most) in enemy territory.
Shooting civilians, that is something I would consider criminal under any law, but are we sure there is no situation where something like that is in some ways necessary?
All the talk now about the war in Ukraine sounds so phoney to me...
They are butchering themselves there. What is a legit target, which actions are morally reprehensible? Only those who fight can tell it.
And the Lord when their time will come...