This article in the New York Times is sickening. Yes, that’s right. The New York Times. Not some no-name foreign rag with an axe to grind.

Some quotes from Either Take a Shot or Take a Chance:

“We dropped a few civilians,” Sergeant Schrumpf said, “but what do you do?”

To illustrate, the sergeant offered a pair of examples from earlier in the week.

“There was one Iraqi soldier, and 25 women and children,” he said, “I didn’t take the shot.”

But more than once, Sergeant Schrumpf said, he faced a different choice: one Iraqi soldier standing among two or three civilians. He recalled one such incident, in which he and other men in his unit opened fire. He recalled watching one of the women standing near the Iraqi soldier go down.

“I’m sorry,” the sergeant said. “But the chick was in the way.”

She wasn’t a “chick,” Sargent Slaughter. She was somebody’s daughter. Or sister. Or wife. Or mother. And now she’s another notch on your scorecard. You killed her without a second thought.

The Iraqis are bastards for taking hostages, don’t get me wrong. But why is there absolutely no remorse in that soldier’s words? What would Patton say? Where is the honor that used to characterize our military?

I fully support our troops protecting themselves, even if I don’t support their being deployed in such an asinine war. It is, after all, the Department of Defense, not Offense. But the total lack of compassion this man shows after just killing an innocent human being is nothing less than appalling.