As if one needed more evidence.
In October, the U.S. launched an airstrike in Afghanistan that killed three children – ages 8, 10, and 12 - while they were gathering firewood (or by some accounts, dung to burn as fuel).
In comments which legal experts and campaigners described as "deeply troubling",army Lt Col Marion Carrington told the Marine Corp Times that children, as well as "military-age males", had been identified as a potential threat because some were being used by the Taliban to assist in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
Residents of three villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province described a terrifying string of attacks in which the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, eventually breaking in to kill within three separate houses. The man gathered 11 bodies, including those of 4 girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.