It’s never okay to kill non-combatants in war. Never. The Law of Armed Conflict, a series of international agreements concerning the conduct of warfare, and which my fellow vets and I have had drilled into us constantly during our service, forbids such and correctly labels it a war crime.
The first principle of LOAC is distinction: “In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” This is why civilized, responsible combatants wear uniforms – to show the other side who it’s okay to shoot at.
The problem is, not since Vietnam – and even then, not all combatants – have our enemies distinguished themselves from the surrounding civilian populace. The NVA wore uniforms; the Viet Cong did not.
Nor do the terrorist pieces of shit we’ve been fighting since 2001. They deliberately hide among civilians and illegally site warfighting equipment in LOAC-protected civilian structures—so that when we respond to their attacks, WE’RE the bad guys in the international press and among the American left – exactly as the terrorists want. NOTE: Placing military equipment in a protected structure – school, hospital, etc. – causes the structure to lose its protection under LOAC. Therefore, we’re free to blow the mosque to hell—and we’ve done so when warranted. And there’s nothing the terrorist-lovers can do about it.
America is a civilized nation, and despite what some believe, we fight wars in a civilized manner.