Food for thought. On two counts.

[Quartus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3917421.stm

Fatema Safar was hit during a gun battle in Kabul, her family say, as the hardline Islamic Taleban movement took control of the city.

Doctors say a 3cm bullet (1.2in) is embedded near the top of her nose.

It is corroding and could kill her unless it is removed, according to the Tokyo-based charity helping her.

Fatema has been admitted to hospital and will be operated on next Wednesday.

She has been suffering from chronic headaches since she was shot, and has lost the sight in her left eye, a spokesperson from the charity, Aid for War Orphans in Asia, says.

Hollywood would have us believe (and has many believing!) that a bullet in the head is a guaranteed instant death. Not in real life. There are no guarantees when it comes to shooting. Men have been known to take a 12 ga. slug solidly and keep on coming. Bullets have bounced off skulls. Strange things happen. You do what you can to increase your odds.

That's all you can do. There are no guarantees.




On another note, I'm glad she's getting help. War isn't just about killing enemy soldiers 'who are scum and deserve to die'. Sometimes it's about killing or maiming innocent children.

 

[carebear]

Sometimes it's about killing or maiming innocent children.

In our case, as policy and in practice with few exceptions, that's without the intent to cause that harm and with the intent to help fix it afterward if possible. It's an important ethical and moral distinction.

But you know that.

"No better friend, no worse enemy."

 

[Quartus]

It's an important ethical and moral distinction.

Absolutely!


BUT, some folks seem to forget that - good intentions notwithstanding - innocents do suffer in war. There are just too many people who take war too casually. Witness the thread on Israeli ammunition. Too many people basically saying, "screw them, we'll kill them too!"

 

[4V50 Gary]

WoG - will of God I suppose. I've read of many strange things during the American Civil War too where a person should have been dead but the bullet was stopped by small notebooks, Bibles or even penetrating the skin, travelling around the skull and exiting the other side. OUCH!

 

[Scott Conklin]

That last isn't merely from Civil War times. I remember an article talking about a police shooting in, I believe, the 70's where an officer shot a suspect(I believe the goblin had just killed this cop's partner, in fact) at a distance of a couple feet, if not less, and the bullet did that. Old, slow .38 ball if memory serves. And, again IIRC, the goblin proceeded to keep on coming and kill that LEO as well.

 

[LAK]

Not to argue the point that was being made; but this one sounds to me like she caught a stray that came from afar off - or perhaps was slowed by some intervening barriers.

 

[croyance]

Many have flubbed suicide attempts - gun to the head, boom, and survive. Then again, there are those who die from the escaping gas from a blank.

 

[tyme]

Yes, lucky, but was it a direct shot or was it a ricochet?

A 1.2" bullet is probably not old, slow .38 ball.