How Do You Tell The Difference?

Eight GIs were charged with murder in the case of the killings of everyone in a house from which they were attacked, in Iraq, after one of their number was killed from within. My question is, "How do you tell the difference" between combatants and innocent civilians when the person shooting at you might be a child" and nobody (except us) wears a uniform? One of my brothers had to kill a 9-year-old boy (I think) in Viet Nam after the kid had just blown the head off his sergeant, to keep this kid from killing him. I think this has haunted him his entire life since. Fact is, the combatant in Iraq who is shooting at you might just be a 7-year-old child or a woman -- or a man dressed as a woman to fool you. Not only that, the Islamic terrorists routinely put innocent civilians in harm's way so they can claim we killed innocent people on purpose. Never mind they do it all the time -- on purpose. I sincerely hope military officials take this into consideration. (Yahoo News, 12/21/06)