OK, seems there's two points that should be addressed. The first is the issue of pre-emptiveness. In this particular instance, are you saying that this kid (or whoever) MUST shoot you first in order for you to justify a response? If we did that, we would have lost hundreds or thousands of more troops. Or, as General Patton said so eloquently, "You don't win a war by dying for your country; You win a war by making the other SOB die for his country."

Second is the point of this kid being a child. Now, I would have probably hesitated, but obviously, even if this kid was just picking it up, he would have probably given it to somebody who WOULD have used it. Hey, it's a tough call. Different soldiers probably would have done different things.

As for the rest of your post about "Brown men" I'm not sure what you were trying to get across there.