While she may not have been yours or my hero, I think her actions are still pretty heroic.
Yeah, she's a victim of this fucked up war.

She was a mother of three and willingly went overseas to fight for a cause that she thought was just and noble. I'd say that should make her a hero in anyone's book.

Does the belief that your actions are nobel constitute nobility?

Does the belief that you're acting heroically mean that you're a hero?

Whose beliefs are we talking about here? Most every soldier and Marine believes that they are doing at least some amount of good for that country.
If you put your self in a situation where you can be shot and killed, all so you can do your best to help people, I would say that qualifies as noble.
And for a mother to risk her life to help people that will never affect her life constitutes nobility.
Many people have differing definitions of "Hero."
I would define a hero as someone that takes actions to help others without thought of personal gain, and often at personal risk. Going by that, I would definitely call her a hero.

by your definition the guy that fired the rocket might be a hero too.

heroism has overtones of tragedy and stupidity. i am not so sure i want to be a hero.

leaving 3 kids without a mother is more on the tragic side i think, especially in an illegal war.

i really feel for the family, this sucks, but damn, this is why you shouldn't join the army and agree to serve in whatever war some politician thinks is profitable.

lots of iraqis dead too you know, many of them not in the army. sorry to be harsh in a thread about a single instance but it's for the sake of debate, i am not hating on the dead here.

"Most every soldier and Marine believes that they are doing at least some amount of good for that country. If you put your self in a situation where you can be shot and killed, all so you can do your best to help people, I would say that qualifies as noble."

But the truth of the matter is that we're doing more harm than good.

The truth is this: what we are doing in Iraq is neither nobel nor heroic.

It is for those reasons that we must bring our troops home as fast as possible.

If it were not for the ignobility of our leaders, this mother of three would still be alive today.

Truth is subjective to the believer.

top comments both of ya... i think this is very much a macro/micro thing.
if you look at the big picture, it's 99% clear that very naughty warcrimes have been committed, even if you support the aim and outcome, it's freaking illegal for very good historic reasons.
but if you consider this one case, it would be very unfair to say anything bad about what she did.
but personally i would be a conscientious objector unless my family was directly threatened, in which case i hope i would have the guts to fight for what i believed in... i was a cadet after all.
but never would i sign up for some random president's whim or to prevent a theoretical future crisis based on nonexistent evidence.