The soldiers in the treeline firing their weapons at you are "enemy combatants" and obviously a threat to you and/or your comrades. From experience, you know most will not surrender peacefully. You have a few choices. Conduct a frontal assault with perhaps a platoon-sized unit; or from your current relatively safe positions, direct your and your comrades' small arms fire at the enemy hoping to neutralize the threar; or direct friendly mortar or artillery onto the treeline, followed by a sweep of the area; or call for air support while requesting the mortar platoon mark the treeline with colored smoke. Whatever the decision, the enemy combatants, the young men and women in the treeline, the sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of people in a far country at war with your country, will die or will be horribly wounded. Probably one or more of your comrades, maybe even you, will be killed or wounded. Here's the thing. Your elected officials either declared or authorized this war against another country. Your country's senior generals developed and implemented the strategic plan. Lower-level generals developed and implemented the tactical plans. The colonels, down to corporal squad leaders, set the plans in motion. You, a platoon sergeant, were drafted two years ago. You have absolutely nothing against the "enemy combatants" in the near treeline who are trying to kill you. You wonder if he or she is thinking the same thing. Your orders are to "take that treeline."
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