Cloud No.9, what I get out of your argument is that since some soldiers do bad things then not all combat soldiers can be considered heroes, even the ones that don't commit something bad. We all agree that those soldiers should not be called heroes. The thing is, why should every combat soldiers reputation have to suffer because of those bad grape actions. Is it not possible that every combat soldier could be considered a hero except those that commit war crimes and loose the right to be called a hero. The combat soldiers reputation shouldn't have to suffer because of some bad grapes. Those bad grapes cold have been considered a hero too before doing bad things in a wartime situation and therefor loosing the hero status.

if you rounded up jews on trains for auschwitz are you a hero? were the shootings in uzbekistan heroic? was bloody sunday heroic? geurnica? dunkirk? were the japanese heroic when the captured soliders and sent them to certain death?
To us, no they are not heroes, but to the countries/ideals they served, those people did consider them a hero. All through this thread we've shown that hero is a point of view. I'm sure your Englishman who earned the vc(?) medal isn't considered a hero by the Iraqi insurgants.