[BluffTHIS!]

Your buddy is still on the soft core stuff. I have seen actual army footage of soldiers on the island campaigns in WWII using a flame thrower to clear out caves of Japanese soldiers (this isn't stuff that has ever been on the history channel). What killed them wasn't necessarily the flames if they were in deep enough, but asphyxiation due to the flames comsuming all the oxygen. Then the footage showed the insides afterwards. The results weren't pretty.

But as for the morality of US soldiers killing in Iraq, if they are following the rules of engagement and thus only fighting with those fighting them, then they are merely defending their own lives. And since the insurgency is targeted not just at US military but also the lawfully and democratically elected Iraqi government, then those insurgents cannot claim to be in the moral right, because they are only engaged when they initiate such action or refuse arrest for their crimes.