The JSSDF

[Gorbatschow]

That's where we likely part ways.

My definition of "unarmed" is that they pose no immediate danger to the life and wellbeing to conscious creatures. This includes things like having their hand on the big red button. If someone has their finger on the proverbial button, then they are NOT unarmed.

And I don't see any justification for killing anyone that is unarmed. I might capture them for trials for things that they did, but I will not kill them.

I personally would do so too, it's also one of the reasons I don't agree with the death penalty. If I'd have the opportunity to choose the penalty for an (in my view) completely evil person and choose between (more or less) painless death and being in jail until the end of his life, I'd choose the jail. (It's the bigger penalty) But still I can understand the reaction "kill'em" when it comes to the guys who plan the apocalypse.

[monitoradiation]

I personally would do so too, it's also one of the reasons I don't agree with the death penalty. If I'd have the opportunity to choose the penalty for an (in my view) completely evil person and choose between (more or less) painless death and being in jail until the end of his life, I'd choose the jail. (It's the bigger penalty) But still I can understand the reaction "kill'em" when it comes to the guys who plan the apocalypse.

Yeah but keep in mind we're making a judgement on what the JSSDF was shown to DO in EoE; not what you'd do personally. Regardless of what they thought about necessary evils, it is simply morally indefensible to shoot innocent civilians, just like the double-tap drone strikes that we've been hearing about in the news that take out first responders.

[Gorbatschow]

[...] it is simply morally indefensible to shoot innocent civilians, just like the double-tap drone strikes that we've been hearing about in the news that take out first responders.

The point I'm trying to make is, that it's very likely that the JSSDF was told, that EVERYBODY was involved in planning and executing the apocalypse and therefore guilty. Doesn't it sound weird to assume, that there were civilians present in the main quarter of the "evil-new-world-order-apocalypse-organisation of evil" ?

[monitoradiation]

The point I'm trying to make is, that it's very likely that the JSSDF was told, that EVERYBODY was involved in planning and executing the apocalypse and therefore guilty. Doesn't it sound weird to assume, that there were civilians present in the main quarter of the "evil-new-world-order-apocalypse-organisation of evil" ?

How stupid would JSSDF have to be to believe that everyone, including unarmed civilians that're trying to help each other get away from their own murderous rampage, are just as responsible for trying to bring about the apocalypse as Gendo and co.?

[Dream]

That is partly why i included "revenge" in my previous post. It's not purely about tactical concerns of how much of a danger Nerv personell is; It was heavily implied pretty much everyone hated Nerv (probably because of the shadyness and jerkassery with which they interacted with other organizations -Think of Misato crashing into that JSDF research centre and just taking the positron rifle, or the Jet Alone sabotage-) and they were now giving them retribution for all of that. At least i think it's a possibility.

By the way, just for the record, in all my watchings of EoE i never had the impression the JSSDF soldiers were being particularly sadistic in their tone and wording. In fact i always had the impression they were ice-cold professionals (specially notable in the woman telling them lethal force in non-combatants was authorized), i never watched the EoE dub and i don't watch dubs in general.

[Grand Duke of Yashima]

How stupid would JSSDF have to be to believe that everyone, including unarmed civilians that're trying to help each other get away from their own murderous rampage, are just as responsible for trying to bring about the apocalypse as Gendo and co.?

The order would make more sense if you calculated ahead that NERV might disguise its pilots or its leadership as unarmed technicians to avoid being killed or captured. JSSDF would have been given orders to prevent NERV from conducting its own Third Impact, which meant that provided the catastrophic consequences of failure they were taking no chances: Everyone at NERV was a target right down to middle school students and genetically-modified penguins.

JSSDF seems like not just any military force but more of a Special Operations type, such as US Army Rangers or the British SAS. They'd get the call if it was really a national priority. Soldiers in JSSDF would be highly-motivated professionals and not simply mercenaries looking for a good paycheck. Regarding anything about any conscience such soldiers might have, if your commanders told you that any enemy survivors had the capability to end the world that might override any real concerns about collateral damage.

There's another thing, of course, and that is the Japanese military had a pretty solid track record of conducting "no prisoner" attacks during WWII. A lot of Japanese are still in denial about things like Nanking and Bataan, and I'm sure they weren't all that comfortable seeing Japanese soldiers killing unarmed personnel in EoE either.

[Gorbatschow]

How stupid would JSSDF have to be to believe that everyone, including unarmed civilians that're trying to help each other get away from their own murderous rampage, are just as responsible for trying to bring about the apocalypse as Gendo and co.?

Also, why would civilians or people who aren't involved be in a high-tech, high-security base which builds mechs and wants to start the apocalypse. There no reason to think that there are civilians.

[Tier_15]

the actions undertaken by the strategic self-defense forces are seemingly designed to mimic the situation in Japan regarding Aum Shinrikyo. In one of my classes on counterterrorism I ended up writing a 23 page report on this group and to say what I found was disturbing would be an understatement. This group desire to bring about the apocalypse in much the same way or could be interpreted by the strategic self-defense force as a desire on the part of Nerv to bring about an apocalypse. Aum Was not only investing heavily in chemical weapons manufacturing but was also experimenting with a number of biological agents. The most disturbing of all was ebola. Shoko Asahara had a group go to Africa under the guise of a missionary effort in order to collect samples of this extremely deadly virus. Their branch in Australia actually tested a semi-weaponized form on livestock.

The ability of this group to come so close to weapons of mass distraction is nothing short of horrifying. The video of the raids on the facility below Mount Fuji does in my opinion resemble, in a less violent form, the raid by the strategic self-defense forces during the movie. To move into a facility with so much power and capacity is a very daunting task. In the case of the facility at Fuji there were more than enough Russian-made weapons that could have been used against the Raiders and resulted in an extremely dangerous situation that would mimic the movie to a high degree. When you're trying to take control of weapons of mass destruction it is possible that a order would be given to consider all those in the compound to be dangerous and capable of initiating some kind of contingency plan.

In regards to what some other people up posted about Shoko Asahara, he was a very brilliant man despite his background. I have read many of his I guess you would call the Journals and in them he talked at length about all the various weapons he would like to develop. These even included directed energy weapons. The plan was that he would initiate a third world war That would bring upon the apocalypse. The resemblances between this plan and the initiation of third impact are very interesting. I will post some videos below if anyone would like to learn more about this group that I believe did impact Anno to a large degree during the creative process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf_6GKvyg58 Anime produced by aum shinrikyo (yes they made an anime)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEyZ_EEE7q8 RAID ON AUM

[Dream]

Feel bad for doing this but i just want to say "Weapons of mass distraction" is the greatest typo i've ever seen.

That said, thank you very much for that post Tier_15, very informative.