Hmmm.... Good point, I've seen many commercial games fall into a competition for trying to be the most graphic and gory, and I admit I wouldn't want UFO: AI to slide into that direction.
Well, we could at least make a note that if such an animation is ever needed for something special, it would be very easy to do on the animation side, and wouldn't require any special coding.
On a related note, in working with the TAGs it is also possible for other fancy stuff, such as having a soldier show off by twirling a pistol in their hand, spinning it right after they take down an alien with it (like in some cheesy action films).