Monday, July 06, 2009

Rules of Engagement: Afghanistan

When I first heard about the new commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, I was elated. Lt. General Stanley, a Special Forces Officer was now in charge and that meant to me that business was going to be taken care of.

That is until I heard about the latest directive from the White House via Secretary of Defense Gates.

New Rules of Engagement: Avoid civilian casualties at all costs. If a firefight appears to be expanding so as to endanger "resident non-combatants," the engagement must be broken off. Air attacks must be limited to targets of strictly confirmed hostile character, with no civilian co-mingling.

Does this sound familiar? It should, it's just like what historians tell us tied the hands of our soldiers in Vietnam. It also insults our brave men in uniform because their already taught not to shoot civilians. They are also taught that war is not a friendly sport of paint ball. People get killed and with these rules of engagement that might very well lead to the deaths of our soldiers.

Robert McNamara, Vietnam war architect, just past away. No doubt the decisions he make will be scrutinized again and again for lessons learned.

I pray this is not history repeating itself. This article explains it better that I can.

An Enlisted Man's Point of View
...
It seems that the U.S, military is once again being urged to avoid civilian casualties. This time Afghanistan is the new theater of operations where American soldiers, Marines, and airmen are supposed to kill the enemy, but do it as decorously as possible to avoid civilians becoming collateral damage.

A hard-charging Ranger special operations officer, Lt. General Stanley McChrystal, was purposely named to be commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR). He had express orders to push forward vigorously against the Taliban. Virtually immediately after this hand-picked warrior assumed command, he received new instructions from the White House via the Pentagon to avoid civilian casualties at all costs. If a firefight appears to be expanding so as to endanger "resident non-combatants," the engagement must be broken off. Air attacks must be limited to targets of strictly confirmed hostile character, with no civilian co-mingling.
Once again, as in the Korean War and in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as other conflicts, U.S. forces have received rules of engagement aimed at securing maximum avoidance of political backlash in a war with an enemy to whom the use of the civilian population as protective cover is an accepted part of his fighting tactics.

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