Gen. David Petraeus says U.S. troops must "occupy the moral high ground" in Iraq.
Posted on 05/11/2007 7:36:20 AM PDT by bedolido
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- America's top military commander in Iraq has sent a letter to troops challenging them to "occupy the moral high ground" after a Pentagon survey showed some service members were reluctant to report the "illegal actions" of fellow personnel.
In the letter, dated Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus wrote he was "concerned" with the poll's findings.
"This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we -- not our enemies -- occupy the moral high ground," he said.
The survey of ethics, released last week, assessed the mental health and ethical attitudes of more than 1,300 soldiers and nearly 450 Marines last year. (Read the report)
Results showed that fewer than half of soldiers and Marines would report a team member for unethical behavior.
Gen. David Petraeus says U.S. troops must "occupy the moral high ground" in Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
A General George Patton he is NOT!!!
Petreaus is a great man... however I think it’s not fair to our troops to tell them to fight fair agaisnt the terrorists. We are already TOO “fair”, if there is such a thing. The terrorists get a pass on every crime... they don’t abide by any rules. Stop the political correctness in warfare.
What is considered the “high ground” is set too high IMHO. I sure as hell wouldn’t report my fellow soldier if I was in that situation. It’s one thing to try and make a “moral call” from far behind enemy lines (or home), but it is a COMPLETELY different thing to call a moral “foul” when one has just seen his friend and fellow soldier tortured or his skull split wide open by a sniper’s round...
Teammates come first
TWO true, intertwined, statements!
It is ok for the jihadis to fight dirty. But heaven forbid our troops send it back down the chute at the terrorists!
This is just another report by the Crescent News Network, affiliate of AlJezerra, aimed at discrediting our military and further undermining support of the WOT and our troops.
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.”
-Gen. George Patton
Semper Fi
NYleatherneck
If we savagely, brutally and violently decimate the enemy in Iraq, by any and all means necessary... especially if it involves torture ;) - then we will occupy the moral high ground. Mainly because there will no one left to oppose us.
Have we ever won a war fighting it PC?
Bump.
“Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we’re gonna go through him like crap through a goose.”
‘Nuff said... this is the type of attitude we need in Iraq today!
LLS
Yes. Because it was once politically correct to fight like men, and win.
I remember getting a “moral high ground” memo in Nha Trang, but it was about paying laundry and bar tabs.
Times have changed, haven’t they?
Maybe we should call our armed intervention against the terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere, hate crimes. [/sarc]
I am very much in favor of the war; however, when I hear things like this I feel we should bring our people home.
It is very unfair to our soldiers to create unwinable rules of engagement.
PC gets our boyz killed. AQ sure plays fair, huh? Follow me or I’ll slice your throat.
Cant fight and win a war with one arm tied behind your back.
This is ridiculous! In a war like this, you have to prove that you will be just as ruthless as the enemy; otherwise, he will exploit what he perceives as your weakness, just as the jihadis are doing. The jihadis don’t think we have the stomach to truly beat them into the ground . . . and with the drumbeat of the MSM and the Rats, they may just be right.
The military is getting more and more PC with each passing year. It's okay to lose, so long as you lose by the book. It's not okay to win, if you don't win by the book. And that book of regulations is now several volumes deep.
That's not to say that the troops should have no rules. Discipline is essential in running an army, and barbarism is unnecessary and wrong. Still, our current military is way around the bend on these issues.
Actually, it makes sense. Sorta.
We’re not fighting to kill the enemy. That is going to happen no matter what whenever they run into our troops. We’ve killed 20k of ‘em and captured 27k more. Problem is, we can kill ‘em forever. They’re not going to run out of recruits. They hate that much and have 1.2 billion souls from which to recruit and plenty of money to buy loyalty and dupes.
But not all these folks are hopeless. The biggest problem for terrorists in Iraq these days are Iraqis with cell phones. They hate the foreigners screwing up their country and murdering them. So they’re calling in the bomb makers and bomb planters, and scouts and what not.
This is having an effect. It costs more to get a bomb made and planted, the peopled making them are not as skilled as they used to be - their IEDs don’t work as well, and they occasionally blow themselves up, or get caught.
These are the folks that the General is trying to win. We don’t want be another flavor of those “damn foreigners screwing up our country and blowing people up. Its not quite as macho going to any length necessary to find and kill the terrorists. But its is possibly more effective. and it invests Iraqis in their country - so we can leave!
I’ll make sure the haj get a memo they need to fight fair. come on, that is just unfair to hide those bombs , they should be displayed prominently with pink markings. When the troops were polled about “torture” to save a buddies life, I am sure the “torture” consisted of the normal hazing crap in frat houses, not the saw’n your head off stuff.
there is the problem I dont think we have any Pattons anymore. I dont know whether they lack the intestinal fortitude or they fear getting railroaded by some lawyer type.
We must fight a more gentle and sensitive war!
We either are in deep do-do in Iraq, or the General is softening up the Pelosi/Reid bleeding heart, liberal- socialist moonbats, for later.
Sure didn’t we defeat the Japanese by using sensitive tactics? /sarcasm off
if you remember Patton had his Eisenhower too. Ike fired him for slapping a soldier... PC in 1943 (or 1944).
I have read much about Patton... I believe his guts and plan, and his soldiers blood could've won the war in Germany a year sooner if Ike would've let him go.. instead of coddling that idiot English General Montgomery and his stupid Market Garden plan.
perhaps our guys and girls should have sensitivity training (aka surrender training).....heavy sarcasm
He should be relieved of command and cashiered for this.
Having said that, I think our leaders, political and military alike, have largely lost sight of the fact that Iraq is but a single battlefield in a war for the survival of western civilization. Until we realize what this war is truly about, we will not fight it like it needs to be fought.
Man, I hate to see General Petraeus say this, it is most distressing.
you are distressed, hell I will be under his command soon, I really dont like to be pc'd to death.I dont expect to fair to well in this deployment, I will see that my life and any of my soldiers are protected, I could care less about the enemies rights and feelings. If I have to shoot a dirka dirka to protect myself or my troops so be it
The terrorists get a pass on every crime
Give me a break! Maybe this is true in your world but here on planet earth they don’t. In fact “fighting fair” is the very reason we are winning this war.
For too long now we have been hearing that the rules of engagement our troops operate under are largely responsible for many of our casualities. Can you elaborate on just what roes need to be changed to better protect our soldiers? Thanks in advance, and may God protect you on this deployment.
Why fight fair? Our enemies sure don’t.
Easy... I should have phrased it more clearly. I’m talking about the media, the democrats and lefty human rights organisations. They DO give the terrorists a pass on their crimes. They are being lionized by the media and the democraps as “insurgents” and “rebels”.
Look at the reaction the media, the democrats and “human rights” organisations towards our soldiers, when accused of wrongdoing...
That’s what I meant with “getting a pass... not that the terrorists aren’t being hunted down by our troops.
“Fairness” is the #1 word in the lexicon of Liberalism. Soon the military rank PFC will stand for “Politically Fair and Correct”.
Hey Petraeus, stfu and let the men do their jobs. Either that or remove their guns and issue them mace and batons. Since when do medieval, tribal barbarians give a rat's tail about Western "moral high ground"? Their 'morality' is based on the perverted, twisted will of 'allah', and on Mohammed's manual for terrorism, aka the koran. They respect violence more than they respect peace. Neither Iraq nor islam in general will be subdued by winning over their 'hearts', because their hearts are too hardened with hatred and blinded by false religion.
I wont elaborate on the ROE, but I do think it is out and about. I was there in OIFII, I thought the ROE was restrictive, fortunately I didn’t encounter a situation where I could violate the ROE. The best thing would be to remove all news reporters. I don’t feel they do us any services. Especially when you have reporters like Tim Mcgirk writing stories from enemy(Marines killing civilians).
If we fought “FAIR” we would still be British Subjects
Exactly, they have an endless pool of terrorists to replace the dead ones, and they are doing just that. Which shows us that being "kind" isn't going to cut it. Our "kindness" is what emboldens them against us. We need to increase the dead ones, not decrease them with stupid, PC rules of engagement. Let the would be jihadis see their comrades fall like flies, that they fight in vain, and they will eventually stop their aggression. We have shown nothing but kindness and restraint, based on what we could do if we chose to, and it has availed us nothing. If we believe that kindness will win them over, let's just get out the prayer rugs and korans now, and get it over with.
Go out and win that football game, but don’t tackle the other side when they have the ball.
Allow me to answer that question for you with another question. Would General Patton let a lawyer stop him from doing his job?
We’re not being “kind” to the terrorists. We’re being “kind” to folks who might rat ‘em out for us.
Truth is, if you check the “real” news, I think it shows this approach is working. Iraqis are ratting out the terrorsists. Even enemies like the Sunni tribes in the Anbar province are fighting Al Qaeda. And they’re not nice about it at all...
Its kind of a surprise to me, too.
Win this fight, General, and by definition you’ll own the ‘high ground’ moral or otherwise, in the end.
Betcha the terrorists are laughing at this man right now.
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