If the scheme is cordon, cleanse, control, it seems our command group wants to do A, and they want to get to C, but they’re unwilling to do B, the step that bridges the gap.
Exterminators know how to kill bugs. Keep them from escaping, kill them, control the environment to prevent re-infection.
Maybe we should put an exterminator in charge instead of a general. They seem to have lost their wits or their courage. I suspect the latter.
The mental checklist sounds like it was thought up by a kindergarten teacher!!!
The generals seem to be operating on the principle that one dead civilian creates x more insurgents vs. one dead insurgent is one less insurgent. I dbout it’s a courage thing....it’s calculating risking our own troops vs. civilians to “win the hearts and minds” of the Afghanees.
I just don’t get how this is going to work while you’re in the middle of an offensive to “cleanse” the Taliban from a region, especially since they forecast they were coming and their ROE’s are so obvious that the Taliban are now using them to their advantage.
Seems like a good time to regroup and rethink their approach.