Posted on 08/04/2010 6:03:10 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan commander Army Gen. David Petraeus has renewed orders to American troops to refrain from calling in artillery or air power when battling Taliban forces unless they're certain that no civilians are present.
The Aug. 1 order, Petraeus' first since he assumed command early this summer from ousted Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was an effort to fine-tune a McChrystal directive that had angered some U.S. troops, who said the restrictions on the use of artillery and air power exposed them to greater danger. Petraeus' order, unclassified portions of which were released Wednesday, seemed unlikely to mollify that complaint, however.
In his directive, Petraeus sought to strike a balance between protecting the population - the cornerstone of counterinsurgency - and minimizing the risks to U.S. and allied troops.
He wrote that protecting civilians "does not prevent commanders from protecting the lives of their men and women as a matter of self-defense where it is determined no other options are available to effectively counter the threat."
Petraeus, however, used virtually the same language as McChrystal to prohibit the use of artillery and airstrikes unless a commander knows civilians won't be wounded or killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
That's just an invitation for terrorists to turn civilian areas into free-fire zones.
Who do you want to carpet bomb? Kabul? It's one of the only places where the "good Afghans" are in charge. This is not a war of front lines, fixed positions and pitched battles. Like it or not we are occupiers fighting a native resistance force.
This was an Obama Commander in Chief order.
Patraeus knows better.
Look for Patraeus to implement the order, as he has done, and then Question the Cmmdr in Chief’s Sanity, willingness to WIN, and the order itself from on high.
Petraus might resign if Obambi doesn’t let the Soldiers fight to win.
Tic....tic....tic...tic.....The resignation clock has started.....
Seriously we worry way too much on the collateral damage front. No other nation on earth comes even close to our rules of engagement.
We should level the place, do it quickly and be done with it and send a very clear message to the world - you enable people to hurt our interests and people and you will be dead - PERIOD.
Ever since we allowed the liberal disease into the war game of Vietnam we have completely screwed ourselves.
Our goals should be the complete protection of our soldiers and NO ONE else.
My son leaves for Afghanistan next week. For whose freedom is he fighting? The American people ought to be screaming at the politicians to protect our troops and let them fight to win, or bring them home. But we are too busy watching the blue box of Babylon. He is not fighting for our freedom at this point. The sad thing is he knows it but volunteered to go to help get his brothers home safe. Our country and our politicians have abandoned them.
So you would advise we pull all of our soldiers out and the indiscriminately kill a few million Afghans from afar? According to theory this is a nation by the people and for the people. I don't think the American public would stand for that.
But you are pleased to have them stand for the death of our sons whom they put in harms way and then tell them to restrain themselves from firing their weapons? Your “compassion” is sickening.
You would rather warn the enemy about an upcoming attack, give out medals for not firing and sending back servicemen in boxes from the box.
The American public - the true Americans would not stand for that.
I never said pull the troops. We need to execute our war with extreme prejudice and do it quickly. Perfect example...we should have nuked Tora Bora when we had Bin Laden trapped...but what did the idiot Bush do...has a cease fire to enable him to escape.
Both Clinton and Bush failed miserably when they had this prick in their sights and thousands of troops have died because of their incompentence and thousands more are dying because of the current Incompetence In Chief currently usurping the WH.
The goal should have been to kill Bin Laden at all costs and it should have been done within 6 months.
You are projecting. I don't think anyone has a good answer as to what to do in Afghanistan. If (when) we leave there will be a bloodbath and the terrorists will have another haven. Pakistan will possibly fall next. Then you have a radical islamic state with nuclear weapons.
President Bush left just enough men in Afghanistan to keep the government from falling. President Obama has engaged in nation building. At the current rate there will be more casualties in Afghanistan under two years of Obama than seven years under Bush.
There are no good choices.
As an NCO, if my troops are in the shit I would call in Arty, Air, Naval Bombardment, hell the Wrath of God, locusts, famine, floods, whatever if I had His call sign. Anything less you are not doing your job of taking care of the troops and acomplishing the mission. We didn’t choose where and how the enemy fight. We damned sure shouldn’t let them make us play their games at the cost of American lives.
Where did you read that? That is a serious case of projection. How would you execute this war with 'extreme prejudice'? What target do you send the bombers after? Where is the enemy?
This should have been over in 6 months. We knew exactly where the enemy was. We had the means to terminate their existence PERIOD we didn’t do it. EPIC FAIL all because of mamby pampy BS policies which ONLY help the enemy and get our boys killed.
You are exactly correct, we had no choice about where to fight. Sun Tze was adamant about not letting your enemy choose the field of battle. We did not have that option. The question is what do we do now. We all agree that the rules of engagement hamstring our forces in favor of the enemy. I wonder if there was a poll taken today how many FReepers would vote to pull us out of Afghanistan immediately.
There ARE good choices if we put men on the ground there. They need bunker busting bombs and level the mountains on the Pakistan Afghanistan border after three days of dropping leaflets to get out of hell. Then pack up and leave with this warning: If you hurt any American or one of our Allies again we will take out the rest of your God forsaken country. Better yet, we will take out Mecca, the satanic worship center of the world. Sorry but the purpose of war is to kill people and bring things. When it is done swiftly and effectively, and the enemy know we are serious, they leave us alone. Remember Kadafi? One big bomb. Muslims are cowards.
There are a lot of lessons we can learn from past mistakes, ours and others. But what do we do now?
Petraeus has no control over the orders. These orders come STRAIGHT from the White House and Obama.
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