words fail...
Posted on 04/12/2011 5:45:35 PM PDT by Travis McGee
Recon Marine Cpl. Todd Love (above) got a hero's welcome in his hometown of Acworth, Georgia this week. Love lost both legs and his left arm in an IED explosion in Afghanistan a few months ago. The Washington Examiner story below by Sara Carter tells us that even if US forces had photographed the bomber in the act and captured him with bomb traces on his hands, they would then have had to feed him, clothe him ... and let him go.
This is another Afghanistan scandal that should get Congress pounding tables and demanding answers from the Pentagon and the White House. It should get readers doing the same. After all, we pay $350 million a day for this.
Carter writes:
Several Taliban detainees who had been captured in February after being observed placing bombs in the culverts of roads used by civilians and military convoys near Kandahar were fed, given medical treatment, then released by American troops frustrated by a policy they say is forcing them to kick loose enemies who are trying to kill them.
Despite what American soldiers say was a mountain of evidence, which included a video of the men planting the bomb and chemical traces found on their hands, there was nothing the soldiers who had captured them could do but feed and care for them for 96 hours and then set them free.
In another incident, members of a unit attached to 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment survived an attack by a suicide bomber on their convoy when his device failed to detonate. Soldiers managed to capture the would-be martyr, but he too was released after being held for four days.
"We put our lives on the line to capture the enemy," a soldier with the Stryker regiment told The Washington Examiner. "Since my deployment, every insurgent we've captured has been released."
Come again?
Since my deployment, every insurgent we've captured has been released."
International Security Assistance Forces officials contacted by The Examiner admitted that releases like these were common. The officials said ISAF forces can hold detainees for up to 96 hours, during which time detainees are "screened and a decision is made whether to release the individual, transfer them to appropriate Afghan authorities, or to the detention facility in Parwan [at Bagram Air Base]."
ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian said things are expected to change. He said Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior, supported by Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, is implementing a system for fingerprinting captured insurgents.
"This program is going to make a huge difference, dramatically reducing insurgents' ability to hide among the general population," he said. "It will also improve the ability of Afghan and coalition forces to gather evidence of insurgent activity that will hold up in court."
Since when do soldiers have to gather "evidence" on their enemies? Welcome to COIN.
However, the program is not yet operational. Like many plans associated with the Afghan war, there are many potential setbacks ahead.
Troops say top commander Gen. David Petraeus has not fulfilled promises he made to Congress last year to review and, where appropriate, change rules of engagement that have restricted troops' ability to stop the enemy.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. promised that ISAF would have control of at least 40 Afghan districts by the end of 2010. That promise also was not met.
Troops say it's impossible to hold the terrain when insurgents know that, if captured, they cannot be held.
The policy of releasing insurgents is expected to continue for now, officials said.
The Afghan legal system has no Western-style standards of prosecution that would allow suspected Taliban to be held in civil detention, ISAF officials said.
Um, the Afghan legal system (sharia-based) has no Western-style standards of anythiing.
"While there may be ample evidence to detain an individual, the same evidence may be insufficient to obtain an indictment or bring the detainee to an evidence-based trial," Dorrian said. "In other instances, individuals may be detained based on legitimate intelligence, but the intelligence may be classified and thus not able to be presented in open court. In some instances, this results in the individual being released."
ISAF general staff meeting.
James Carafano, senior defense analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said releasing suspected insurgents is not only a problem for U.S. troops but civilians who have been tormented under Taliban rule.
"The real issue is what is the right thing to do?" Carafano said. "Putting Taliban fighters back in the field who may kill or terrorize Afghan civilians as easily as U.S. soldiers is never the right thing to do. The U.S. troops will not be there forever --
Sez who?
-- and local officials need to start thinking about the long-term interests of their own people."
American troops say the policy is a morale killer.
How about just plain "killer"?
They say the inability to hold suspected insurgents is one of the reasons why the U.S. has been unable to suppress the Taliban.
Detainees can be held at various field detention facilities throughout Afghanistan. "Capacity is not an issue as to whether an individual remains detained," an ISAF official stated.
"How much more evidence do you need when they are captured on video and tested positive for ... chemicals on their hand?" a military official in Afghanistan said. "That's not enough evidence for our forces to transfer the detainees to a permanent facility before they try to kill U.S. troops again? It's unacceptable."
So don't accept it.
“Enemy can put down a weapon in a firefight and walk away, we can’t shoot them.”
My earliest recollection of combat came from my Uncle Louie who killed a bunch of enemy Japs at New Guinea (sp) in World War II.
To the best of my recollection, he didn’t allow an enemy to set down a weapon and walk away. If he had, I’m sure my cousins would have never been born. And my Uncle Louie could not have relayed his various excursions about New Guinea to me.
My father dropped really big bombs on Nazi heads. He took me to AO Smith when I was a kid and showed me mock-ups of bombs. He was right - those were really big bombs. Most Americans don’t know that manufacturers were very proud of what they did to save America. Many offered weekend tours.
Time to hit the rack. Best wishes to you and yours.
I’d say something, but anyone who has ever read any of my posts on Iraq and F ghanistan already knows what I have to say about this sh!+.
http://www.pfcdavidlawrence.org/
I have a young friend who’s a SEAL; he’s concerned about the ROE and the new regs concerning the SEALs.
Indeed.
Long gone are the days Uncle Sugar would pay us to seek out and kill those communist sons of bit#hes and even make the combat pay tax free!
Now the nation's "leader" is one of them... WTF happened to us?
This is what happens to a politicized army. Having the military subordinate to the civil authority is not the same as what we have today. We have military commanders and troops, subjected to the UCMJ, being told what to do and how to do it by people not subjected to the UCMJ.
The Royal Navy is in a similar boat (no pun intended) concerning the pirates off Somalia.
When we no longer can be the military we must be, that is complete and total disrespect to the troops that serve. When their leaders mimic anyone but America, that is an insult to the Americans. If we ain’t good enough then we should leave.
Given that Obama is not willing to do what is right, we need to get the heck ASAP.
He’s thinking about his post-retirement stints at various think tanks and institutions. In return they will set him up as some sort of modern day Patton and give him all sorts of accolades. A few decades from now our boys will ride out to do it all again in their Petreus Armored Vehicles.
There are plenty of real enemies they can fight on this side of the ocean. They won't have to look far. They are all over the place. They can start in a place that begins with "W" and ends in "D.C.".
words fail...
This is willful sacrifice of our people for PC bullshit. We need to leave. These higher ups have absolutely no right to ask the troops to operate this way. This is madness.
Petraeus is a politician but not a general. No general abandons his troops to the mercy of the enemy.
Bring our troops home...TODAY!
Is COIN COunter INsurgency? Or something else?
Yes. And the “new COIN” is the ultra-touchy-feely-don’t-shoot-back version espoused by Petreaus. He has stocked his staff with like-minded true-believer yes-men.
If American troops are killed or maimed, well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
There are things I’d like to say now, but I don’t want to get banned. Let me just say WTF and leave it at that. If we aren’t going to allow our troops to shoot back, then just bring them home.
I am an old Viet Nam guy. I have been following the Afghanistan ROE issues.
The reality is that either we clean up the ROE or we must get out. We must make the choice now. McChrystal was right. Petraeus is wrong. This cannot be allowed to go on. If this takes military disobedience of the POTUS, so be it.
What you are watching, folks, is what is known as a “debacle”.
When my son’s unit had the ROE brief, the Army lawyer sent to talk to them set up scenerios regarding the ROE. By the end of the brief he told them that with their attitude he would be seeing them again because he would be prosecuting them in the future.
Incredible. He should document everything. Our military is being wrecked.
It’s disgraceful that not one single general I can think of has resigned over this and related issues-open gays, women in active combat, women wearing head scarves etc.
At least old COL David Hackworth had the integrity to resign and go public.
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