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As the uses of force in Somalia, Kosovo and Iraq show, Western armies are very concerned about protecting the lives of their soldiers, and to that end are willing to risk many civilian lives. They also find acceptable the notion that civilian lives can be forfeited in order to attain important military goals. Israel’s Gaza operation clearly shows that Israeli commanders successfully followed the requirements of the administrative model of the principle of proportionality. The IDF required commanders to take humanitarian law into account in the planning stages of the operation. Legal advisors were involved in the planning of many...

Asymmetrical conflicts are fought between a state following the laws of armed conflicts or international humanitarian law, and organizations that almost never follow these rules and have very little incentive to do so. While the Geneva Conventions and their protocols were framed in an era of “classic” military engagements, when wars were fought between nations and by armies that observed the rules of armed conflict, we should examine whether these norms are suited to modern armed conflicts. In practice there exist two very different approaches to the interpretation of the principle of proportionality: the human rights model, which gives preference...

The ubiquitous yellow jugs joined to the hips of Florida pool owners are different icons in Afghanistan. They’re the carriers of fertilizer and diesel fuel terrorists use to blow up our boys with roadside bombs called IED’s. Question: “Was it our general and not our President doing the dithering in the 90 days of contemplation before Obama released 30,000 more of our boys to be fed into the maw of a war we refuse to win?” In a recent NPR interview Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman (just returned from being “in country,”) told hostess Renee Montagne he observed our Marines tracking...

The ubiquitous yellow jugs joined to the hips of Florida pool owners are different icons in Afghanistan. They’re the carriers of fertilizer and diesel fuel terrorists use to blow up our boys with roadside bombs called IED's. Question: "Was it our general and not our President doing the dithering in the 90 days of contemplation before Obama released 30,000 more of our boys to be fed into the maw of a war we refuse to win?” In a recent NPR interview Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman...

Current U.S. Rules Of Engagement In Afghanistan ProblematicBy WILLIAM MAYER December 17, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The response to president Obama's much delayed announcement regarding increased troop levels in Afghanistan has been predictable, with opinion divided predominantly along ideological lines and less concern devoted to matters of military necessity. Generally, the left hates the idea of committing as many as 30,000 additional troops to the Afghan theater by next summer with many on the political right, though basically supportive of the mission, in large part demanding the full complement of 40,000 troops that Gen. McChrystal...

New military rules of engagement ostensibly to protect Afghan civilians are putting the lives of U.S. forces in jeopardy, claim Army and Marine sources, as the Taliban learns to game plan based the rules' imposed limits. The rules of engagement, or ROEs, apply to all coalition forces of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Their enactment is in response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's complaints over mounting civilian deaths apparently occurring in firefights. Despite the fact that the newly arrived U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, imposed the more restrictive ROEs to minimize the killing of...

Having urged the president to honor his commitment to the Afghan war, we Republicans must honor our commitment to support him as he fights it. Given the public unenthusiasm for the conflict, there will be political temptations to “go rogue” on the president, if not now, then in the summer of 2010. That will be our test, for us to pass as the president has passed his. I know many Republicans and conservatives will say: “Hey – the Democrats did not give President Bush support when he most needed it.” Correct. They didn’t. And the country suffered for it. The...

Saying it’s time for Republicans to do more than “take pot shots at ACORN,” freshman Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz will call on President Barack Obama on Monday to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan. Chaffetz’s push for a troop withdrawal — to be unveiled in a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics in Salt Lake City — runs counter to the position of House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and other leading Republicans in Congress. But it also reflects the divisions within the conference about the question of Afghanistan. Chaffetz told POLITICO the issue “has been probably the...

Recently on ABC television news, one of their videos showed a U.S. Marine hunkered down in Afghanistan complaining on camera that he was not allowed to shoot back when under fire. This situation resulted from Obama’s new rules of engagement from his new Afghanistan commander. General McChrystal explained it to BBC news that they are now advising troops to break off from firefights with the Taliban, "If you are in a situation where you are under fire from the enemy... if there is any chance of creating civilian casualties or if you don't know whether you will create civilian casualties,...

It was the last way John Bernard would have wanted his voice to gain prominence in the national debate over the war in Afghanistan. The retired Marine had been writing to lawmakers for weeks complaining of the new rules of engagement he believed put U.S. troops at unacceptable risk in the insurgency-wracked country. He got little response. Then Bernard's only son, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard — a Marine like his dad — was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, the latest victim of a surge in U.S. combat deaths. Three weeks later, Joshua became the...

It was the last way John Bernard would have wanted his voice to gain prominence in the national debate over the war in Afghanistan. The retired Marine had been writing to lawmakers for weeks complaining of the new rules of engagement he believed put U.S. troops at unacceptable risk in the insurgency-wracked country. He got little response. Then Bernard's only son, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard — a Marine like his dad — was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, the latest victim of a surge in U.S. combat deaths.

NEW PORTLAND, Maine – It was the last way John Bernard would have wanted his voice to gain prominence in the national debate over the war in Afghanistan. The retired Marine had been writing to lawmakers for weeks complaining of the new rules of engagement he believed put U.S. troops at unacceptable risk in the insurgency-wracked country. He got little response. Then Bernard's only son, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard — a Marine like his dad — was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, the latest victim of a surge in U.S. combat deaths. ----- Bernard's...

The pilot of an Apache gunship, who flew to the rescue of U.S. soldiers nearly overrun at a remote outpost in Afghanistan last weekend, told ABC News today that he had "never seen that large of a force" attacking coalition troops in Afghanistan. By the time Warrant Officer Ross Lewellen and Warrant Officer Chad Bardwell arrived over the embattled outpost, dubbed Camp Keating, it was in flames and dozens of insurgents could be seen on the camp's perimeter. When the battle was over and the fire extinguished, many who survived had nothing left "except the clothes off their backs and...

When enemy action kills our troops, it's unfortu nate. When our own moral fecklessness murders those in uniform, it's unforgivable. In Afghanistan, our leaders are complicit in the death of each soldier, Marine or Navy corpsman who falls because politically correct rules of engagement shield our enemies. Mission-focused, but morally oblivious, Gen. Stan McChrystal conformed to the Obama Way of War by imposing rules of engagement that could have been concocted by Code Pink: * Unless our troops in combat are absolutely certain that no civilians are present, they're denied artillery or air support. * If any civilians appear where...

The Taliban LOVES Obama, and why shouldn't they?! Obama's new Rules of Engagement (ROE) as Commander-in-Chief provide that protecting Afghan civilians is now to be our military's TOP priority, so that our troops, when fired upon, can NOT return fire if there is a possibility of civilian casualties. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has implemented Obama's new ROEs and made protecting Afghan civilians his top priority. How can you fight a war when the objective is no longer to win?? So, with our enemies now having the benefit our TOP SECRET interrogation technique manuals...

It happens like clockwork every time the presidency changes hands, especially when it changes parties: Retired colonels and majors, soi-disant “defense analysts” and tenured bureaucratic insiders whose opinions have been unfashionable under the ancien regime emerge to craft a series of Bold Recommendations On Reforming Defense. The latest Group of 13 from the Center for Defense Information throws on the mantle of “non-partisanship” - CDI’s mantra includes increasing international cooperation (read: the perenially effective UN); reduced reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict (read: passing the Global Test); reduced reliance on nuclear weapons (read: a second chance to lose...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration issued new rules Friday designed to allow the FBI to pursue potential national security threats with the same vigor and techniques used against common criminals. Civil libertarians said the guidelines will come at a cost to constitutional protections. The rules, to take effect Dec. 1, are a roadmap to the FBI's transformation. The bureau made its reputation many decades ago by successfully pursuing bank robbers. The Justice Department says it wants to ensure that the FBI can now meet the biggest threats of the 21st century: national security and terrorism. The roadmap consolidates once-separate...

Australian Army chief Peter Leahy has moved to reassure infantry troops frustrated that they are not seeing enough combat. The exclusion of Australia's infantry troops from frontline conflicts, including in Iraq, has left many feeling "ashamed of wearing their Australian uniform", Army Major Jim Hammett has written. The infantry, which makes up about a third of the army's combat forces, had not been assigned offensive actions since the Vietnam War and the special forces were seeing all the combat, he wrote. In a separate article cited by Fairfax newspapers, Captain Greg Colton, second in command of the Sydney-based 3rd Battalion...

I have really tried to accept things, but I have finally reached my point. Disclaimer, Mods, please move this wherever necessary. I have been watching "Carrier" on PBS plus a few other documentaries lately on our military and I am embarrassed. When did our military people turn into baby machines looking for a reason out because of a child they should not have had? They teach new parent classes on a ship, how about a class on how not to be a parent when you can't be one? And don't whine when you get deployed because you miss your kids....

We're in trouble. We're in danger of losing more wars. Our troops haven't forgotten how to fight. We've never had better men and women in uniform. But our leaders and many of our fellow Americans no longer grasp what war means or what it takes to win. Thanks to those who have served in uniform, we've lived in such safety and comfort for so long that for many Americans sacrifice means little more than skipping a second trip to the buffet table.