Posted on 06/28/2010 7:03:39 PM PDT by kristinn
FYI.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for B. Hussein to change the rules of engagement.
I am sure that General Petraeus wants to change the ROE in order for us to achieve complete victory. The problem is Obama who would say yes to Petraeus in public but behind the scenes he will keep the same disastrous strategy in Afghanistan. Obama is a socialist coward who considers the war as annoyance that distracts him from imposing his destructive socialist domestic agenda.
Four minutes after Osborn sent the e-mail, Petraeus responded with condolences for the parents and asked them to listen to remarks he'll make at a Senate confirmation hearing at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, where he planned to address the issue.Thanks kristinn.
I sent this letter to the committee Senators and a bunch of papers and talk shows. The Seattle Times published it and don’t know of anyone else.
Questions for General Petraeus
Successful counterinsurgency warfare first provides security by destroying or expelling the insurgent forces. Regardless of time or place, people suffering in these lawless, feral regions evaluate security by whoever is most lethal in firefights. Their allegiance goes to whoever wins the battles, regardless of civilian deaths due to collateral damage or deliberate executions seeking to retain control. Only by crossing the armed conflict boundary at the cruelest point in revolutionary war can the next phases of counterinsurgency warfare commence.
Therefore, the Senate Committee on Armed Services should ask General Petraeus the following questions.
Will NCO’s be able to call for illumination rounds to reveal enemy firing positions?
Will troops be allowed a round in the chamber of their weapons?
Will troops be allowed to engage insurgents in the act of burying a roadside bomb?
Will troops engaged in combat now be able to call bombing and strafing runs to extricate themselves and win firefights?
Will crucial decisions be made by warriors in contact with the enemy, or by staff officers in remote bunkers?
Will you obey Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which say Protected Persons within the enemy’s physical control cannot be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations, or will you serve a political agenda?
Will our troops be given permission to win, or will the survivors be ordered to leave in 18 months after being regarded with derision and contempt by the Afghans?
Well a four minute reply does say something...
Will this confirmation hearing where Petraeous speaks on the rules of engagement be on C-Span?...
Excellent questions.
It appears to me that the good general understands the strategic leverage (political) he holds right now. I won’t be surprised given his response that he lays down the rules he wants...and demands. How can they deny him?
So many parents, wives, children, and loved ones are mourning their wonderful sons (fathers, husbands, fiances)who have been killed in Afghanistan.
It must be agonizing for all who have a beloved hero in Afghanistan to know that their boys are sitting ducks, clay pigeons, and cannon fodder for the enemy over there.
These foolish and insane Rules of Engagement must be changed ASAP!
SNIP
The White House said Monday that the July 2011 deadline was intentionally flexible, but had had some desired effect. “We want the Afghans to understand that we’re going to be expecting more out of them, so to the extent that it conveys a sense of urgency, that’s an important message,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.
At the same time, he noted that the president had not decided how quickly the drawdown would take place. “There’s clearly going to be an enduring commitment to Afghanistan past 2011, whatever the slope,” he said.
But that part of the message has not transmitted to many in the rural reaches of Afghanistan, where American troops regularly encounter Afghans who assume they are all leaving next year.
In the village of Abdul Ghayas in Helmand Province last month, for example, a local resident exasperated two Marines when he told them that he was nervous about helping with their plans for a new school out of fear that the Taliban would retaliate after the Americans went home next year.
“That’s why they won’t work with us,” Cpl. Lisa Gardner, one of the Marines, told a reporter traveling with the unit. “They say you’ll leave in 2011 and the Taliban will chop their heads off. It’s so frustrating.”
Later in the day, Corporal Gardner and the other Marine, Cpl. Diana Amaya, reported the villager’s reaction back at the base. Lance Cpl. Caleb Quessenberry advised them on how to deal with similar comments in the future. “Roll it off as, ‘That’s what somebody’s saying,’ ” he told them. “As far as we know, we’re here.”
A senior American intelligence official said the Taliban had effectively used the deadline to their advantage. He added that the deadline had encouraged Pakistani security services to “hedge their bets” and continue supporting militant groups like the Haqqani network.
“They’ve been burned and they’ve seen this movie before,” the official said, noting the American disengagement after the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Should the war deteriorate, he added, Pakistani leaders are thinking, “We don’t want Haqqani turning around and coming this way.”
SNIP
I’m afraid the answers to all these questions will be no.
So, what the hell are we doing in Afghanistan? What is the mission? Is it essential to the defense of the United States of America?
Even if they untie the hands of the soldiers there is a bevy of POS prosecutors and their ilk waiting in the shadows to retie those hands with crap persecutions. Before I really get rolling I’ll leave it at that.
I hope Patraeus reads the entire letter to those yellowbellied Dems, and then tells them he has already changed the ROE, and if they don’t like it, too bad.
I’m not sure about live C-SPAN coverage. I’m sure it’ll be on live somewhere.
(( ping ))
I say screw the collateral damage and bomb the living shit out of those countries till they can’t even THINK about being a problem for us for another few decades and get the troops back home and on our borders where they belong....and i don’t CARE if that seems heartless. we had a ton of collateral damage when we dropped the bombs in japan and it got the desired results. they already hate us there. they can’t hate us worse.
I agree with you. I say that if the people there despised their terrorist overlords as much as they claim they’d have cleaned up the problem themselves.
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