Posted on 11/11/2009 6:52:34 PM PST by clove
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, if you can withdraw from that situation without firing, then you must do so”
(Excerpt) Read more at backpacker.com ...
I hear shouting F-Bombs repels those nasty Taliban fighters even better than bullets.
You betcha!
You come up with some great images!
Good case! He’s trying to manipulate the whole thing. he could care less about body count or victory. Just wants to get out and shore up his base.
Heavenly Father, Thank you for the Men in Freedom Lover’s family. We consecrate them to your protection. Be with them always, as you have promised.
“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare of the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I am trusting him.
For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from the fatal plague.
He will shield you with his wings. He will shelter you with his feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor fear the dangers of the day,
Nor dread the plague that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.
But you will see it with your eyes; you will see how the wicked are punished.
If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your dwelling.
For he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go.
They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.
You will trample down lions and poisonous snakes; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue them and honor them.
I will satisfy them with a long life and give them my salvation.”
Psalm 91
IT IS TIME TO BRING THESE MEN AND WOMEN HOME THIS IS PURE D BS!
“More troops coming home injured thanks to these new engagement rules.”
That’s a FACT!
11-11-09
“NUMBER OF WOUNDED TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN INCREASING”
“WASHINGTON – Far from winding down, the numbers of U.S. soldiers coming home wounded have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those fighting in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago.
Amputations, burns, brain injuries and shrapnel wounds proliferate in Afghanistan, due mostly to increasingly potent improvised bombs targeting U.S. forces. Snipers’ bullets and mortar rounds also are to blame...”
“It’s the ROE’s Stupid” fits.
“RULES OF ENGAGEMENT REVISITED’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2346439/posts
“OBAMA’S RULES OF ENGAGEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN COSTING OUR TROOPS LIVES”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335891/posts
“THE RULES MURDERING OUR TROOPS”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347085/posts
Then there is this:
“No Rush to Escalate (”war kills off great reform movements”)”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2355050/posts
____________________________________________________________
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/official_texts/Tactical_Directive_090706.pdf
“...I recognize that the carefully controlled and disciplined employment of force entails risks to our troops...”
“...The Taliban cannot militarily defeat us - but we can defeat ourselves...”
This is all that comes to my mind when I read that:
“We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We’ve lost today,” Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter’s repeated demands for helicopters.
“’We’re pinned down:’ 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335142/posts
If your going to keep them over there Obama&Co.. NOW, can we PLEASE have some Troop-centered and protecting ROE’s! And give them the equipment and manpower they need to back them up!
Someone needs to explain to me the difference between the actions of Hasan and Obama. Oh, I know—Obama has the power to destroy the whole country from within the whitehouse.
Obama is destroying our military. He is destroying our economy. He is trying to take us down. All the red flags are in front of us—He hates America like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. He knows exactly what he is doing—and like Eric Holder said, we are a nation of cowards.
To say it sucks is putting it mildly. Obama is clueless, can’t make up his mind and wants to micro manage by taking advice from his flunkies around him and the ones he appointed. He reminds me more and more of LBJ but at least LBJ has some good points. Won’t say more about it other than BHO sucks.
0bama is seeking room to maneuver, until he can satisfy them. He also doesn't want Muslim blood on his hands; he feels accountable to the Umma.
I do not know how much blood and treasure we should pour into Afghanistan, but I trust our military more than 0bama. I know how they feel about their men, but also the mission they have been given. If this effort fails, Central Asia will become the playground of the Salafists, who will then have access to Pakistan's nukes or nuclear technology.
The next time a plot is hatched in Central Asia against the US, it will be with the connivance of the axis of Iran, Pakistan and North Korea.
Many, many Americans will die.
Sometimes my disgust manifests itself in sarcasm thick enough to cut with a machete.
“or if you don’t know whether you will create civilian casualties”
-WTF indeed. I am starting to wonder if Secret Service/FBI is the ONLY hope of removing Obama in power. Because Congress sure as hell wont. And the military can’t, since they can be defunded by Congress.
What a terrible situation we are all in.
Obama needs to GO.
Obama = cheese-eating surrender monkey
Sad to say but I fully agree with you.
“Fallen Marine’s father wants change in Afghanistan”
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.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2361697/posts
__________________________________________________________
Congressman Mike Michaud 7/09/2009 08:01 1724 Longworth HOBWashington, DC 20515-1902
Dear Sir;
I am writing to you today as an American citizen, 26 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, committed Christian, Husband, Father of two and a businessman. I am also writing to you as the Father of a Marine who is, as all of his brothers in arms are, in harms way. That by itself is not a cause for concern for me because as a Warrior I understand two things:(1) it is the very nature of the calling to which we have been called that we will be thrust into dangerous, even life threatening situations to fight the enemies of our country and (2) that there could not possibly be a safer place to be than in the company of fellow Marines. In any case, that is the nature of the business and those who serve in this capacity have long since dealt with the realities of life in uniform.
There are, however, certain expectations, an unspoken trust within the ranks of those of us who serve and have served in this capacity. One of those is that we have a belief that as Americans, our leadership will not frivolously spend our blood on unworthy pursuit. To those of us who serve, let me be very clear to those of you who hold our lives in your hands; this means that the reason we may die can ultimately be defined as protecting homeland, family and fellow American lives (spelled US citizens). We also assume we will not be used as pawns in some personal vendetta or worse some career building scheme; that we will not be asked to spill our blood in a foreign land to defend the indefensible. We expect we will be able to do that for which we were trained; export violence with ferocity and drive our enemies to their knees with the ultimate goal of ending the conflict by forcing them to do our will. Such are the dreams and aspirations of the Warrior. Men like this seek to serve side by side with like-minded men prepared to meet their destiny on the field of battle; living a life of honor while testing personal courage in the forge of combat. Our nations Warriors have no other expectations, no visions of grandeur, no careers to bolster, no kingdoms to lord over, no sovereignty to subvert. These men just seek to serve their country.
Now that you have ever so basic an understanding of the intrinsic nature of the Warrior; I hope to encourage you to show them at least the dignity of thoughtful and painstaking decision-making when considering when and where to thrust them into the fires of hell. My demand is that you emphatically understand that this decision will have eternal consequences for the men involved and their families. I also expect this decision to be for the simple reason of defense of country and countrymen (again spelled United States Citizens).
If any part of you still understands that you were sent to Washington DC for the sole purpose of defending these shores and to defend the ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’ of the citizens of this nation; and if you still believe you are first a servant of all, then you yet may possess the ability to understand the immorality of what I am about to share with you and the necessity to change this policy NOW.
President Obama has seen fit to replace the sitting ISAF commander with a General McChrystal (see Bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal). Suffice it to say that Gen McChrystal’s understanding of the Warrior ethos is somewhat askew from the mainstream. Also let us cut to the chase and identify him more as a political mouthpiece than a field commander. Add to this the dubious addition of General James L. Jones (see bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Jones), who unlike McChrystal has actual combat experience but still shares the same ultimate goals and one world vision as both McChrystal and Obama. What you have here is an unholy trinity injecting their shared philosophy of ‘spare the civilians at all cost’ – even though those civilians are not US citizens and are in fact complicit in their own misfortune. The new ROE presented by McChrystal and under which operation Khanjar was mounted is nothing less than disgraceful, immoral and fatal for our Marines, Sailors and Soldiers on the ground. The Marines and Soldiers that are ‘holding’ territories of dubious worth like Now Zad and Golestan without reinforcement, denial of fire-support and refusal to allow them to hunt and kill the very enemy we are there to confront are nothing more than sitting ducks. Denying them even the ability to fight, which is their only purpose for existing, to defend themselves in a foreign land that sees them first as agents of the devil is detestable to the secular world and immoral to the rest of us. And for those of us with ‘vested interests’ thrust into that foreign land; it angers us. The links I have provided will give you some indication of the insanity of the current situation and the suicidal position this administration has placed these Warriors in. I admonish this administration and all those currently in public office whom we have entrusted with our security, well-being and the very lives and well-being of the best of us, our Warriors to start acting like you actually care or even understand the consequences of ludicrous decisions like this one. I then hold you responsible to actively seek to change this immoral policy to one that allows our Warriors the opportunity to do what they were trained to do; destroy our enemies and protect our citizenry.
http://www.militarytimes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1578049
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/07/07/no-excuse-marines-losing-legs-in-now-zad/
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/07/03/afghanistan-the-wtf-war/
To those who would suggest that COIN (counter insurgency) is complicated I say hog-wash. This has become the mantra of the one-world ideologues. This has become complicated because leadership has lost its way. It is not the responsibility of the leaders (servants) of this country to re-build a country that has not been destroyed by us nor does the leadership of this country have any intrinsic right to spill the blood of this country’s finest for this cause. I’ll lay it out for you; bad guys entered this country, unannounced and unwelcome and killed Americans on American soil. Bad guys continue to harass and threaten to kill Americans here at home and abroad. Bad guys continue to train in foreign lands and continue to plan to carry out these plans against sovereign American citizens. They have no rights or guarantee of protection under the Constitution of the United States because they are not United States citizens. They are not protected by the Geneva Convention because they don’t fight under any Nation’s Flag. We however, have the right – and responsibility, with historical and Biblical precedent to export violence to crush these Bad guys, wherever they may live and in whatever lair they may hide – relentlessly! If the civilian populations in those areas lack the intestinal fortitude to expel them from their midst or they quietly support them or they actively support them; they are not innocent and may well suffer ill consequences for their cowardice and their complicities.
For those of us who have served in uniform and for those of us who have family forced to serve under these immoral conditions the time to quietly observe and pray has ended. There is a new activist emerging; not like the cannabis induced flailing of the sixties and seventies but one with the discipline, training and tenacity of a Warrior. Those of us who have a history in this Warrior culture and a vested interest on the battlefield will be a lot more vocal from this point on. Those in this culture who do not yet know about this immoral ROE change will soon all know as well as the families of those who are imperiled by it. Those who have actively supported this policy of immorality or are not engaged enough to know of it; they will be re-introduced to your constituencies for their failings. Public service is precisely what it portends to be; service. If there are those among your number who have failed to remember that I can promise you we will make that known within our spheres of influence.
This letter is making its way through the halls of every national news agency as well as the local ones in Maine, as you read this. I have contacted your office by phone, e-mail and now letter to give you a chance to get out in front of it. Consider this a wake-up call.
John J. Bernard 1stSgt USMC ret
http://letthemfight.blogspot.com/
BTTT
We Lose.
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