I understand what you are saying really I do but my point which I have seen first hand is that we are the only ones observing the rules of law. It is not fair and it is what is getting our people killed. The problem is that we have not yet come to the realization that we are fighting animals and must fight them with that understanding. My point about chess is that you can not win a battle following the rules if your enemy does not have any and uses those rules against you. They are not stupid, the are really good at using our weaknesses against us (UN, Law of Land warfare, Geneva, the US media).
I don't want to sound harsh but fairness has nothing to do with it, and that is coming from a man who had to stand there in uniform while youths chucked rocks and petrol bombs at him.
re:The problem is that we have not yet come to the realization that we are fighting animals and must fight them with that understanding.
And what should we do, ok I have nothing against a shoot to kill policy, I have nothing against tracking down the leaders and eliminating them in covert operations. I have nothing against discovering weapon caches and booby trapping them. I have nothing against bribery and corruption to break up gangs.
But a lot of those Rules Of Engagement for the street patrols is to make sure that they think before and on patrol.
The problem is we are operating on there home ground, to win we need the support of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, in fact we are out there supporting there governments we helped to install.
Killing large amounts of their people while trying to get the terrorists will not make the job of stabilizing those countries any easier.
And I want them stable LOL don't want to do another tour .
Its the same for Israel, Israel will only truly have peace when she is surrounded by stable states, such as Egypt today.
Israel does not have the resources to occupy Lebanon or even part of it that is why she withdrew, she needs a stable Lebanon Government.
That is why she can not go all out, because even if she clears a wide area and destroys Hezabollah it would be fruitless if another grows in its place with a more militant Islamic Lebanon government.
This war will not be won on the streets, they have all the advantages as you have truthfully pointed out, but as I state any attempt to negate those advantages will be short term gain for long term loss.
It will be won in the political, intelligence and covert arena, all our boys out there are doing is holding the line. That may sound harsh when I look back at my career I have to admit most of it was holding the line and friends of mine died, was it worth while well I will let history judge that.
Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany weren't real big followers of the Rules Of War, either.
Just thought I'd mention that.
L