“If word got out that soldiers had electronic monitors in their arm, for example, they would just cut off any captured person’s arm immediately.”
Don’t tell them. Put them in the boots. Aside from the fact that we’ve lost 3 troops because of this, there is also the fact that these guys are still out there, and will no doubt do it again.
I really don’t think that our government is doing everything it can do to win this war. They don’t take it as seriously as some of us do. The key to winning this war is intelligence, and we seem to have a 1970’s vintage intelligence operation. There are all kinds of electronic intelligence gathering devices we could be using.
They could plant video cameras at all the major intersections and reverse track these vehicle bombs to their point of origin. They could be electronically monitoring the Iranian border. Instead, we’re just whining about the Iranian support for the terrorists.
Word gets out. After a few times that US forces quickly zero in on captured soldiers, someone will put it together. Then they can quickly capture a few soldiers, spirit them out of Iraq (say into Iran), and dissect them to find out where the US soldiers tracking devices are.
Then, figure out how to track the US soldiers themselves. Advantage: BAD GUYS!
Are you kidding? It would be on the front page of the NY Slimes tomorrow.
Once it's common knowledge that the troops had tracking devices, there'd be no reason to capture instead of kill. That goes for any of our enemies, from terrorist to uniformed opponent. Why take someone alive if he's only going to lead his friends to you? Personally, I'd rather take my chances with escape or rescue as a hostage than being marked as kill on sight.