Posted on 08/04/2010 6:03:10 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan commander Army Gen. David Petraeus has renewed orders to American troops to refrain from calling in artillery or air power when battling Taliban forces unless they're certain that no civilians are present.
The Aug. 1 order, Petraeus' first since he assumed command early this summer from ousted Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was an effort to fine-tune a McChrystal directive that had angered some U.S. troops, who said the restrictions on the use of artillery and air power exposed them to greater danger. Petraeus' order, unclassified portions of which were released Wednesday, seemed unlikely to mollify that complaint, however.
In his directive, Petraeus sought to strike a balance between protecting the population - the cornerstone of counterinsurgency - and minimizing the risks to U.S. and allied troops.
He wrote that protecting civilians "does not prevent commanders from protecting the lives of their men and women as a matter of self-defense where it is determined no other options are available to effectively counter the threat."
Petraeus, however, used virtually the same language as McChrystal to prohibit the use of artillery and airstrikes unless a commander knows civilians won't be wounded or killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Your opinion has more weight than most of the others here. You have skin in the fight. Unfortunately, we are not the country that you or I want us to be. In the middle 70’s we bombed the hell out of a little country in Southeast Asia, told them not to do it again and pulled out. We promised that we would come back if they didn’t behave. They didn’t. We didn’t. I don’t want that history to be repeated.
If that is true and he really loves his men, he should resign and go straight to Congress and tell them the Usurper is murdering our sons. Then he should call a press conference and do the same. It would be sacrifice and bravery. And then he would be president.
We need to stop enabling our enemies. We need to let our soldiers do their job and get it done.
We don’t learn from our mistakes because the same stupid logic used to decide to a cease-fire is being used in the creation of a lot of these rules.
No we didn’t. There was no ultimatum given. And I do not want to repeat history. We need a man int the Whitehouse who will keep his word to protect us and we need a congress and military who will keep their oath of office: to preserve and protect the Constitution for all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC.
And that is the crux of the problem. What is their job?
Petraeus is going to stay to try and protect his men and women the best he can. However, because Obama and the State Department are running the war, this will become increasingly difficult.
I expect Petraeus to resign by the end of the year, when Westley Clark becomes SecDef.
Sorta thought there were quite a few Iranians, Arabs and Pakistanis in the mix.
“What is their job?”
You are not listening.
Unless you mean the Regime has not given a clear job description. They have not. They want to look tough while protecting their muslim friends.
No shortage of fingers in the pot. On mny ways this is a proxy war and many, many groups will see our withdrawl as evidence of how vulnerable we are.
One of many ways ...
I need to look more while typing.
Petraeus had the perfect opportunity to protect his men when Zero went knocking on his door. He needed Petraeus who should have used the opportunity to secure a promise that he would be able to execute the war successfully. Now we learn the same stupid ROE’s that McCrystal came up with and promoted are in place. All while casualties mount PROVING IT IS A FLAWED PLAN. How that is “staying to protect his men as best he can” is escaping me.
Strike one................... =.=
Is their one and only job to kill Osama bin Laden?
Yep.
Afghanistan commander Army Gen. David Petraeus has renewed orders to American troops to refrain from calling in artillery or air power when battling Taliban forces unless they're certain that no civilians are present.
May as well pull our forces out of Afghanistan. If we are not going to kill the enemy and break their will, what is the sense in being there?
5.56mm
Their job is to destroy the Taliban. It will never work because they keep coming in from Iran, Pakistan and who knows were. So the only “job” that will be effective is to make them pay such a high price they will never bother us again. If they do the price goes up. It may need to be done every generation. These satan worshipers have been doing this for 6000 years. We do this with bombs: great big, miserable, horrifying bombs. Bring our men home. Not just because we have a son there, but because it is the only thing terrorist understand. It is the closest thing to victory we will ever see until Jesus comes back.
...to refrain from calling in artillery or air power when battling Taliban forces unless they're certain that no civilians are present.The most effective implementation of this is to reclassify all enemy KIAs as combatants. Otherwise, Petraeus has become tits on a boar, and needs to retire, now.
Try Israel.
A sweet and sour decision. Sweet on having a local Afghani with your troops. It worked in Vietnam and civilian casualties dropped with better intell.
Sour in that a few good heavy air and artillery strikes on a Taliban-held compound kill all the enemy and act as a warning to civilians to get out of Dodge if the know that the Taliban is in the area.
There will be some civilian casualties, but the locals can then tell the Taliban that they are not welcomed because of the guaranteed devastation they will bring on them.
If the Taliban refuse, the locals have a lot of hidden guns, and they are starting to turn them on the unwelcomed intruders.
If they are welcomes intruders, then the local have to pay.
War is hell, not a f*king tea party.
It was a good effort and our troops are to be commended for their gallantry, but unless our Country's resolve is to actually WIN a war, we have no business fighting them.
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