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These things are written by staff officers who are more concerned with their careers (oh no accidental misfire!!) than with giving Marines and soldiers the tools to accomplish the mission.

The problem comes from the current military culture.

A good part of the problem is that a minor issue (one of your troops had an accidental discharge) can be just as career ending as a major issue (your whole unit is dead because the sentry could not fire in time).

Since the probability of minor issues is generally much higher than the probability of a major "oh s***", the issues that career-minded officers focus on are the minor issues. And these officers are the ones to make it to high rank.

"The problem comes from the current military culture."

I agree. That is why people like Col Chessani and Col West stand out all the more in today's military environment. I don't think General Lemay would have survived in today's military culture.

"(your whole unit is dead because the sentry could not fire in time)."

One other thing I would like to mention. I think that Col Geraghty (CO of 24th MAU when the bombinb happened) gets a lot of criticism heaped on him and I think undeserved. Everything I have read, he tried to fight a lot of the peace keeping ROI garbage that was handed to him. The April bombing should have woke people up, but it didn't.

Another example of crazy ROI's. I was in a firefight down at "The Stadium" in Somalia. A big hotspot in Mogadishu at that time. We had tank support and they came in and let loose with their mounted 50 cals. After the firefight I was asking some people why those tanks didn't let loose with a shell or two on those dilapidated buildings we were firing on. I was told there were no HE tank rounds in country. I was given some BS reason about being on a humanitarian mission or something like that.