Posted on 05/24/2019 12:35:02 PM PDT by Kaslin
The target was an “Al Qaeda cell” in a Baghdad house in the dead of night—with an unknown number of military-aged males inside. The intelligence was good, but not great.
That night, we landed via Blackhawk helicopters with night vision goggles and raided the house. Not much went as planned.
The BOLO (“Be On The Lookout”) suicide vehicle that day was a white Toyota—the most common vehicle in our area.
The masked Iraqi informant knew way too much about the enemy to be friendly—but we followed him anyway.
House to house we hunted bomb-makers and insurgent leaders. We captured some, missed others, interrogated many, and chased those who fled.
Men jumping walls, Humvees ramming gates.
Images, sounds, and smells I will never forget.
Just another day in Iraq.
I led an infantry platoon in combat and later worked with Iraqi leaders—good and bad.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I have heard from several active duty Army friends and acquaintances who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan that the Rules of Engagement were causing friendly casualties and not necessarily keeping non-combatants safe. It made me think that we should have put the military lawyers in the combat units and let them try to fight the enemy and see what it was like using the “legalities” they wrote.
If you send someone into a war zone, then ANYONE in it should be fair game. It is kill or be killed. They may not be actively firing at you AT THAT TIME, but they could just waiting for the opportunity, may have been five minutes ago, or helping someone who IS. If they get killed, just remember that WAR IS HELL.
Better a 1000 ISIS/Iraqui/Afghani/Paki/Raghead mothers be wailing and bemoaning the loss of a son/daughter than a SINGLE American Mother.
Damn right you are! 100% agree.
Why can’t the Iraqis take care of their own problems?
America’s leaders must be among the most cowardly and hypocritical on the planet.
They want to run an empire and have constant warfare in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Mali, Niger, Somalia - but always want to able to blame the soldiers when their own selfish political needs require it.
The lawyers who write the ROEs should be required to have smelled cordite and fear in the same breath before they’re let anywhere near the computer.... and the same goes for the damn politicians who approve them.
I’m be more in favor of hanging them in front of a formation as guilty of giving direct aid to the enemy by purposely undermining our warfighters ability to fight.
Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.
-John Harington
Only the ones who don’t smarten up with actual exposure to combat, and go on to formulate impossible rules.
After all, everyone who has never had a kid is an expert on child rearing...
People voted for Trump because he said he would pull out of these conflicts. These countries are a mess. They will remain a mess or get worse after we are gone. We did such a great job in Libya.
Send a young soldier into a kill-or-be-killed environment? Then the person who does the sending is (if anyone) responsible for any “bad” things that might happen. You don’t blame or second-guess the soldier—but the chicken sh*t brass does it all the time.
If you were where I am, working alongside them, you’d learn very quickly why.
I believe it's Lorance.
I could not agree with you more.
If you were where I am, working alongside them, you’d learn very quickly why.
Um, in general, in common with many less-advanced nations, the bulk of people have truncated education and first-cousin marriages as an impediment. So people get manipulated by peer pressure but also by superstitions.
This week a middle-aged hard working immigrant from that area, explained his loss of faith in their religious/political leadership because they are corrupt -he follows a cleric who is really sent from Allah. The cleric blessed a taxi so that it did not need fuel/gas because the taxi was nearly on empty and the driver wanted to delay him by filling up before a 125km journey between cities. The trip and others went well. After 3 weeks and many many customers, the taxi driver had still not fueled up ... so he got curious and checked the fuel tank with a torch. The "miracle" stopped in an instant and the taxi cab would not start, it was empty. Uh huh...
George W Bush and his administration made that a lot more difficult after 2003. The entire Iraq operation makes Viet Nam look well planned by its example. Wolfowitz oft quoted ‘It will be a cakewalk’ must be the most foolish tagline since Bonaparte told his brother Joseph that Spain would be a ‘military promenade’.
Here is the deal: REMFs NEVER have to suffer the consequences of their words, rules or actions!
If they did, the Rules of Engagement would be far different; they might even allow our warfighters to gain the upper hand!
MEGA KUDOS to President Trump for allowing then SECDEF Mattis to change the RoE to favor our warfighters in early 2017!
Knew that when the “shock and awe” bit wasn’t anything but words for a few extra rounds going off...winning a war takes a strong stomach - something that was absent since the Korean war and has just reappeared in president Trump....it he has to actually engage in a war, the left will howl about war crimes and a host of other crap that goes with winning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.