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"Rewards are necessary in order to make the soldiers see the advantage of beating the enemy; thus, when you capture spoils from the enemy, they must be used as rewards, so that all your men may have a keen desire to fight, each on his own account." - Sun Tzu

Good idea ! Let's let them rape the women and sell the chidren into slavery too !

(Of all the quotes from The Art of War - to pick the one least applicable to today's American Military ... scheeze..)

Good idea ! Let's let them rape the women and sell the chidren into slavery too ! (Of all the quotes from The Art of War - to pick the one least applicable to today's American Military ... scheeze..)

I didn't say anything about raping women or selling children, neither does Sun Tzu so I have no idea what you're talking about. It's very "applicable", especially since the title of the thread is "Air Force, Central Command set war trophy policy".

We used to allow soldiers to keep guns and all kinds of booty. Now we're court martialing them, which is asinine and very inappropriate considering he risked his life to accomplish the mission.

In GW-I the Saudis wanted to reward us with money, but of course our stupid ass chain of command turned them down stating that it wouldn't look right and instead issued some guys Article 15s for having "contraband". Not good for moral or re-enlistment incentives.

Note: Generals get to keep whatever they want. "Do as I say, not as a leader does" syndrome. "Sheeze" my ass.

I agree with Sun Tzu that rewards are a good idea -- only we now give ribbons and patches for overseas service and for combat service. I think these have more value to most troops than whatever they might take from the enemy.

No one should be too sure that General Officers get to avoid the policies. Remember Grenada and Admiral Metcalf? I can tell you that today's Generals and Admirals do. And they don't want their whole career to come to an abrupt and ignomious end like Adm. Metcalf, who tried to bring back an authorized trophy.