The so-called “rules of engagement” must be changed. The ABC video said the Taliban jihadists and sympathizers were putting putting women and children on the rooftops in order to prevent return fire from American troops. In other words, these cowards are hiding behind women and children. There is no way I can think of to circumvent this except to make an example of a village or two by napalming these villages to ashes. The word will soon get out that hiding behind non-combatants will not work. It’s a horrible thing to do, but if America is going to win this war we must deal with these primitives on a level they can appreciate.
Exactly right - and just maybe they will be changed - see my post #64 - and the news article yesterday about the new assignment - a highly unusual one - that Petraeous has just been assigned =
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111602258.html?hpid=topnews
Were I the commander, I would call the village elders in (and the villages ARE all Taliban, believe it) and say: "Okay, fellas, here's the deal. The next time one bullet comes from one of your villages and/or we find another bunch of ordinance in one of your villages, we will be flying over said village to give you a 30 minute heads up to get out of Dodge. After 30 minutes, said village will cease to exist. (It would only take one bomb.)
In addition, without any warning, the next nest of ambushers get strafed with a gunship.
Betcha it wouldn't take more'n one bomb and one gunship to calm things down but good...
BUMP
BUMP