Posted on 11/09/2008 11:48:30 AM PST by james500
U.S. forces in Afghanistan will "back off" from firing at insurgents if the fighters are using civilian buildings as cover, the U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan told CNN.
"I've given direct guidance, and so has my boss to me, that if there's any doubt at all that the enemy is firing from a house or building where there might be women and children, that we'll just back off," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN's Barbara Starr.
"That potentially is something that we did not do before, but now because of this increased emphasis, we are doing," he said in an interview at an outpost in Afghanistan's Paktika province near the Pakistani border.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
This CNN piece of shit repeats the Taliban-inspired lie that our troops killed 90 civilians back in August. The video did not show “dozens” of dead civilians. It showed two faces and what were supposed to be about 15-20 bodies. We killed about 21 Taliban and apparently hit civilians as the battle moved around the enemy held compound.
Ollie North and his cameraman were on the scene and recorded the fight.
Wash. Post re Karen DeYoung (Miss Sandinista) and Candace Rondeaux repeated undocumented casualty figures.
CNN is still the enemy of America.
...no kidding, why would they announce such a stupid thing?
who feeds CNN this stuff? We should put a reward for the CNN spy. The policy is stupid though and won’t work.
“We should put a reward for the CNN spy.”
Are you referring to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division? I’d love to hear the phone call you make to Fort Campbell to let them know they’ve got a spy in their midst.
Better yet, maybe you can put it on YouTube when you tell some Screaming Eagles, to their faces, that their Commanding General is working for the enemy.
it was a cynical remark on a stupid policy that should in my opinion not be mde public or on CNN, sorry, sometimes, I am too much of a cynic
I’m sure they would do the same for us. NOT!
So if any enemy shows up with women and children and shields we just walk away. Now that takes courage.
we just lost the war.
No way we can win now since they will just hide in an area that is deemed off limits while they kill our troops left and right.
But Obama and code pink like that.
IT’S AN OUTRAGE!
mark
Someone please remind me how humankind has actually survived and PROSPERED over the course of history when so many people are so incredibly ignorant and moronic...
I have a question, is this coming from Petraeus? Is this the strategy used in Iraq?
Looks like another “top secret” obama strategy.
To whom it may concern,
I work for Maj. Gen. Schloesser, 101st Airborne Division and Combined Joint Task Force 101 commander here in Afghanistan. The commanding general feels very strongly about the connotation of the phrase “back off” and has authorized me to set the record straight on his behalf.
CNN did some great reporting when they were here with us last week, but the quote “back off” doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it means. I can’t discuss any of our specific tactics, techniques and procedures, but rest assured this doesn’t mean that we put down our weapons, give up the fight, let the bad guys go, call it a day, head back to base, etc. It means that we assess the situation and try to come up with the most effective way to accomplish each given objective without endangering non-combatants.
Also, the “new” guidance on minimizing civilian casualties referenced in the story actually came out this summer, it isn’t that new at all.
Time and again our enemies here have put noncombatants in harm’s way with the goal of a propaganda victory if the noncombatants are harmed. This is a dishonorable, despicable practice.
Please trust me when I say we are getting after the enemy here more than ever, and we are also doing everything we can to prevent civilian casualties. Our mission is to separate the enemy from the people and support the government as they move ahead with the development of this country.
For more info on our operations (including almost daily releases on our operational results), please check out www.cjtf101.com! The site gives a good view of the full spectrum of operations we are engaged in here.
Thanks for taking the time to hear our side of the story
1LT Nathan Perry
CJTF-101 Public Affairs Office
To whom it may concern,
I work for Maj. Gen. Schloesser, 101st Airborne Division and Combined Joint Task Force 101 commander here in Afghanistan. The commanding general feels very strongly about the connotation of the phrase “back off” and has authorized me to set the record straight on his behalf.
CNN did some great reporting when they were here with us last week, but the quote “back off” doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it means. I can’t discuss any of our specific tactics, techniques and procedures, but rest assured this doesn’t mean that we put down our weapons, give up the fight, let the bad guys go, call it a day, head back to base, etc. It means that we assess the situation and try to come up with the most effective way to accomplish each given objective without endangering non-combatants.
Also, the “new” guidance on minimizing civilian casualties referenced in the story actually came out this summer, it isn’t that new at all.
Time and again our enemies here have put noncombatants in harm’s way with the goal of a propaganda victory if the noncombatants are harmed. This is a dishonorable, despicable practice.
Please trust me when I say we are getting after the enemy here more than ever, and we are also doing everything we can to prevent civilian casualties. Our mission is to separate the enemy from the people and support the government as they move ahead with the development of this country.
For more info on our operations (including almost daily releases on our operational results), please check out www.cjtf101.com! The site gives a good view of the full spectrum of operations we are engaged in here.
Thanks for taking the time to hear our side of the story
1LT Nathan Perry
CJTF-101 Public Affairs Office
Bagram, Afghanistan
Thank you for your service to our country.
Time to get out of that hell-hole. It is a nothing country. Let the tribes and Islamic nut-jobs have their way. Simply quarantine it and if it allows Jihadists to export their crap then have surgical strikes. Continually attack the infrastructure. If the people want freedom and democracy let them earn it. To have another Sharia based Islamic regime propped up by Western blood is incomprehensible. Afghanistan is a shiite-hole. Let them have their shiite-hole and bomb surgically whenever it tries to spread its crap outside its doors.
In response to the news blurb about the Marine who put two rounds (”doubletap”) in a wounded insurgent’s head in Fallujah, here’s a response from a Marine:
“It’s a safety issue, pure and simple. After assaulting through a target, we put a security round in everybody’s head. Sorry al-Reuters, there’s no paddy wagon rolling around Fallujah picking up “prisoners” and offering them a hot cup a joe, a falafel, and a blanket. There’s no time to dick around on the target. You clear the space, dump the chumps, and moveon.org.
Are Corpsman expected to treat wounded terrorists? Negative. Hey libs, worried about the defense budget?
Well, it would be waste, fraud, and abuse for a Corpsman to expend one man-minute or a battle dressing on a terrorist. It’s much cheaper to just spend the $.02 on a 5.56mm FMJ.
By the way, in our view, terrorists who chop off civilian’s heads are not prisoners, they are carcasses. Chopping off a civilian’s head is another reason why these idiots are known as “unlawful combatants.” It seems that most of the world’s journalists have forgotten that fact.
Let me be very clear about this issue. I have looked around the web, and many people get this concept, but there are some stragglers.
Here is your typical Marine sitrep (situation report):
You just took fire from unlawful combatants (no uniform - breaking every Geneva Convention rule there is) shooting from a religious building attempting to use the sanctuary status of their position as protection. But you’re in Fallujah now, and the Marine Corps has decided that they’re not playing that game this time. That was Najaf. So you set the mosque on fire and you hose down the terrorists with small arms, launch some AT-4s (Rockets), some 40MM grenades into the building and things quiet down. So you run over there, and find some tangos (bad guys) wounded and pretending to be dead. You are aware that suicide martyrdom is like really popular with these idiots, and they think taking some Marines with them would be really cool. So you can either risk your life and your fire team’s lives by having them cover you while you bend down and search a guy that you think is pretending to be dead for some reason. Most of the time these are the guys with the grenade or vest made of explosives. Also, you don’t know who or what is in the next room. You’re already speaking English to the rest of your fire team or squad which lets the terrorist know you are there and you are his enemy.
You are speaking loud because your hearing is poor from shooting people for several days. So you know that there are many other rooms to enter, and that if anyone is still alive in those rooms, they know that Americans are in the mosque. Meanwhile (3 seconds later), you still have this terrorist (that was just shooting at you from a mosque) playing possum. What do you do? You double tap his head, and you go to the next room, that’s what!!!
What about the Geneva Convention and all that Law of Land Warfare stuff?
What about it. Without even addressing the issues at hand, your first thought should be, “I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6.”
Bear in mind that this tactic of double tapping a fallen terrorist is a perpetual mindset that is reinforced by experience on a minute by minute basis. Secondly, you are fighting an unlawful combatant in a Sanctuary, which is a double No-No on his part. Third, tactically you are in no position to take “prisoners” because there are more rooms to search and clear, and the behavior of said terrorist indicates that he is up to no good. No good in Fallujah is a very large place and the low end of no good and the high end of no good are fundamentally the same. Marines end up getting hurt or die. So there is no compelling reason for you to do anything but double tap this idiot and get on with the mission. If you are a veteran, then everything I have just written is self evident.
If you are not a veteran, then at least try to put yourself in the situation. Remember, in Fallujah there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only now. RIGHT NOW. Have you ever lived in NOW for a week? It is really, really not easy. If you have never lived in NOW for longer than it takes to finish the big roller coaster at Six Flags, then shut your hole about putting Marines in jail for “War Crimes”.”
Thanks for the clarification, Nathan.
“For more info on our operations (including almost daily releases on our operational results), please check out www.cjtf101.com! The site gives a good view of the full spectrum of operations we are engaged in here.”
cjtf101 was the second website I went to looking for information (first being defenselink) and was I disappointed that the “latest” news was over a week old.
Thanks for clearing that up Lt Perry. My regards, gratitude, and appreciation to all concerned. God speed.
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