Posted on 09/16/2009 7:02:22 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
NATO-led forces are investigating the death of four Marines in eastern Afghanistan after their commanders reportedly rejected requests for artillery fire in a battle with insurgents, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Tuesday's incident was "under investigation" and details remained unclear, press secretary Geoff Morrell told a news conference. A McClatchy newspapers' journalist who witnessed the battle reported that a team of Marine trainers made repeated appeals for air and artillery support after being pinned down by insurgents in the village of Ganjgal in eastern Kunar province. The U.S. troops had to wait more than an hour for attack helicopters to come to their aid and their appeal for artillery fire was rejected, with commanders citing new rules designed to avoid civilian casualties, the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Unfortunately here in America the average armed citizen will shoot back, of course we then have to go under the scrutiny of the law and the courts for reasons of self defense.
Just how far up the chain of command are these orders originating from? Almost sounds to me like an act of treason that maybe there is an outstanding historic chance here that our acting president is creating situations for our military to be compromised strategically by this ROE. To view that in context I think Obama has set into motion for our Armed Forces to be deliberately put into harms way to be defeated.
An order from a President that may not legally be President?
Sounds like a good reason to question the ROE, all the way up to the top.
Has any pub called on BO for an exit strategy yet?
I have never gotten over the tragdey and waste of Vietnam. It is rather like the Holocaust in the respect that it transcends understanding. When I think of that war I am taken aback anew each time. It doesn’t help that almost every day I see the sacred places where the dust of better men than me was laid to rest; lives given up not to the Nation or her animating ideals but in service to ‘the best and the brightest’.
And here we are again. Heaven weeps at the stupid, feckless, selfish, blind politically correct parody of a failure that the greatest Nation in history has become.
A ludicrous conclusion in the age of PC.
I wonder what the PC piece of crap officer that was more worried about his career than protecting his fellow marines is thinking now.
Registered Democrats have had some bad news as of late....seeing dead Marines should cheer them up a bit now.
This is horrendous!
Prayers for the loved ones. This one is a hard one to stomach. May Obama rot in hell.
Odd, how killing a translater and CIVILIANS wasn’t a problem to rescue a NYT reporter. Civil words for this aren’t forthcoming ... .
FUBAR comes to mind ... .
This happened last week!!! Had this occurred under GWB, it would be front page news but because Obama is in charge we hear nothing!!!! The past 2 months have been the deadliest for our military in 8 yrs. The silence is deafening! Makes me sick to my stomach.
Obama had to portray himself as a badass and made Afghanistan his war!! He said he was going to get Bin Laden as well, haven’t heard a peep about that either!
This administration wiped clean anything with GWB’s fingerprints on it, including replacing the commander with McChrystal, a SF commander, to make himself seem tough. I am not an expert but I do have family that have served and are currently serving in SF. Special Forces do not engage like traditional forces do. Small units who DO engage with the local population, so they can be more mindful of civilians. An offensive with massive troops cannot be fought like the SF operations. Get McChrystal out and put someone in there that is schooled in major offenses, let McChrystal have his SF, and do his thing.
These rules of engagement are sick! Sending our family members to slaughter! Marines and Soldiers are not Social Workers! A good friend of mine is back from Afghanistan, he was part of the surge in the Helmand Province back in July. He’ll tell you the locals are soooo nice while we are giving them food, water, candy, etc. Coming out and waving and smiling. In the village he was in, they were transporting a Doctor in to help the locals when they were hit with the IED. He knew something was up, the smiles were gone and everyone stood back and watched as they went through, no more smiles and waves!!!
Sorry for the rant!
A month ago it was announced that the ROE were going to be changed!! They said they were going to be stingy after an air attack killed several civilians!!! It was in the news. The Taliban has us by the short hairs, they know we are timid when it comes to collateral damage, that is why the purposely use civilians for cover! They have also taken a page from the Palestinians where they go to the morgue and get bodies and place them at bombing sites to make it appear there are more casualties, and lets not forget the fact that they have no problem killing civilians themselves to up the body count.
Thank you for the heads up!
That was 26 years ago and we didn’t have hardly a clue of what we were in for with the terrorists.
Fool me once, times a hundred times, means we should know what we doing now. Some generals should be quiting in protest, that is if they don’t think it would be worse for the troops without them.
Sorry you disagree. That's the way the UCMJ works.
Absent other FACTS, scumbag, I trust the judgment of Marine Officers in Afghanistan than you. Call me crazy.
Scumbag? Rather personal isn’t it?
If I was one of the survivors, I'd consider locating the guy on the other end of that radio and invite him out for a drink, so we could talk this over, maybe hash out some differences...
>Pardon my French, but I don’t trust any of the f#%&ers who deign to rule this country — regardless of their political affiliation.
VERY much agreed. It is for that reason that I disagree with Limbaugh’s desire to avoid a third-party and “clean out” the Republican party; I do not see the Republican party as viable (honestly, it [the party, not the real people] has NO leadership, NO vision, and stands for NOTHING right now), especially given the impotence shown on things like immigration and abortion. In both cases the party did the bare-minimum not of what was acceptable, but of the politically-expedient.
>If that makes me a “liberal,” then I don’t know what planet you live on.
Indeed, I don’t understand why there should be “party-loyalty”... and why should a lack thereof be construed as making one “liberal”?
>The article 15-6 and/or article 32 investigation that comes from this incident will let the chips fall where they may. That’s why we commanders have those UCMJ tools. We don’t deal in rumors and innuendo of fact.
That’s a pretty boldly all-encompassing statement.
In fact, it begs me to ask of you why then in my own article 15 the “supporting paperwork” was the 4 or 5 counseling-statements that I got for ONE incident plus hearsay/rumor.
Thanks for the ping and for keeping this in the spotlight.
(snip)
“Bombing runs by coalition forces have declined sharply since McChrystal took over command in June, U.S.A Today reported on Wednesday, citing military statistics.”
(end snip)
The man needs to be FIRED!!
This isn’t about you and your Article 15. Have a great day.
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