I seem to recall one commander who was given specific orders to destroy a city, the persons in the city {all of them}, and every living animal in the city, as well and leave nothing living. Mistake number one is assuming there are innocents in enemy nations. Mistake number two. Restricting the actions of ground troops. Mistake number three. Fighting wars by insane rule books. Mistake number four. Going to war with any nation without intention to destroy the entire nation if necessary to achieve the military objective.
Rule number five is the easiest of all. If rules one through four make you sick and you feel you can't allow them to happen then Stay Home and don't send troops too war because you have no moral right to do so.
If you hit abuse on this I ask the Mods to at least let me clarify from who the commander I speak of was as it is recorded history as well as the misery treaties can bring by nations being less than honest about their intent.
The idea of kinder, gentler, war is a product of Marxist accepted by the gullible masses they have educated since post WW2. There is no such thing as a kinder gentler war. How many more wars till we learn? Had any of the Commanders in chief involved in this went to war as war should be the man in question man would not have made four combat tours.
War is a horror to all. It especially should be one too the enemy nation we fight against. I'm sick and tired of seeing our troops pushed beyond conditions our leaders should never demand of them then punish them. I get even angrier when one ask to serve is pushed beyond their minds limits or has to make a snap judgement and our cowards who sent them there too start with waste niot a second trying to punish them. The soldier in question by all rights due to his previous injuries should have been medically dischaged and not put back into combat.
The R.O.E.'s or Rules Of Engagement were written several thousand years ago and carried out by a leader mankind simply knows as Joshua. One battle he lead was so intense not one person except a prostitute and her family survived it. All others in the enemy city died as did all animals. The Book Of Joshua also shows what Treaties with less then honest nations will get you.
War is a judgment upon a nation as history shows time and time again. There are no innocents in war especially those in the enemy nation. Our society today due to a warped sense of war is outraged at civilian causalities in a ground offensive yet hardly blinks if bombs from our aircraft kill thousands in one night. Dead is dead.
A soldiers job as any service member is not Nanny, Baby Sitter, peace keeper, nation builder, etc. Their mission is too seek out the enemy and kill. You kill till one of three things happen. The nation unconditionally surrenders like Japan & Germany did, the enemy nation overthrows it's government and stops fighting, or the enemy is eliminated from the face of the earth. This is no other kinder, gentler, way. Our Founding Fathers understood this and that is why our military and our civilian law enforcement should not be as one.
We abandoned the principles of war and the lessons of Joshua beginning in Korea. Today we are mocked by North Korea. I'm old enough also to remember the Pueblo incident and a president who sent an unarmed ship purposely into harms way.
Our treatment of our troops? Many say they support the troops. Our last POTUS to understand the meaning of such was likely Reagan before that was FDR the Socalist he was even he undstood it. Letting an enemy nation and enemy nationals dictate how we fight is morally wrong. Letting them on their word accuse our troops of crimes in combat or in their country and we punish them is wrong. As long as they do not attack our own I don't care. If they think House A has a sniper living or staying there then level it. Level several blocks to make sure afterward.
The court martials which took place in the past decade show just how low our leaders go both GOP and DEMs alike. I have no respect for any Sec of Defense after WW2. They were a disgrace and Donald Rumsfeld was as pathetic at the task as Robert McNamara was under LBJ. They are fighting under rules of engagement written for U.S. by Marxist.
No troops since WW2 have received a true hero's welcome. Our leaders, our media, our Marxist ran education system, has labeled ones who go to war as criminals to be scorned, shamed, or punished by some overzealous Marxist JAG Officer who shuffled papers in an office safely back in the states getting his law degree paid for.
If we read in The Bible we see where King David's soldiers went after the man who took his kingdom away from him. They fought hard in several battles, many died for him in battle, and the enemy leader of the king was slain. King David refused to honor his troops. Why? Because they killed the man who stole his kingdom whom was also his son. Even David though after correction wised up and repented. Our leaders refuse to do so.
Not one Freeper knows what really happened to Bates. Could any Freeper do four tours {one year each} into combat under those conditions and keep their sanity? No I doubt it seriously. Our troops are being ran ragged. There has been no substantial stand down since Desert Storm. But there has been massive cuts in the number of active duty. This means fewer do more. Today's soldiers and Marines in many units are seeing far more combat time than any soldiers did in WW2. in WW2 there was set agenda and goal. In Iraq there was well Gee let me see which way the political wind blows Bush and Obama.
Sgt Bates by all rights in previous times would have been released from service with compensation after his foot injury. Now we have amputees in the military. The Armed Forces is not a place for social engineering. It is for national defense and war. Give those injured their due compensation, help, and respect due them plus more in the civilian life.
No one can withstand combat with no goal or ones that change day to day with no clear objectives or conclusion of victory. What is being done to our troops is immoral and has been such since Korea and every POTUS who was CIC in those wars from Korea-present failed. The congress same thing.
SGT Bates faced a hell daily I can not begin to imagine keeping my sanity in. Our leaders put him there. I refuse to let the media convince me to condemn him. I won't condemn him. I'll thank GOD it wasn't me whom the government abandoned.
This nation needs to wake up and rethink it's values. Either go to war as war no hold bared or stay home. Toss out the PC history books written past 1950 and see what The Bible says about war and treatment of soldiers. The only one winning today is the Marxist in power and their media mouth pieces. SGT Bates needed help two deployments ago to make certain there wasn't deployment 3 & 4 to follow. Where was our nation? Where were our presidents? Where was congress? Where were we?
I would, however, point out to you that what God commanded people to do in the Old Testament cannot be used to say that it's good to kill innocent women and children without such direction from the Almighty God.
This mindless keyboard commando is not saying that it might just be necessary in war, but saying that a soldier who shoots unarmed women and children, with potentially no military objective is a 'hero.'
I completely agree with you on the restrictive ROE, the excessive deployments and goal-less, point-less 'mission' we now have in Afghanistan. It's a complete mess now.
But I will repeat my main point. This soldier...IF he is guilty....has unnecessarily and unproductively put the rest of our troops in greater danger. He has killed civilians with no military objective, and if he is found guilty, should be punished to the full extent of military law. Our military has always held higher standards than any other in the world's history, and what this soldier (allegedly) did berates the US military and all it stands for.
And anyone here on FR who calls endangering our own troops.....again for no military purpose...... 'heroism' is warped. Completely and utterly warped.
(bighead, only pinging you because I'm talking about you - not because I care to read any more of your messed up, anti-military drivel).