U.S. military ordered Royal Marines not to shoot Taliban. U.S. commanders were afraid noisy night operations with all the rude nasty bright lights might disturb local Afghans who were trying to sleep. So Sergeant Peter Rayner (above) watched with night vision goggles as the enemy planted IEDs and wasn’t allowed to fire on them. A few days later, Sergeant Rayner was blown up by an IED.
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During the last days of communist Poland the joke was that the lowest raking officer in the Polish army was Newsreader. These day, alas, one of the anglophone Armies’ higher ranking officers is the Health and Safety Officer.
It’s a good thing that HaSOs weren’t around in earlier wars:
HaSO: What in Hades is that?
Odysseus: A cunning stratagem for defeating the enemy. My idea, y’know! We’ll grab our weapons, climb in and—
HaSO: Climb in? With weapons? That’s too dangerous; I can’t allow that!
Odysseus: But how else do we leap out and slaughter the enemy?
HaSO: Slaughter the enemy? By all the gods, man, someone could get get hurt!
See also a “Revised Scene from History”.
Sounds like a Python skit. Just throw in a few poofters, have a little song and dance number, and the Obama administration will be all over it, like peanut butter on rye.
Outstanding!!!!
Horrible, just horrible.
These so called leaders should be made to watch "The Fog of War." The documentary (really a mea culpa) features Robert MacNamera talking about the LBJ White House completely screwing up Vietnam. The strategies are different today but the result of not committing to or defining victory is the same.
MacNamera was the model of the intellectual leader who thinks he knows stuff simply because he did well in school. These kind of people are the backbone of liberal political philosophy.
Damnit I thought LBJ and his group of "war leaders" had long assumed room temperature and taking a dirt nap.
This man's death is a direct result of the behind the line generals giving the damn orders. Let the military and our allies (what few there are) the ability to do what it is that they do best. Break things and kill the enemy. Stop playing social games and wishing to be liked. In cases like this, better to be feared than liked.
I'm sure he isn't the only one that has become a casualty over this kind of crap. These men deserve better than this. They are fighting men, and should be allowed to fight.
Whoever in DC ordered these rules of engagement is an out and out traitor. They should be tried and get the death sentence just like this poor soul.
I think the NATO allies should pull out, if they have to follow American directed wussy rules like this.
It goes without saying that American troops should be pulled out. Let the savages fight it out like they have been for thousands of years. The military cannot win if they are not allowed to fight.
Nothing in Trashcanistan is worth another American life. Just let them know we can reach out and touch jihadi scum with fighter bombers, stealth aircraft and drones from far away.
The Washington Slimeballs didn't learn a f**king thing from Viet Nam. All these assholes are good for is collecting bribes, selling influence, and getting re-elected...so they can continue to collect bribes, sell influence, and live in complete luxury on the taxpayers. Tar and feather all the bastards in DC, elected or not!
There's a scene in "Patton" where General Patton arrives in North Africa HQ (where the war is not going well) and finds a soldier sleeping on the floor. He kicks him to wake him up and the soldier, seeing who it was, jumps to his feet and says "Sorry sir, I was just trying to get a little sleep." Patton replies, "Don't be sorry son, you're the only SOB here who knows what the hell he's trying to do."
There another scene in that movie where Patton is watching his army move past on a road. He's pulled them out of their advance toward Germany to send to the Battle of the Bulge. He says something like, "God I love these men! There isn't another army on the face of the Earth you could pull out of a running battle, then march them 50 miles and throw them into another battle." When I saw that scene for the first time my dad turned to me and said, "That was us!" The pride was practically exploding out of him. He loved Patton. All soldiers want from their general is competence and a single-minded desire to kill and defeat the enemy... because the sooner that job is done the sooner they can go home.
Vietnam was the first war run by intellectual elites and that's what we have running things now. Same people, same kind of mess.
Here's how I would run things. First I would send all the "intellectual" generals home. Retire them, fire them, I don't give a shit. They're idiots. That goes for anybody who was mentored by or learned his craft from Petraeus, the father of all this "winning hearts and minds" crap. Second, I would ruthlessly promote the front line officers who are achieving battlefield results. Ruthlesly. Forget about who's next in line or whose turn it is to get promoted. We're at war. I would do this promoting immediately and relentlessly until I have generals running the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have proven themselves in combat... and I wouldn't care one bit if they were twenty five year old generals.
I disagree about Viet Nam being the first war run by liberal elites. It may have been the first to get top TV billing, but I'd say the Korean war was the first war run entirely by libtard eggheads. This crap started even before the Second World War was over...look how we stuck it to Shang Kai Sheck (spelling) and fawned all over Mao Tse Dung (spelling)? Look how we singlehandedly rehabilated and then financed Joseph Stalin and the Soviet military!
Respectfually disagree. There may have been a disagreement between MacArthur and Truman about pursuing the war into the north, and MacArthur may have been an educated man, but I wouldn't call either one of them an egghead. They were both steeply basted in practical experience within their chosen professions. Truman overruled MacArthur in Korea, but don't forget it was Truman who made the immensely practical decision to drop the nuclear bombs on Japan. The reason the Korean War was so tough for so long was that we were totally unprepared when it broke out. We were underequippped, undermanned, and taken by surprise. That the U.S. military managed to turn the situation around and push the commies back is a testament to the military leadership, not an indictment of the leadership. (And the commies, being commies, were probably out of food and half starved.)
The Chinese were the wild card in North Korea and I believe their threat to get even more involved than they were caused Truman to back off., which I consider another immensely practical decision.
The Chinese had nukes and may have used them, not to mention millions in the army who could have overrun South Korea. We had nukes, too (obvioiusly) but really, what was the point of starting a nuclear war over Korea? I think eventually everyone backing off and calling it a stalemate was a wise decision on both sides of the 37th parallel,. You can toss in the Russians, too. They were sending supplies to the N. Koreans and the Chinese and I'd bet Truman factored them in, too.
On the other hand, this was the first war involving the United Nations, so I'd also agree that this was the first clusterf*** war we were involved in and perhaps would have done better on our own.
This is the kinda shit that makes me want to cammo up and go Rambo on the first 10,000 libtards I meet on the street!
"‘It is all about winning hearts and minds and using the least force possible,’ the spokesman said." No wonder these wars go on forever and good people like the Sargent die. You can damn well bet the Taliban don't subscribe to this stupid philosophy. The moron who said this should have his ass kicked at the very minimum.
I'd like to make the pantywaist that said it go on patrol. Like all pantywaists, once their precious ass is on the line, they're all about using the tools we have to get a quick victory.
"...winning hearts and minds..."
Goddam, I heard that idiotic phrase 45 years ago, didn't work then, won't work now.
But...but...Obama killed Osama, so his rules of engagment that get Americans and allies killed don't matter...especially when the MSM doesn't cover the issue.
Meanwhile combat deaths have skyrocketed due to silly assed Rules of Engagement like this, and not a peep to be heard from the media. According to this administration, the new ROE soon will be drop your weapon, and yell Jesus Christ, Run Away!!!!