“I didn’t join to be sacrificed”, says an Army Ranger who recently left the military.
Politicians and lawyers in Washington have been continually rewriting the ROE (Rules of Engagement) and the COIN (Counterinsurgency) strategy in an overall plan known as “winning hearts and minds”.
It basically limits our troops ability to win on the battlefield as it creates absurd rules that favor the enemy – and our troops are getting tired of seeing their friends die for it.
“I got out because I couldn’t take it anymore. We tried to explain how much reckless danger we were being exposed to and they told us we were being illogical,” says one Navy SEAL who left the service only a few years shy of full retirement.
Our politicians are limiting and killing our troops to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of the people of Afghanistan with a ‘kinder, gentler machine gun hand’.
Makes one wonder if they actually want to end the war.
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are now forced to fight a two-fronted war. Before each deployment, these soldiers understand fully that day after day they will do battle against relentless terrorists with shifting loyalties and unspeakable hatred. But what none of them could have foreseen was the killing field that would open from their rear: the Continental United States.Our government’s incessant tightening of already restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement), compounded by the failed COIN (Counterinsurgency) strategy—also known as “winning hearts and minds”—has made an otherwise primitive enemy formidable.
Our best and brightest come home in body bags as politicians and lawyers dine over white linen tablecloths; writing, modifying, and re-modifying these lethal rules. Rules that favor the enemy rather than the American soldier. Rules so absurd they’re difficult to believe until you hear the same stories over and again from those returning from battle.
In a delicate discussion with an Army Ranger who recently left the military, we heard the following: “I had to get out. I have a family who needs me. I didn’t join to be sacrificed. I joined to fight.”
This decision came shortly after he lost a close friend to the ROE. He explained how the Taliban had attempted an ambush on his friend’s squad but quickly realized they were in a battle they couldn’t win and began retreating. While chasing them, the U.S. soldiers were ordered not to engage due to the slight chance the Taliban had laid down their arms as they ran through some type of shack. While arguing with leadership at the JOC (Joint Operations Center), his friend was shot and killed.
A Navy SEAL who left his job only a few years shy of full retirement said the following: “I got out because I couldn’t take it anymore. We tried to explain how much reckless danger we were being exposed to and they told us we were being illogical.”
This type of response has created a growing crisis of confidence between our warfighters and senior military leadership. His argument wasn’t illogical at all.
A gut-wrenching pattern began forming in early 2009, a pattern completely ignored by Congress, the White House, and apparently the DoD.
In the first seven plus years of war in Afghanistan (October 2001 – December 2008) we lost 630 U.S. soldiers. In early 2009, this administration authorized the implementation of the COIN strategy. Over the next five years, the U.S. death toll skyrocket to 2,292.
Seventy-three percent of all U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have taken place since 2009.
In the first seven plus years of war in Afghanistan, 2,638 U.S. soldiers were wounded in action. In the next forty-five months (2009 – 2012) an additional 15,036 suffered the same fate.
Liars figure, but figures don’t lie.
While concern over being killed due to these policies weighs heavily on the minds of those we’ve spoken with, the deepest pit in the stomach comes from fear of prosecution should they violate these absurd and ever-changing ROE. The last thing a warfighter should ever be forced to experience is unnecessary fear.
Fear creates hesitation. Hesitation creates flag-draped caskets. Flag-draped caskets create fatherless children, widowed wives, and childless parents. Our heroes deserve the right to fight with swift hands, clear minds, and confident hearts.
However, today’s warfighters have the grave misfortune of serving leaders who elevate the virtues of inaction over action. The message? If you dare use your training or your gut instinct, if you have the fortitude to fight for your life or the desire to kill the enemy, there is a good chance you will be punished.
The physiological capacities of a true patriot cannot tolerate the vile stench of injustice, especially when perpetrated against those who defend us. Its wretched aroma permeates the core and demands a response.
same same viet nam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is so sad that our military has been reduced to this. I have been taught if you have an enemy that is hell bent on killing you. No amount of conversation can stop it. This “kinder and gentler” military will not work. You engage the enemy, you kill them. It is about that simple.
Has been this way for a while now. This will all go on the back burner again soon enough and nothing will change.
Come on home we love you and we need you too !!!!
amen to you Mr, Perez…………..
They don’t wanna end it or win!! Hello!!!!!! Obama is a Muslim!! “The future Does not stand with those who slander the profit of Islam ” he told you on national tv!! What happened to us , we used to show up blow $#%&!@* to shreds and leave!! The whole world was scared then , now they’re knocking on our door invading us without a shot fired. Too scared to join together and now we’ve done let them militarize all police forces which gives civilians less of a chance. We can’t get the weaponry or ammo that they have. No competition we just watched it and now it’s over. I’m going out in a blaze of glory I will bow to one , The Lord almighty, and no one else , EVER !! I will not cop out to a violent falsified religion made up by some psychopaths in history!! GOT THAT OBAMA? COME TAKE IT FROM
MY COLD DEAD FINGERS!! Such a wimp you can’t even play b ball or ride a bike without a helmet!! Your wife has bigger nuts than you!! F*g
Time to get our troops home!
that’s obummer and his Marxist commie buddies in congress rewriting everything and they get away with it aiding and abetting the enemy . he is a fraud and working against the military and the oath you all took to protect us from foreingn and domestic treason. follow the oath and take him out like Egypt took morsi out he has corrupted the whole govt.
They don’t care they arn’t there ,they all need to march on the white house then we see how fast things change
What else can the troops do when Obama’s Rules of Engagement seem like they were written by the Taliban, but Obama is a muslim terrorist, we shouldn’t be surprised he is working against our troops and helping his muslim brothers! He and his regime guilty of treason in time of war, and the penalty for that is death!! Obama also given aid and comfort to the enemy! And put our troops in unnecessary peril!