“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.
Congress is in it with them. They know what he’s doing and you haven’t figured it out yet? What needs to happen is get these Soldiers together and join them in a war against this TYRANNY Gov.
Politions have no business righting ROE ONLY MILITARY GENERALS OR OTHER ,unless we make it a law to be a polition you must searve in the Military
Arrest the “Commander and Chief”! He is a murderer from the enemy camp!
No different than 1967 in Viet Nam !
I dont blame this man. I would do the same
Damn all of a sudden I don’t want to join
I firmly believe he is a sleeper cell.
I Agree, Obama way of fighting the Enemy is the wrong way at doing it. HE I a Dumn ass, we have to kick the man total out of the white house SOON
Obama PULLS OUT of Iraq when the war with the resistance had been won instead of insisting on forces being allowed to remain in Iraq to secure our gains bought by American and Iraqi blood. Limp- wristed! He now is finding he must RESPOND to the Iraqi radicals by involving America once more. He’s being lead around by the whims of MADMEN because he has NO IDEA what he is doing on the world stage….or does he? ? ? Our troops in their own words “I 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.This president wants to decrease and degrade ISIS over a long period of time instead of garnering a strong, immediate response against ISIS with solid and defined goals. Act against the extremists but not so forcefully as to destroy them?; do just enough damage to make them angry?. This amounts to using the American military actions as recruiting initiatives for increasing the number of Islamic extremists! Is he doing his part in creating their “CALIPHATE”?
These rules are my biggest fear of what involving our military would mean for our men and women. We have witnessed the tragedies of what ” rules of engagement have cost our troops, Seals, etc.. If we can not go in to win at all costs, why go?? It would be a Vietnam, and every war since, a total disaster. IF WE GO, WE GO TO WIN. (period) No hands tied behind our back!!