“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.
JUST LIKE VIETNAM ..old man bush had BALLS ..go in wipe them out and leave ..did you get the message
pentagon needs to drop there balls and take care of our soldiers there the military for crying out loud whom is going to stop y’all damn it people our troops are without because of lack of funds pentagon needs to build a printing machine and print money same currency as now and get our troops the things they need during war and after such as full benefits for them and their family and ongoing pension after retirement and after the soldiers pass here off the field as well on the field they fight for america america need to fight for our soldiers this is the new millennium new world order change the old to the new for the better and not the worse
This is what happens when politicians with no military background stick their nose’s where it doesn’t belong. They just don’t understand.
does anyone get it ???? destroy the economy take away our free speech disarm the people weaken our military….At the same time build a police force with military weapons, control our healthcare, listen to our phone calls, read our emails, monitor what you do and say on this firkin computer. Road block checks, tracking devices on our phones, all this and sucking the taxes out of us so we can barley feed and keep a roof over our heads. Dept. of education with military style swat teams…. Anyone that don’t have there head up there ass knows all this… so you put 2+2 and come up with your own answer but you know what it equals….
if the pentagon sees our troops will not benefit via a rule of engagement then simply don’t engage the rule
Don’t follow Obama’s rules. They are all against our military and people of America
Damn it when you are at war there is not such thing as RULES OF ENGAGEMENT…….you kill the other guy before he kills you….Patton said it is not your responsibility to die for your country it is your responsibility to kill the other son of a bitch for your country.
So true
obama is an illegal president
Just like Vietnam! Had to check in to see if it was ok to shoot back.