Paul Szoldra; Strict Rules Of Engagement Are Killing More Americans Than Enemy In This Lost War

| July 29, 2013

Our own Paul Szoldra, otherwise known here as StrikeFO has a piece up at Business Insider, that you should read. I’m not going to editorialize about it, because it’s mostly stuff that I’m hearing from the folks who are in Afghanistan. I’ll just say that you should go read it.

Category: Terror War

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FatCircles0311

Americans elected a community organizer for commander in chief. They got exactly what they wanted at the expense of the real 1%, the military, suffering because of their shitty doo doo naive decisions.

The reelection of race trumps results solidified without a doubt what most voting Americans care about and it’s nothing close to giving two shits about anyone in the military.

Zero Ponsdorf

This is simply not new or news. This effort to be somehow better than your enemies by exercising restraint has been in play since Korea.

Consider this… If America is/was the imperial power depicted by many – why have we not used nukes since WWII?

NHSparky

Oh gee, a military leadership more concerned with pinning on another star or lining up a post-retirement book deal or cush job than protecting the people they were supposed to lead?

Where have I seen this before?

Setnaffa

Obama is the CinC. He appoints the SecDef. He sets the tone…

RandyB

It’s not just that we’re better than our enemies. The U.S. military is more moral and more humane than the so-called “human rights” movement.

That isn’t an empty boast either.

NRPax

I have said before that our response to 9/11 should have made our allies gasp in horror and our few surviving enemies weep at the thought of raising a hand against us ever again.

Sumner

The comments after the article infuriate me. steve2u needs to be put out there with a rifle and be told to defend his flag. Unfortunately he is the type of scum that would surrender and turn traitor in a heartbeat. America is filled with the these overly righteous self-hating vermin. It’s disgusting, and makes me sad that it will take an incredible calamity with countless lives lost to get these people to wake up. Unfortunately even that might not work, and those who hate america will finally feel justified in their beliefs instead of the galvanizing nationalism born of a love for America and her values; Hard work, Integrity, Self Reliance, and the pursuit of freedom, That all those who have worn a uniform feel. How can we become what we once were when the cancer of defeatism and PC Is running through half of our citizens?? How can we possibly defend ourselves? or god forbid our own soil from attack when there are so many that are cheering our enemies onward???

Smitty

I always tell people I was in iraq back in 04, that was when we were atill allowed to shoot people. When my brother was there in 09, am order came down that if they were engaged by someone under the age of 15, they were not to return fire. My brother being the smarty ass E-6, asks if they are supposed to jump in front of the shooter and yell Stop show me your ID!

Robot Wrangler

@8 Yea I remember the ROE being pretty much if you are engaged, or about to be engaged then shoot back in 04. Friends of mine who deployed to OIF 4 were telling me that the ROE changed to the point that if you had to stop a person with a suicide vest you might as well just let them blow you up because the ROE was so screwed up.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

@7 that’s because douche nozzles like that think there is a higher morality in play, there’s not there’s life and there’s death. I prefer to be on the side that wants to live. Right now I am not convinced that all Americans feel the same way, when someone tells me they want me or my family dead I believe them. It is my firm belief that the only way to make those in the middle east understand we are done f#cking around is to kill everything that walks, crawls or flies….our nation no longer has the leadership necessary to fulfill that type of engagement. We are now a nation run by cowards who believe that the children of our enemies will grow up to love us if we avoid killing them….except there is absolutely NO historical evidence supporting such a doctrine. Enemies who are destroyed to the point where they are unable to find food and water for their civilian population and are unable to find a place to walk without fear of being bombed or shot are enemies who agree to stop to avoid losing their entire population. It’s time we remembered the best way to stop our enemies is to kill them and their families in horrific, incomprehensible numbers usually through a combination of napalm and incendiaries. Creating a firestorm of hell on earth that incinerates tens of thousands of people at a time was how Germany and Japan were brought to a point where they no longer wished to kill their neighbors…. It’s time Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and any other country that would engage in terror attacks against the US realize that such attacks will be countered with an overwhelming use of force with a complete disregard for the lives of our enemies and their families. When you attack the US you should know that not only are your warriors going to face death but your families will face the same outcome as the families in Dresden, or Tokyo where 90,000 people died in a single night of firebombing….most of whom were women and children. In Japan… Read more »

E-6 type, 1ea

In Afghanistan in ’11 it was so bad we were denied illum because we didn’t have positive target ID.

Figure that one out.

Twist

@8, It was the same way in 2005. As long as you felt threatened you were good to go. When I went back in 2008-2009 it seemed like I had to let an insurgent shoot me before I could fire back.

TTC

For those OIF II and III memories of permissive ROEs — isn’t that when we were slowly losing grip on the country?

JENKINS

Dirk VC and Mayo gonna go off tonight!