"The truth is, any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably shouldn't get into one."
This quote popped up while I was reading and it really made me think long and hard about the Rules of Engagement for soldiers in the United States Armed Forces. In fact, I spent most of my weekend pondering these rules, and if you ask most of my friends about the topic, they would tell you that I asked them about it as well. The Rules of Engagement were discussed in Lone Survivor because the author's team is met by a group of three unarmed civilians as the SEALs are on a secret mission to take out a high ranking leader in the Taliban, and the team is faced with the decision of whether or not to just execute these three "harmless," goatherds. The team KNEW that if they let these men go, then they would certainly alert the Taliban, and this would put the SEALs in a very dangerous spot. The logical military decision would be to absolutely execute these men, because they posed a HUGE threat to the SEALs' mission, as well as their personal well being. Because of the Rules of Engagement, however, if the SEAL's killed these men, then they would most likely be charged with murder back in the United States because of how the Taliban sway the media. Instead of killing these three men and safely completing their mission, they were ambushed by over 140 men, and this ended up costing eleven excellent soldiers their lives. All because SOLDIERS had to worry about being charged with MURDER. Wow.
I felt that I needed to make another paragraph after that rant. But this really, really angers me more than anything. Why in God's good name should a freaking soldier have to worry about killing someone while on active duty in the most hostile territory since....ever? I'm sorry that politicians want to make good men, and excellent soldiers out to be criminals just to appeal to the idiots who are against war in general, but I hope that they know that they cost absolutely fantastic people their lives, just like this. Seriously, it's all about politics. Who gives a crap what stupid Taliban media say? THEY'RE THE FREAKING TALIBAN FOR GOD'S SAKE! YOU SHOULDN'T EVER LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY...EVER! The Rules of Engagement are ridiculously messed- up, especially for such a bad situation such as Afghanistan. Why the heck would I wait for somebody to take a shot at me, even if I knew that they were "bad guys?" These men should NOT have to worry about being charged with crimes back in the US, especially for defending our freedom. "Oh, hey, thanks for defending my freedom, man! Here, I did you a favor. Since you defended the freedom of millions of people, I'm gonna take away your freedom now! Thanks!" Like....seriously. That's pretty much how it is. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy with my overly- patriotic mindset, but I'm just putting myself in those soldiers' shoes. You know...the ones that are dead now because of those darn rules. What do you think?
As a former soldier, I can understand the frustration that is present when r.o.e.'s are employed that endanger the soldiers. But, as many good and patriotic soldiers there are, that are there altruistically and selflessly there are also terrible men and women who use wartime to play out their gruesome desires. The r.o.e.'s are in place because of politics, but they are also in place to protect the innocent when wartime clouds the judgment of good men and women.
ReplyDeleteAs a future soldier, these stories worry me a bit. I wouldn't want to put the lives of anyone else I see over the lives of my men. However, I do agree with Mr. Kain. We should protect innocent lives whenever possible. It's a tough decision to make, though, even from the comfort of my chair. I'm sure it's an even harder one to make in the field.
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