Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The Ghost of LBJ

The "Karzai 12" rules
Filed under "Democrats and war," & "Impeach Obama"

Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

 I missed this entirely, and learned about by chance after turning on the car radio while Sean Hannity disclosed it.  The "it" being handcuffs American soldiers in Afghanistan will wear from now on.

The WaTimes (Nov 16) compiled an informal list (7) of the new rules from interviews with U.S. forces. Among them:

No night or surprise searches.

• Villagers have to be warned prior to searches.

• ANA or ANP must accompany U.S. units on searches.

• U.S. soldiers may not fire at the enemy unless the enemy is preparing to fire first.

• U.S. forces cannot engage the enemy if civilians are present.

• Only women can search women.

• Troops can fire at an insurgent if they catch him placing an IED but not if insurgents are walking away from an area where explosives have been laid.

These rules are nominally by order of Gen. McChrystal:

In his Aug. 30 assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, which was leaked to the press, Gen. McChrystal said that the legitimacy of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had been "severely damaged … in the eyes of the Afghan people" because of "an over-reliance on firepower and force protection."

To succeed, he wrote, "ISAF will have to change its operating culture to pursue a counterinsurgency approach that puts the Afghan people first." This entails "accepting some risk in the short term [but] will ultimately save lives in the long term."

If that doesn't sound like the voice of LBJ/ Robert S. McNamara, nothing does.  The fact that the military haven't issued the list in written form, it seems to me, means they know as much.

6 comments:

CDR J said...

"ultimately save lives in the long term"
Unfortunately, those are likely to be Taliban and al Qaeda lives, not American.

Anonymous said...

Like 'NAM all over again. I wonder if our guys even get ammo?!
RAK

cmblake6 said...

Pure insanity and total bu((sh*t. We are about ot lose more American lives over pc.

Ladies and gentlemen, remember this when you come home. And remember your OATH!

Spunky Texan said...

That just breaks my heart

Hell_Is_Like_Newark said...

At the start of WWII, the Army was smaller than that of Romania's, had almost no heavy armor, and fielded aircraft that were ready for retirement.

To make matters worse, the Army and National Guard were staffed by old fossils and political hacks (National Guard in particular.. which had become a repository for those cashing in political favors from a State's Governor). The Army was being led by men who were good at navigating a peacetime military but were worthless at a time of war.

Unlike WWII, we have well trained and equipped men. We just need to clean house on the leadership. FDR administration (it pains me to give them credit on anything) setup a special "plucking" commission to quickly retire, transfer, or cashier the dead-weight out of the way.

The McClellans were replaced by people like Patton.

Kristophr said...

People like Patton, Eisenhower, and MacArthur were promoted because they carried FDRs water during the Bonus March ... Patton charged Veterans with cavalry.

The best thing you could say was that these three were more than a bit ruthless. Maybe something needed at the time. But don't canonize them.

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