Damn the ROE

Yesterday I wrote a piece about LCpl Joshua Bernard, a Marine whom the Associated Press decided to publish a photo of after he was mortally wounded and in it I included some clips from his father in which he expressed concern about the Rules of Engagement (ROE) in Afghanistan.

Today via Instapundit there is a piece by Herschel Smith over at Captain's Journal about the recent engagement in which four Marines were killed, and it does indeed appear that the new ROE's are at least partially responsible for the rise in casualties in Afghanistan.

We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition.

“We will do to you what we did to the Russians,” the insurgent’s leader boasted over the radio, referring to the failure of Soviet troops to capture Ganjgal during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation.

Dashing from boulder to boulder, diving into trenches and ducking behind stone walls as the insurgents maneuvered to outflank us, we waited more than an hour for U.S. helicopters to arrive, despite earlier assurances that air cover would be five minutes away.

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren’t near the village.

This is Obama's war now. It's his Defense Department. They take their orders from him. That is the way our founding fathers designed it, so that we would have civilian control of our military, but if those civilians cannot grasp the concept of what war is all about then I fear the losses are only going to continue to rise. The enemy had become emboldened and he is using our rules against us.

I want these bastards beaten, if for no other reason then the blight that they are on human rights, especially of women and the total disregard they have for human life. It is not time to cut and run; history has proven that this reaction only furthers the Islamic radicals actions. At this point, however, you are really down to two options. You either use the military for its intended purpose or you tuck tail and run in defeat.

If this administration decides to tuck tail and run in the face of increasing causalities, casualties they are just as much responsible for as the fundamentalists who are pulling the trigger, then I will hold this administration responsible, not the service members in the field who have never flinched and always win when not hampered by ridiculous rules of engagement.