Screw The Rules!

Last July, according to Newsweek and MSNBC, we had the perfect opportunity to dispatch almost 200 Taliban fighters off to Allah. With no danger to US troops, we could have blasted them back to the seventh century from whence they came - but we didn’t.

We watched them gather, we watched them stand close together (Wouldn’t want to be in the center of that BO fest!) and we watched them trickle away, in small groups not worth going after. “Why did we not blast their collective turbaned heads into oblivion?”, you ask? Good question and I have a very stupid answer.

The answer – It’s against the rules. Yep, under current rules of engagement, our military was banned from slamming a couple of 500 pounders into that gaggle of goons because they were in a cemetery. That’s right, boys and girls; we can’t attack anyone in a cemetery.

Intelligence officers monitoring the footage captured by the armed, unmanned aircraft tell NBC News they were prepared to fire but were prevented from doing so by military rules of engagement that prohibit waging war in a cemetery.

Such rules are in place in an effort to minimize collateral damage, the killing of innocent civilians or destruction of sensitive targets, such as religious sites.

Screw that. Does anyone think for one minute that that band of blood thirsty bastards would hesitate one second before destroying our cemeteries or churches? Does anyone think that our idiotic rules cause them to pause and evaluate their own rules of engagement? If you do, you are a freakin’ moron! That’s right, moonbat, if you think that us taking the high road is somehow going to mean something to these bearded buttheads, 2 more points on your IQ score and you’ll be about the intellectual equal of a boiled potato.

And the reason for such nonsensical rules?

“The reason for these rules of engagement is that we’re not engaged in a full-out war, where we have unconditional surrender as the objective. In that case we would bomb everyone and sort it out later on,” Jacobs said. “You have a very heavy political component here, and that ’s why (the rules of engagement) are difficult to change.”

This is why no one is afraid of us. We tie our hands and hope the enemy will too. It’s stupid and it costs lives. This is the result of liberalism in our armed forces. We fight a limited war, and our enemy is fighting an all out war. Does anyone other than me see something terribly askew here?

Screw the silly rules and kill the damn bastards where they stand, sit, pray, or squat to crap.

VW

Comments

[canuckistani]

Ugh, a great opportunity missed. Using civilized rules to deal with savages won't get the job done. They should've been taken out because they would've done that to western troops. In fact, on Sept. 11 Anderson Cooper of CNN was in Afghanistan covering a marine batallion marking the day and the Taliban started rocketing the marine base while the service was going on. NATO troops should open up on the Taliban anytime, anywhere.

[Knotaremf]

Tactically, it was a dream shot.

Strategically, it would have done more damage to the US military -- make that NATO military (since there are only 1,000 Americans left in Afghanistan) -- than it was worth.

We could have killed the 200, but how many thousands would have switched sides in Afghanistan?

For a people willing to blow up 10 airliners in flight out of London because of cartoon pictures of Mohammed, can you imagine the damage done with bombing a cemetary?

You would now be looking at trying to rebuild trust with the Afghan people, and would have turned many of those allied with NATO into timebombs waiting to take out troops on the streets of Kabul. Attacking would have undone years of work and sacrifice American troops have done stabilizing Afghanistan.

Think long term.

[Violence Worker]

There comes a time in a war when you have to decide if you are in it to win, or are in it to lose. We are never going to win, if we keep playing nice. It just isn't going to happen. If some choose to get pissed over us bombing a cemetery, then bring it. When do we say enough? When do we realize that these savages are not really going to like anyone and making nice-nice is a waste of time.

VW

[thirdee]

What on earth? I heard this and nearly went into cardiac arrest. This is absurd. And, it appears that Centcomm was making excuses for NOT "getting" them.

The funeral, wasn't that for a terrorist/Taliban member we KILLED!!

If this is how it's going to be then we're doomed. We may as well pack up and leave Iraq and Afghanistan. Had they told us they were going to make our boys into PC sweeties during the war on terror, I'd have been against it. Waging a PC war on these Islamofascist cowards is not possible. They should be killed whenever and however we find them.

And, for the record, we're in Afghanistan to KILL the Taliban for crying out loud.

[canuckistani]

KNOTAREMF,

Think long term?

It's been 5 years since western armies went into Afghanistan and the war is still raging. Just how is the long term strategy working?

Any research on the radical Islamists will tell you that they perceive western forces as weak whenever opportunities to make a kill are sacrificed in the name of civility. Now the Islamists have found another way to undermine western power.

How many more would have switched sides? Who cares, they already hate us anyway. The hearts and minds of the Afghani's are pretty much lost.

Did you ever stop to think why the Afghani's are angry at the western armies? It is because the armies are forced to fight the battle in a half-assed manner due to these stupid rules of engagement poliiticians enact in order to cover their asses with the squeamish public at home. Because the armies can't unleash their complete and total destruction on the enemy to eradicate them, the Afghani people are caught in the middle suffering the hellish consequences. That is what is truly turning the Afghani's off and turning others in the Middle East against the west. The people are suffering because the western armies are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.

I'm a liberal on most things but in this war I am not. On this war I am an unashamed destroyer who believes the full, hard, ugly fight of war ought to be dumped on these barbaric savages. If it's not done now, we will pay for it on our own soil later.

Whatever tactics the west employs, whether based on civilized rules of engagement or not, these cockroaches are going to come after us. At least we have a chance with a hard fight. Any other way, we do not.

I usually respect your opinion but on this one I really want to kick your ass for being so naive.