Rules of Engagement. Great Way to Help One's Enemy

I will be blunt folks. War is a blunt business. Therefore I will be so.

War is about killing people and breaking things. That is war in a nutshell. War has been around as long as there were more then two men to fight - Cain and Able and all that! War has always killed nearly as many civilians as soldiers - sorry, but facts cannot be changed to suit one's desired philosophical positioning.

Wanna win in Afghanistan? Stop with the Rules of Engagement (ROE)!

What's that you say? Whiplash is arguing for barbarism? Yes, I am. WAR IS BARBARIC, ya dumbass. If I must kill a bear I do not try to talk him to death. I shoot him - repeatedly until he falls. If an intruder kicks in my door, there will be no conversation.

There should be no ROE - EVER!

How many are aware the last time the US won a war, hands down, the rules of engagement were few? Cities were destroyed and millions of civilians died. Sorry. That is war. Don't wanna see that crap in one's backyard? Don't start wars, or do things that do start them. Is this rocket science?

The only thing worse then sending my troops to fight on foreign soil is to do it with their hands tied behind their backs. Ya know how we won WWII? We inflicted more suffering upon them then they inflicted upon us. We broke more of their stuff then they broke of ours. We killed more of them then they killed of us. We blew up more of their cities then they did ours! Again, is this rocket science?

War is won by taking ground and holding it. Temporary "clearing" operations as used in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are temporary victories. We won the first Gulf War in short order by taking land and holding it, thus denying it to our enemies. We broke more of their stuff then they broke of ours!

We could win in Afghanistan in reasonably short order if we made the commitment to do it.

Remember in Iraq when al-Sadr's militia would fire at Americans and then hole up in a mosque? We could not shoot at them. IF anyone could shoot back it had to be only Muslim troops.

Hear me now: TO HELL WITH THE SENSIBILITIES OF THE LOCALS. I do not worry one whit about the social sensibilities of my enemies. Trying to kill my troops assaults the Hell out of my sensibilities! Do my sensibilities count here? Guess not.

Wars are won by making the enemy and their citizens fear YOU more then they fear their leaders. GET IT??????

When the Nazi's were so inept they could no longer extend control over their population, the population gave in. They feared American tanks worse than they feared the Nazi Party by that point. Thus, we won.

When civilian Japanese leaders feared the Americans more than they feared their own military leadership, they tossed in the towel.

When we go into Afghanistan and kill the tribal leaders and their thugs, we will win. When the Afghan people more fear Americans than they fear the warlords, we will defeat them. As long as we use rules to fight the warlords who use no rules, we will lose. It's really that simple.

When Taliban fighters attack Americans from behind civilians, we stop and chat about it. If instead we killed them, civilians be damned, the civilians who witnessed it and survived would tell their little pals, "Hey, when the warlords show up and try to make ya be a Human shield, run the other way. The Americans will kill the warlords and the civilians."

I guarantee ya a couple months of this and the war is a memory. It is indeed amazing how the hearts and minds of people will fall right into line given sufficient motivation. As long as Taliban fighters can use civilians to hide behind and attack our troops and we must do nothing due to ROE, they win, we lose. If that is how they are going to fight this war, bring my troops home. To Hell with Afghanistan.

The lives of my troops are only valid to be sacrificed when a genuine effort is made to achieve a strategic or tactical goal. If our enemy has no rules, but we have a million of them, they will win, or more precisely, we will give in. Just as in Vietnam, we never have lost a major military engagement to our enemies. But we did lose the war of winning the hearts and minds of American public opinion because we fought using ROE.

There were very few ROE in WWII, and we won. Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, tiny nations in terms of the size of the conflict of WWII, still vexed us. The only commonality is because in our less then successful efforts we got all Human Rights involved instead of thinking and acting like the Barbarians our enemies were willing to be.

ROE only cause my troops to die needlessly. ROE gives all the advantages to our enemies. Wars are not won by giving any advantage to an enemy - never!

When the people of Afghanistan fear American barbarity more than they fear the warlords barbarity, we will win by default. When the Taliban knows hiding behind our asinine ROE will no longer save them they will die and the war will end, or they will give up and slink into a cave somewhere, and the war will end.

If we do not do sufficient killing people and breaking things this could go on until Hell freezes over.

War is barbaric. It has always been and will always be. Modern Westerners are at huge disadvantage here. If we do not shed our civility and become the barbarians our enemies display, we will come home poorer, not successful, and having sacrificed all those brave American's lives.

Personally I am not so much a humanist that when my troops lives are on the line I really give a damn what happens to those who side with my enemies. You're either with us, or you're with them

The Bush Doctrine is exceedingly direct and simple. It speaks to all the historical truisms of Man. Now go to war and kill as many as we can and break everything we see and this crap will end in a few months. Keep playing by asinine rules that only we must abide by and we will come home having failed in our mission.

When a military that cannot be beaten is, there has to be a reason. Our military has never been beaten, but our light-weight politicians have beaten us. Our troops do not know defeat, but our politicians are experts at how to bring on all the conditions of a failed effort.

Once politicians decide to go to war, all bets should be off. Kill them! Let the politicians decide the policy; let the generals make it happen. EVERYTIME it is done like that we win. EVERYTIME it is not, we come home poorer and sadder. Stop this madness now!

War should have no rules. And if there were none, this would all have been over years ago. Hell, we defeated the largest threat to Humanity that ever existed in 42 months of combat. But we can't stomp these assholes?

Puleeeze!