Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Rules of Engagement? Are You Kidding Me?

Below is a screenshot of the front page of this morning’s New York Post that got E. D. Hill’s blood boiling on Fox and Friends this morning; followed shortly thereafter by my own:





The author of the accompanying story, Ian Bishop, provides background as to what the fuss is all about:

WASHINGTON - Taliban terror leaders who had gathered for a funeral - and were secretly being watched by an eye-in-the-sky American drone - dodged assassination because U.S. rules of engagement bar attacks in cemeteries, according to a shocking report.

U.S. intelligence officers in Afghanistan are still fuming about the recent lost opportunity for an easy kill of Taliban honchos packed in tight formation for the burial, NBC News reported.

The unmanned airplane, circling undetected high overhead, fed a continuous satellite feed of the juicy target to officers on the ground.
"We were so excited. I came rushing in with the picture," one U.S. Army officer told NBC.

But that excitement quickly turned to gut-wrenching frustration because the rules of engagement on the ground in Afghanistan blocked the U.S. from mounting a missile or bomb strike in a cemetery, according to the report.
[Emphasis Mine]

We are fighting an enemy who looks upon our buildings and sees tombstones, yet someone in our military chain of command sees our enemy gathered en masse in a cemetery and all they see is a stop sign? I’m at a total loss for words!

Apparently the military is not denying the authenticity of the photo, but is questioning unauthorized release.
Might I suggest they also question the idiocy of these rules of engagement while they’re at it?

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