In theory, not only should the ROE ensure compliance with legal requirements, but should also deter military actions counterproductive to the political aims sought in the conflict. In complicated "small wars", especially if compounded by unclear strategic aims and/or intellectual assumptions driving the doctrine, then I think the ROE will become a focus of both frustration and misunderstanding (and resulting in the incidents as noted above). But, in my view, it is only a sympton of greater dysfunction where there is no "unity of understanding" next to the unity of command.