Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
I understand that this book is written for a specific audience, but I'm having a tough time coming to grips with the fact that one of our supposedly best-trained special ops warriors would write such ignorant babble about our ROE, where it originates, and the purported "fear" it creates in every young servicemember. Give me a break...
This pisses me off to no end - I have discussed this with Herschel Smith of the Captain's Journal on a couple of occasions before giving up on ever convincing him that the Theater ROE allows plenty of latitude for engaging enemy combatants; whether they are holding a weapon, a cell phone, or a shovel. Part of this stems from the problem of having JAG officers give ROE classes. The last ROE class I sat on was given by a JAG type, and the vignettes at the end were colossally bad, and in no way related to ANGLICO's mission of employing supporting arms. I gave my team another ROE class, using my own vignettes to illustrate the concepts. The rest I think stems from the exact sort of cultural influences that Abu Buckwheat and others have mentioned. The Haditha Marines are a great example - while I don't think their actions constitute war crimes, and I agree with the dismissal of charges, their method of clearing the houses was inappropriate to the situation, and caused unnecessary civilian casualties. We absolutely need to stress the idea of protecting civilians.