Afghan commandos prepared for an overnight mission at Kandahar Air Field on May 29, waiting for U.S. helicopters to carry them to an operation. The remaining American troops in Afghanistan provide assistance, but U.S. rules limit the circumstances in which they may fire on the Taliban. PHOTO: MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wall Street Journal: Afghan War Rules Leave U.S. Troops Wondering When It’s OK to Shoot
U.S. is no longer at war with Taliban, so Special Forces remaining in Afghanistan have to weigh every situation to decide whether striking them is justified.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan—U.S. spy drones had no trouble spotting the Taliban fighters. There were more than 20 figures snaking through sparsely wooded hills, trying to outflank the Afghan government commandos in the village below.
In the starry darkness overhead, American helicopters loitered armed with precision-guided missiles, along with a flying gunship capable of drenching the area with cannon-fire. It would have been a hard shot to miss.
But before they could fire, the Americans knew they would have to get past the lawyers.
In the amorphous twilight of the Afghan war, it isn’t enough to draw a bead on the enemy. Before they shoot, U.S. troops have to navigate a tricky legal and political question: When is it OK for them to kill Taliban?
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WNU Editor: The airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz last year changed everything .... and today's new rules of engagement are now needlessly killing a lot of people .... far more than what happened in Kunduz.
3 comments:
Not at war with the Taliban but helping someone who is. Friend of my enemy etc. It's their country let them have it if they want it so badly. They will get it in the end.
I do not think much of the service of JAG, when this stuff happens.
Joe Biden's son was a veteran? Technically yes, but he was a REMF.
Let these JAG guys and other lawyers go out and patrol under their ROE.
This is why the joke "What is 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?" has the punchline of "A good start!".
It is land locked and so we have to go through Pakistan, which is backstabbing us and ripping us off for cartage.
I wanna see Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan backstab each other.
They might not. They just might clean up. Pakistan by itself might be overwhelmed by the problem they helped create.
Benazir was not killed by the U.S. but by the Pakistani Taliban created by the Pakistan IS.
I think if we leave Afghanistan it will be a big problem the other 4 countries might clean it up or they might not and it might bedevil them.
Afghanistan is conquerable The Russians would have done it, if the U.S. had not provided aid from 1979 to 1986.
This alternate history would see Islam dead as their god had failed them.
I am not sure if the USSR would have survived longer.
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