The Most Upsetting Thing I've Read
"All of this was in response to me asking him some questions about what they are doing. He skirted around my questions, but he finally started telling me what he could about his work.
‘We are having to train our troops to not shoot until we are certain that we are being shot at.’ He said they were training the troops to not shoot just because someone is shooting, they have to make sure they are shooting at them.
I asked, ‘What - you have to wait till you’re shot before you shoot?’. ‘Pretty much,’ he replied.
He told me that after the incident in which two Soldiers had been mutilated he had to have a long talk with his men about saving the last bullet for themselves should they find themselves over run.
‘You have to ask yourself, would you rather your mother get a letter that you died in battle or that you died mutilated with your penis cut off and crammed down your throat.’ he told his men.
He told me about ‘cultural sensitivity’ courses they are being required to take. He said the word around is that everybody is skittish about the ever present cameras and newsmen. They have to make sure nothing can be interpreted in the press to make the Americans out to be the bad guys.
‘Everybody’s afraid to pull the trigger. If you don’t pull the trigger, you might be killed, if you pull the trigger you could be ending your career.’ He added, ‘They’d really rather us be killed than get any bad press. So we aren’t supposed to pull the trigger'."
I knew instantly on whom, if not by name, by affiliation and allegiance, this travesty can be layed. In the eight years of the Clinton administration, jobs and department heads were named at DoD, of Clintonistas who believe passionately in the "peace at any cost, PC" crap that became so prevalent during those years. It would take Secretaries Rumsfeld, Rice, Negoponte, et al, another 10 years to clean up the messy mindset that prevails in their departments! It's complicated by the unionization donks have been creating in the federal bureaucracy since Roosevelt! How do I know? I've worked in the bureaucracy. I know a ton of people who have left the service or the DoD because they could see the directions the trends were taking the military!
We thought we would never again treat our military the way they were treated in Viet Nam. Now the caliber of people who were spitting on our returning veterans of Viet Nam are in offices of power in our bureaucracy! That it has gone this far, got this bad, was in no way been helped by the left's willing accomplices in the MSM. We can fire our legislators by voting them out of office, but we are powerless to do anything about these entrenched bureaucraps! It's a good thing I'm not prone to "going postal", because as furious as I am right now, I'd be on my way to the Pentagon with an AK-47.
Sounds to me like some of my suspicions might be true...when it comes to the hesitancy that our troops are having when engaging the enemy/suspected enemy forces.
I'd like to think that the post documenting the interview with the 'young soldier' is something of an anomaly, but then again, with the left-leaning media and insurgent advocacy groups out there critiquing every engagement, it's hard to say how I'd react in the same situations. I know that during Desert Storm I locked/loaded only once...and I found out minutes after doing so, that it was my battalion commander from Fort Huachuca who was my perceived threat (if you can believe a chance meeting like that 7000 miles from home...no, we weren't serving in the same area...he was just there on a visit).
I still maintain that in the environment that we're finding ourselves in both Iraq and Afghanistan that it's best to be prepared to defend yourself at all times...and that it will be better to be tried by a court martial than carried by pallbearers.
For all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines that are out in the field serving...watch your back (for you aviators, watch your six)...and come home safe.
See you on the high ground!
MajorDad1984
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Thanks for your input, Major, I appreciate your take from real-life experience in the field.
It does not alleviate, however, my anger and disgust at our troops having to react in this manner thanks to the skewed media treatments...but our pressure did allow our Marines to walk free for exercise, rather than be shackled. They should not be incarcerated to begin with, until they are charged!!!!!
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Dear Dagney,
I've had it. The only only thing I know how to do when things get like this is to act. So what do you say about US starting our own real-live newspaper?
We know enough bloggers. We can collect news from every country, and we could provide people with the details they have yearned for but have been denied.
We could also sell our papers for less! Cutthroat, they call it, they do.
What do you say?
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I'd certainly be willing to contribute, but my time is mostly taken up with volunteer work. Currently on my plate is the solicite foodstuffs for the Fisher House's big September birthday party for Mr. Fisher's birthday, helping with Soldiers Angels and am about to start a part-time job to help out some pals (both retired military), and my women's club work for the community. Writing this is making me feel pressured....arrrgggghhh!
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I understand what mean. I don't know how, but I ended up editing 4, count them 4, sites. I understand pressure. lol. It's okay. We will make it work somehow.
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