But however strategic they may be, McChrystal's new marching orders have caused an intense backlash among his own troops. Being told to hold their fire, soldiers complain, puts them in greater danger. "Bottom line?" says a former Special Forces operator who has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I would love to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules of engagement put soldiers' lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing."If the brass cannot sell the strategy to the troops whose job it is to do the dirty work on the ground, then all we are doing is dragging it out.
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"Fuck, when I came over here and heard that McChrystal was in charge, I thought we would get our fucking gun on," says [SSgt Kenneth] Hicks, who has served three tours of combat. "I get COIN. I get all that. McChrystal comes here, explains it, it makes sense. But then he goes away on his bird, and by the time his directives get passed down to us through Big Army, they're all fucked up – either because somebody is trying to cover their ass, or because they just don't understand it themselves. But we're fucking losing this thing."
We had 25,000 KIA in Vietnam between the time that it was recognized that we had lost the war and the time that Nixon arranged his "surrender with honor." Are we going to be as stupid and get a lot more people killed as we fumble for the exits?
2 comments:
That is what I fear; and McChrystal's behavior made me fear it more. It is unprofessional as all hell to let down and party with a reporter; and surely a sign that morale is in the shitter even at the highest levels.
-- I wish someone would tell me again why we're in Afghanistan. We obviously don't read history very well.
If we want to be an empire, we need to *rule* the place. If we don't, we need to get out. If Osama comes back, whack him again and then get out.
But as it stands now, no one knows why we are there.
Don Brown
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