Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

BRUTAL US TROOPS GUN DOWN
PEACE-LOVING AFGHAN FARMERS
US Military Promises SEALs
Will Be Charged
Well, something like that. I’m sure you get my drift. The media in the United
States of America would crucify us. These days, they always do. Was there ever
a greater uproar than the one that broke out over Abu Ghraib? In the bigger
scheme of things, in the context of all the death and destruction that Muslim
extremists have visited upon this world, a bunch of Iraqi prisoners being
humiliated does not ring my personal alarm bell. And it would not ring yours
either if you ever saw firsthand what these guys are capable of. I mean, Jesus,
they cut off people’s heads, American heads, aid workers’ heads. They think
nothing of slaughtering thousands of people; they’ve stabbed and mutilated
young American soldiers, like something out of the Middle Ages.
The truth is, in this kind of terrorist/insurgent warfare, no one can tell who’s
a civilian and who’s not. So what’s the point of framing rules that cannot be
comprehensively carried out by anyone? Rules that are unworkable, because half
the time no one knows who the goddamned enemy is, and by the time you find
out, it might be too late to save your own life. Making sense of the ROEs in realtime
situations is almost impossible.
Also, no one seems clear on what we should be called in Afghanistan. Are
we a peace-keeping force? Are we fighting a war against insurgents on behalf of
the Afghan government, or are we fighting it on behalf of the U.S.A.? Are we
trying to hunt down the master terrorist bin Laden, or are we just trying to
prevent the Taliban from regaining control of the country, because they were the
protectors of bin Laden and all who fought for him?
Search me. But everything’s cool with us. Tell us what you want, and we’ll
do it. We’re loyal servants of the U.S. government. But Afghanistan involves
fighting behind enemy lines. Never mind we were invited into a democratic
country by its own government. Never mind there’s no shooting across the
border in Pakistan, the illegality of the Taliban army, the Geneva Convention,
yada, yada, yada.