If we add 100,000 more troops who can't actually kill the enemy, what good would it do (tip to Instapundit)?
What we need are robust rules of engagement. What we have are confused Soldiers and Marines, afraid to fire their weapons.
I'd rather try giving our existing number of troops better rules of engagement.
While it is certainly appropriate to have more limited rules of engagement in a pacification setting than you would in the major combat operations phase, if the enemy is able to take advantage of our rules to the extent that our troops can't get at the enemy and the enemy can hit us more effectively, the rules of engagement must change. Not that they need to be uniformly loose everywhere. But our troops simply must be authorized to actually shoot our enemies.
I guess I just don't know enough to say if this is a serious problem or not. I hope one of the learned panels addressing how to win in Iraq addresses this issue. Adding more US troops afraid of the consequences of firing their weapons won't do a damn bit of good.
I did address this problem some time ago (the post links to three other relevant posts) and it is possible it is coming true earlier than I thought. As I wrote:
I would never suggest that our troops should not be held accountable for crimes. They should. That isn't the question. But will this result in troops being judged guilty for simply fighting?
This ability to scrutinize every action, let alone every crime, in the midst of battle is a very new development. Where every battlefield action could be seen and recorded, how do we address this and prepare our troops to operate successfully in this environment? How do we prepare our officers who see such possible violations of the rules of war?
I still don't have any answers. But the need to get them is growing more urgent every day. We want a military that fights clean--but we need a military that fights and wins even more.
I assumed we'd have time to address this clearly emerging problem. We may not have that luxury if we don't want to handicap our troops for winning the current war in Iraq.
UPDATE: More on the issue of rules of engagement. I am being swayed that our troops are handicapped by the rules.
