SF Snipers in trouble???? For What????

Posted By Deebow

No good decision has ever been made from a swivel chair....

It is amazing to come home and see the war from this hemisphere, because having been there rather recently, and having been in a gunfight or two; as well as operating with a few SF Soldiers from different groups during some raids and operations, I think I have a unique perspective on this situation.

As with all operations, there are things that change from unit to unit and from rotation to rotation.  Individual units might want to change the times that chow is served, how the Ammunition Supply Point is manned, when the fuel needs to be ordered etc.  One thing that doesn't change much is the ROE, and the reason for that is every soldier needs to be on the same page in order properly execute their assigned mission.  The evolution of the ROE, unfortunately, sometimes comes from lessons learned and paid for in blood.

The last ODA that my Afghan compadres and I operated with had a boss that believed in order to reduce and/or eliminate casualties, his guys would only operate at night.  There was no convincing this guy that the Taliban don't really work that way (at least in our AO) and that the effectiveness of his men would be greatly reduced by operating this way.  Made it awfully hard to do some of the missions we knew would be successful, if only for this restriction.

I am not certain where LTG Kearney has his head.  Evidently, he is another general who is allergic to the application of precision high powered rifle fire.  I was under the impression that SF Soldiers (and all soldiers in general) operating in their battle-space were supposed to identify and kill the bad guys.  I tried like hell while I was in Afghanistan to find out why we were not picking more guys off like this instead of dropping 2,000 pound bombs.  Bullet or bomb, you get the same result, but my belief is that I would rather send that soldier with a high powered rifle.  That is one of the only ways I know of to be sure you got what you were aiming at.

The bottom line is this:  If we are going to get in the business of second guessing and micromanaging the moves of our most elite soldiers down to the lowest levels, then we absolutely are going to lose this war.  I don't want that, you don't want that, and all the Blackfiveagins definitely don't want that.  The situations that soldiers find themselves in, especially SF Soldiers, out on the Afghan/Pak Border do not call for ensuring you have a good lawyer and liability insurance; they call for decisiveness, willingness to execute your plan violently, fire superiority, stealth, and bold action.  Situations like this will cause other soldiers to hesitate, because they are thinking that maybe this could happen to them; and hesitation in combat means you go home in a flag draped box. Soldiers should not have to wonder if their superiors are going to support their actions.  They should know that, apart from blatant violations of the UCMJ, that the actions they take against the enemy will be backed by their commanders, all the way to the top.

I know that SF units process targets and bad guys through a process we call "vetting."  We worked with them often enough to understand how this is done, as well as why this is done.  If you come up on the radar screen of an SF unit operating somewhere overseas in combat, it is not because you are praying too loud in your mosque or not fasting during Ramadan; it is because you are a sh*tbag terrorist, supporter, or financier.

So, if Mr. Sh*tbag terrorist was on the list, it meant he was "in play" and that meant that he was available to receive a number of forms of attention from Coalition forces, up to and including immediate high velocity cranial lead poisoning.  Sometimes we raid and search their homes, their uncles' home, their madrassa, or their village.  Sometimes we cruise around looking to pick a fight with them, hoping they will try to ambush us.  Sometimes we do nothing at all, hoping they will show themselves at a time and place that is to our advantage, at which point we crush them.

I propose we give these two men medals for their actions and promote them immediately.

It is no wonder the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists we actually capture laugh at us and say that we are weak.

I got another idea.  We fought and won World War II, a massive, world-wide, conventional, mechanized war of maneuver with half as many generals commanding easily twice as many troops in the field fighting against a determined foe who sought our destruction. 

How about we try doing the same thing in this war?

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Comments

SF Snipers in trouble???? For What????

No good decision has ever been made from a swivel chair....

It is amazing to come home and see the war from this hemisphere, because having been there rather recently, and having been in a gunfight or two; as well as operating with a few SF Soldiers from different groups during some raids and operations, I think I have a unique perspective on this situation.

As with all operations, there are things that change from unit to unit and from rotation to rotation.  Individual units might want to change the times that chow is served, how the Ammunition Supply Point is manned, when the fuel needs to be ordered etc.  One thing that doesn't change much is the ROE, and the reason for that is every soldier needs to be on the same page in order properly execute their assigned mission.  The evolution of the ROE, unfortunately, sometimes comes from lessons learned and paid for in blood.

The last ODA that my Afghan compadres and I operated with had a boss that believed in order to reduce and/or eliminate casualties, his guys would only operate at night.  There was no convincing this guy that the Taliban don't really work that way (at least in our AO) and that the effectiveness of his men would be greatly reduced by operating this way.  Made it awfully hard to do some of the missions we knew would be successful, if only for this restriction.

I am not certain where LTG Kearney has his head.  Evidently, he is another general who is allergic to the application of precision high powered rifle fire.  I was under the impression that SF Soldiers (and all soldiers in general) operating in their battle-space were supposed to identify and kill the bad guys.  I tried like hell while I was in Afghanistan to find out why we were not picking more guys off like this instead of dropping 2,000 pound bombs.  Bullet or bomb, you get the same result, but my belief is that I would rather send that soldier with a high powered rifle.  That is one of the only ways I know of to be sure you got what you were aiming at.

The bottom line is this:  If we are going to get in the business of second guessing and micromanaging the moves of our most elite soldiers down to the lowest levels, then we absolutely are going to lose this war.  I don't want that, you don't want that, and all the Blackfiveagins definitely don't want that.  The situations that soldiers find themselves in, especially SF Soldiers, out on the Afghan/Pak Border do not call for ensuring you have a good lawyer and liability insurance; they call for decisiveness, willingness to execute your plan violently, fire superiority, stealth, and bold action.  Situations like this will cause other soldiers to hesitate, because they are thinking that maybe this could happen to them; and hesitation in combat means you go home in a flag draped box. Soldiers should not have to wonder if their superiors are going to support their actions.  They should know that, apart from blatant violations of the UCMJ, that the actions they take against the enemy will be backed by their commanders, all the way to the top.

I know that SF units process targets and bad guys through a process we call "vetting."  We worked with them often enough to understand how this is done, as well as why this is done.  If you come up on the radar screen of an SF unit operating somewhere overseas in combat, it is not because you are praying too loud in your mosque or not fasting during Ramadan; it is because you are a sh*tbag terrorist, supporter, or financier.

So, if Mr. Sh*tbag terrorist was on the list, it meant he was "in play" and that meant that he was available to receive a number of forms of attention from Coalition forces, up to and including immediate high velocity cranial lead poisoning.  Sometimes we raid and search their homes, their uncles' home, their madrassa, or their village.  Sometimes we cruise around looking to pick a fight with them, hoping they will try to ambush us.  Sometimes we do nothing at all, hoping they will show themselves at a time and place that is to our advantage, at which point we crush them.

I propose we give these two men medals for their actions and promote them immediately.

It is no wonder the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists we actually capture laugh at us and say that we are weak.

I got another idea.  We fought and won World War II, a massive, world-wide, conventional, mechanized war of maneuver with half as many generals commanding easily twice as many troops in the field fighting against a determined foe who sought our destruction. 

How about we try doing the same thing in this war?

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