1985xjlaredo said:
Sorry to hear of your loss. Its too bad that media has made this a politically correct world we live in other wise we could really have implemented the "shock and awe" campaign and made sure there was no one left to kill our boys after the take down of Saddam. RIP
Yeah - "Grab them by the short and curlies, and their hearts and minds will follow."
Being "Politically Correct" has about as much place in the prosecution of armed conflict as the politicians who started the thing do - see my comments elsewhere. If it's come to war, then "statecraft" and "politics" have failed, and should no longer be involved.
As far as the conflict itself, war is as personal as a punch in the nose, and should be handled accordingly. Prosecute the conflict as violently and nastily as possible in order to maximise enemy casualties and minimise friendlies, and to make the conflict as short as possible. Dealing with entrenched civilian insurgents creates its own problems - but, as I recall, the Law of Land Warfare (derived from the Geneva Convention and the Hague Summit) is both dated and only applies to "official military elements of a belligerent power." Cvilian insurgents? All bets are off.
As far as the media outlets wringing their hands about civilian casualties:
1) Media don't belong in a battle zone. Period. Besides, they bitch about what soldiers are doing, and then run crying to them when something goes wrong. Keep them in the rear with the gear, and they can talk to soldiers after they come back from an operation, and they can air those stories three days later, if they're permitted to in the first place (there is no need
at all for 'instant coverage' on a battlefield, that just gets men killed.)
2) We're dealing with a civilian enemy - by definition, all enemy combatant dead are civilians. We took down the former government that sponsored them. They are not "military elements of a belligerent power" - they are insurgents bordering on terrorists. They should be handled accordingly.
3) The media should have a 48- to 72-hour "gag order" in place at all times. Not to protect information - but to protect
men. Embedding journalists as members of combat units in modern warfare is
not a good idea - it not only causes intelligence leaks about who did what and where (and on CNN five minutes later!) but it also runs dangerously close to giving away "sources and methods" - the Holy Grail of intelligence work. In WWII, the media understood that - but they've been spouting their "the people have a right to know!" lie for so long they've come to believe it themselves...
Sorry, but I digress. Not much tho - if this were to be prosecuted properly, more of our boys would come home upright, rather than in boxes. REf. Patton - "No-one ever won a war by dying for his country. Men win wars by making some other poor bastard die for
his country!"
5-90
