Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ROE

I lived an ROE nightmare. We fought a war with a loose-leaf binder holding Rules of Engagment that changed almost daily and was filled with constantly changing map coordinates of prohibited targets and allowable free-fire zones. You could fight and kill MiGs in the air, but you couldn't attack the airfields. You could engage them until they went into the 20 mile ring around Hanoi or ten miles around Haiphong or within twenty miles of the Chinese border. You had to visually identify them even when you were equipped with weapons that could shoot beyond visual range.

SAMs sites could be built with impunity and only attacked after completion and when they fired upon you. Gun emplacments could be attacked unless they were on dikes or near certain buildings. Targets that looked very lucrative were passed by on the way to insignificant ones because the President and his SecDef were only gradually increasing pressure on the enemy. We lost a lot of guys doing that.

It's at least that bad today:

You Have the Right to an Attorney

The enemy doesn't wear a uniform or carry a Geneva Convention card. He strikes at random and often remotely without concern for who might be in the area at the time. Death and destruction rather than military efficiency are his motives. He cares not whom he kills because any death is viewed as proper for his cause. He abides by no rules of armed conflict.

He knows our rules as well as we do. He knows our humanitarianism and the ragged line we must walk as we try to gain the confidence of the civilized people of an uncivilized region. He has no compunction regarding the use of unarmed women and children as shield for his activities.

He is winning because we are reluctant to fight a war and would rather play to the press. Young men will be frustrated and die because of this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We, too, had a large binder of the ROE for the 1st AVN BDE. There was never anyone around to count 2.75" FFAR fired or boxes of 7.62 mini-gun ammo expended. I like to think that a lot of American, ROK, and ARVN soldier's lives were saved because of the absence of those who would inventory expended ordinance. Alemaster

Murphy's Law said...

Speaking of ROE's, Ras, I just finished Palace Cobra. Loved it, even if you did say some unkind things about the F-4 Phantom.

Although to be honest, your first book and Jack Broughton's both have me really feeling like I missed out with the passing of the F-105. What a hot rod that must have been.

Question though...whatever happened to "Arnold"? And do any of those gals that you knew in Thailand have daughter or younger sisters that might want to come to West Virginia?

Anyway, I much recommend both books, and can't wait for the Robin Olds book.