We Get Letters...

"My son,(name deleted to protect both the Marine and his family: Fits) 

in Helmand Province called yesterday(28th) which is his 20th birthday , 

he had just come back from an op with the rip force and called home. 

They spent the entire night in security of an MRAP which hit an IED and 

had wounded ,this happened about 2100 the night before, they sat there 

til 0600 the next morning  because helos could not be used as medevac 

because of ROE( it might disturb the talibans sleep) so they
had to get them out via ground. I find this unacceptable for our Marines to
not be given the fastest medevac possible whether Afghan civilians die or
lose sleep or whatever,they(Marines) should be the highest priority. 

If we are going to fight with
one hand tied behind our backs like Viet Nam we can expect the same scene on
the embassy roof in Kabul in a year or two that we had in April
1975 in RVN. The ROEs should be kill the bad guys and try your best not to
get the good guys. We all know it happens-thats war its not  a science, it's
an art. Science gives you a predictable outcome given variables and
controlled conditions , an art is imprecise as is war. 

Are there no officers
willing to get these roes changed? I pity the Lts and Capts who have to do
the heavy lifting in the field and have to explain this chickenshit to their
Marines. If we are not going to fight to win -we should get out now and not
lose another American, then when we are all out drop, an ICBM on the place."

The ROE's (Rules Of Engagement) in Afghanistan are problematic. To say the least.

The above email has been kicked all the way up to the Commandant of the Marine

Corps, with the typical "he-said, they-said" back and forth that tends to

cloud over lots of things coming from in-country.

Regardless, it has become very clear that the standing order for "compassionate response" has

superseded the usual USMC method of kill-em-all-and-let-God-sort-it-out manner of getting jobs

done. Oh, and sorry for the messed up  formatting. Copying and pasting military emails can be 

the shit.