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Rule: No Fighting Near Afghan Houses

From an applauding Associated Press:

New US battle rule: No fighting near Afghan homes

By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – The top U.S. general in Afghanistan will soon formally order U.S. and NATO forces to break away from fights with militants hiding in Afghan houses so the battles do not kill civilians, a U.S. official said Monday.

The order would be one of the strongest measures taken by a U.S. commander to protect Afghan civilians in battle. American commanders say such deaths hurt their mission because they turn average Afghans against the government and U.S. and NATO forces.

Civilian casualties are a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the U.S. The U.N. says U.S., NATO and Afghan forces killed 829 civilians in the Afghan war last year.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took command of international forces in Afghanistan this month, has said his measure of effectiveness will be the "number of Afghans shielded from violence," and not the number of militants killed.

McChrystal will issue orders within days saying troops may attack insurgents hiding in Afghan houses if the U.S. or NATO forces are in imminent danger and must return fire, said U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith.

"But if there is a compound they’re taking fire from and they can remove themselves from the area safely, without any undue danger to the forces, then that’s the option they should take," Smith said. "Because in these compounds we know there are often civilians kept captive by the Taliban." …

So now every house in Afghanistan is a ‘safe house’ for terrorists.

We might as well surrender now.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 7:13 am. You can leave a response.

15 Responses to “Rule: No Fighting Near Afghan Houses”

  1. proreason
    June 22, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    Let’s home the Taliban doesn’t discover the “kings x” rule.

    Or worse yet, Pelosi or Reid could find out about it.

  2. Rusty Shackleford
    June 22, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    And so it begins. This is exactly what hogtied us in Vietnam….one of the things, anyway.

    Running a war from your plush leather chair in your air-conditioned office. Doncha just love it?

    • Liberals Demise
      June 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

      Half a world away by Suit & Ties that never had the ‘STONES’ to face an enemy equally bent on killing you!

      GUTLESS POLITICIANS and LAWYER TYPES!!!
      No Balls ……. No Grapefruit

  3. BannedbytheTaliban
    June 22, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    This will have no effect on the civilian causality rate. The Taliban will simply kill the civilians once the US troops disengage and blame it on the Americans. And Obama will apologize.

    Letting the Democrats run a war is like letting an atheist give a sermon.

  4. Celina
    June 22, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    I have no words. Just prayers for people like my husband and all the other troops out there. Wow.

    • catie
      June 22, 2009 at 6:44 pm

      Celina, your husband is certainly in our prayers as are yourself and your keiki. I don’t know what the heck is going on. This makes no sense. Well, who in their right mind would volunteer to serve in a military where your hands are tied behind your back.

  5. pdsand
    June 22, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    It’s great, you let the Soldiers know that there are complex rules of engagement by which their actions will be judged by disinterested third parties after the fact. If while under fire on a mission they make a different decision than a person who has never been in that situation feels they ought to have made then they will be subject to UCMJ action. Or better yet, Afghani imprisionment as a war criminal, what effect will that have on the will of a Soldier to fight? To make it even better, their clear duty is to retreat first, and only return fire if they have no other option, and they will have to demonstrate after the fact that they were unable to retreat. And their commander-in-chief, as well as combatant commander is more interested in regulating and prosecuting them than he is in winning the war. This is gonna work out SO well.

  6. MinnesotaRush
    June 22, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    They’re kidding, right. Tell me they’re kidding.

    Guess we know where the bad guys will be hiding out with the stockpiles of stuff they can get their hands on. Guess we know where most of the assaults will be coming from.

    Hey! Itsa party! Have the neighborhood over and have a one way battle.

    Tell me they’re kidding. If not, bring our guys home!!! What b.s.!!!

  7. canary
    June 22, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    What sleazy country hasn’t used children as human shields. The surge of women and children in both Afganistan and Iraq killing our troops has increased. The afgans that truly like America and freedom have had plenty of time to move out and protect themselves in that area. We have the enemy in our ranks tipping off the enemy. We need to just bomb that area to pieces, to get down in the tunnels. And to think Obama asked other countries to help us.

  8. Petronius
    June 22, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    How about we relocate the Taliban to Tahiti and Bora Bora? We could enroll them in the 8a program and set them up in beach-front villas with scuba shops and moped rentals?

  9. BigOil
    June 22, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took command of international forces in Afghanistan this month, has said his measure of effectiveness will be the “number of Afghans shielded from violence,” and not the number of militants killed.

    You would never hear a great General like Patton making an inane statement such as this.

    If we plan to transform the military into a police force – police chief Obama needs to issue billy clubs and badges.

    • tranquil.night
      June 22, 2009 at 8:27 pm

      “Police chief Obama needs to issue billy clubs and badges.”

      Those are going to the COI for shaking down executives reforming corrupt businesses.

  10. jobeth
    June 22, 2009 at 9:07 pm

    The important thing is that the Taliban will like us better if we just let them alone in civilian homes to hide behind the skirts of women and their babies!.

    La, la, la, la, la….she said as she skips down the lane….

    What in the H*** is the matter with this idiot who calls him self our president!!!!!!
    This makes me sick! He won’t speak out against what is happening in Iran and now this!

    This character hates our soldiers so much he will have them killed…so he will be….Liked?…He makes me so ashamed of this stance. He is an embarrassment to every freedom loving American

    War is nasty…it’s horrible…but sometimes it must be waged. Today…it’s the local Afghans and Iranians…tomorrow it’s us.

    But then what does he care…so long as they “like” HIM…piece of feces!!!

  11. 11ten1775
    June 23, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    From a June 22nd article in the Marine Corps Times:

    Afghan insurgents show signs of foreign influence
    By Sean D. Naylor
    “FORWARD OPERATING BASE LAGMAN, QALAT, Afghanistan — U.S. troops reported a fierce firefight in late May against Farsi-speaking insurgents who wore body armor and “Kevlar hel­mets” and used smoke grenades. The U.S. soldiers killed an esti­mated 35 insurgents and suffered no casualties but say the battle demonstrated the increasing so­phistication of some guerrilla groups here….
    But as the level of violence has risen, so have reports of insur­gents displaying unusually good marksmanship and other tacti­cal skills. “They’ve got marks­manship training somewhere that is making it much more ac­curate than normal,” Cannata said.
    The increased skill level points to the presence of foreign fighters either as combatants themselves or as trainers of Afghan insur­gents, U.S. troops said.”

    So, as the battle heats up in Afghanistan, President Obama apparently just sent 7,000 additional Marines over there on a big babysitting job. Isn’t that why Gen Conway wanted them out of Iraq? Enough occupational stuff, get back into the fight, etc.?
    As pdsand pointed out, official US policy is now “run first – only shoot if you can’t get away.”
    This is shameful and dangerous.
    I knew Obama would compromise the safety and well-being of our troops. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon. It’s amazing to watch how he deviously keeps his hands clean in all of it. He puts a new guy in charge and then saddles him with announcing this horrific policy, so when things go south this summer, he has someone to blame – and fire. He can act like he’s concerned about troops dying later, for now he needs to appease his base and run a war where no one is allowed to act like it’s a war, other than when they die.

  12. artboyusa
    June 24, 2009 at 10:11 am

    “Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took command of international forces in Afghanistan this month, has said his measure of effectiveness will be the “number of Afghans shielded from violence,” and not the number of militants killed.”

    “You would never hear a great General like Patton making an inane statement such as this…” sorry, BigOil but I don’t think its inane at all. Let’s give General McChrystal a chance. He can’t do much worse than we’ve been doing up to now. This isn’t World War II (I wish it was. We’d have won by now). In counter insurgency warfare, the people are the prize. In Iraq, it tooks us years and cost us a fortune in precious lives to re-learn this lesson. If we can’t adapt our tactics to this new reality and learn how to fight the war we’ve got, not the one we wish we had, then we will lose.

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