Nope. They are wrong. At the sharp point of the stick, it is about killing. Fast. And brutally. Shock and awe as they say.
Basic soldiers are not policemen, they are not public works engineers, they are not nannies or babysitters. They are there to break things. "Hearts and minds" is for a different group to worry about. Soldiers are _not_ ambassadors. People with guns should not be doing that sort of work. People _surrounded_ by people with guns should be. Unfortunately, we only have one foreign power tool. All of our civil engineers and policemen are organized in the National Guard. And our few non-military assets (politicians and ambassadors, media and business) have been poorly used in these conflicts. So we use the same hammer for every job. On 9/14/07, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Loathe wrote: > > I was an enlisted airborne infantryman for 8 years and 3 deployments. I > > spent 2 1/2 years in a special purpose unit. > > > > I it really does all boil down to killing at that level. > > There are good people in the military trying to change that mindset. > Hearts and minds, my friend. Killing will always be part of the job, I > agree. At least a willingness and readiness for it. The only way we win > in counter insurgency though is if we get the people on our side. And > killing tends to do the opposite of that. Take a look at the Army's new > Counter Insurgency manual. I haven't had time to go through a lot of it, > but it seems to a good start at changing the rules of engagement to try > and make our on the ground soliders into ambassadors there to help the > locals instead of scary guys with guns. > > That's a good thing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion 8 - Build next generation apps today, with easy PDF and Ajax features - download now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:242417 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
