Allow Our Soldiers To Defend Themselves Or Bring Them Home

Yesterday's Washington Times posted an article about the rules of engagement set in place by General McChrystal in order to limit civilian casualties. 

According to the article, these are some of the rules:

No night or surprise searches

ANA or ANP must accompany U.S. units on searches

U.S. soldiers may not fire at the enemy unless the enemy is preparing to fire first

U.S. forces cannot engage the enemy if civilians are present

Troops can fire at an insurgent if they catch him placing an IED but not if insurgents are walking away from an area where explosives have been laid

Only women can search women

The only one of these rules that makes sense to me is the last one.  It is a noble concept to want to limit civilian casualties during war, but it makes no sense to have only one side following these rules.  In World War II, the allies made decisions that killed civilians in order to win the war.  Dresden was one such decision.  Allowing the Germans to  bomb a British city after the allies had broken the enigma code was another.  The military believed that to evacuate the British city would have shown that the allies had broken the code, so they allowed the people to remain in harm's way.  War is an ugly thing, and innocent people do get killed, but I can guarantee that if the Taliban regains Afghanistan, there will be a greater number of innocent people killed than would be killed in protecting the country.  Saddam Hussein killed more innocent people during his time as leader of Iraq than were killed in the Iraq war.

If we are not willing to let our soldiers fight the war we have sent them to fight and to defend themselves against a proven enemy, we need to bring them home.  One of the problems of Viet Nam was the rules of engagement.  We don't need to make that mistake again.