{"id":14509,"date":"2012-07-01T16:21:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T20:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=14509"},"modified":"2012-07-01T16:21:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T20:21:36","slug":"losing-a-war-because-of-a-public-relations-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=14509","title":{"rendered":"Losing A War Because Of A Public Relations Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the U.K. Mail Online<\/a>\u00a0posted a story about the increase in casualties among British soldiers<\/a> in Afghanistan<\/a> due to the American rules of engagement in the war.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

British soldiers in Afghanistan claim that new tactics are preventing them shooting at the Taliban<\/a> until they have been fired at themselves \u2013 resulting in an alarming rise in the number of casualties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The troops say they have had to change their procedures as part of American-led efforts to cut down on the number of civilians being wounded, but the new approach has made them more vulnerable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0In the past three months, 11 British soldiers have been killed by enemy gunfire in Helmand province<\/a>, compared with just two in the same period last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one is in favor of civilian casualties<\/a>, but this is no way to fight a war.<\/p>\n

The article reports one officer’s comments:<\/p>\n

One junior non-commissioned officer<\/a> said: \u2018When I arrived in Helmand, my officers said our tactics were going to change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018They said that if I saw somebody carrying a rifle or a rocket launcher, I shouldn\u2019t fire at him. Only if he shot at me or a member of my patrol, and I could see a muzzle flash from his rifle, could I use my weapon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018I was shocked and so were my mates. We are trained to close in and kill the enemy, not to let him stroll on, watch us and let him choose the best time to ambush us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018It has been hard to obey these orders while on patrol. There have been many occasions when we have come under fire from the Taliban, who we\u2019ve seen following us through the green zone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018On previous tours, we would have engaged the enemy first to show them what we were made of. We\u2019re up for a fight but now we always have to back off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018It makes me question the point of us being here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Older guys like me have seen the tactics change over the years and 2012 is the hardest because we\u2019re taking so many backward steps. I really feel for the families of the guys who\u2019ve lost their lives, and I miss my mates who are dead.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t mean to be difficult, but would someone please explain to me what peaceful reason a member of the Taliban might have for carrying a rocket launcher? We need to get politicians out of wars and let the military do what is best for the troops and the war effort.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the U.K. Mail Online\u00a0posted a story about the increase in casualties among British soldiers in Afghanistan due to the American rules of engagement in the war. The article reports: British soldiers in Afghanistan claim that new tactics are preventing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3360,3361,527,525],"class_list":["post-14509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-british-soldiers-in-afghanistan","tag-civilian-casualties-in-afghanistan","tag-rules-of-engagement-afghanistan","tag-taliban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14510,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509\/revisions\/14510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}