{"id":3162,"date":"2011-07-11T08:42:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T08:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2011-07-11T08:42:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T08:42:24","slug":"why_it_is_a_bad_idea_to_let_na","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=3162","title":{"rendered":"Why It Is A Bad Idea To Let NATO Control The Rules Of Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday the U.K. Telegraph<\/a> posted an article about a totally ridiculous restriction put on British soldiers in Afghanistan.  The British soldiers are fighting under the rules of engagement laid out by NATO.  <\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

\n

“British soldiers who spot Taliban fighters planting roadside bombs are told not to shoot them because they do not pose an immediate threat, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.  <\/p>\n

\n

“They are instead being ordered to just observe insurgents and record their position to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/font><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This information was disclosed during the investigation into the death of Sgt Peter Rayner, 34, a soldier who was killed in October last year by an improvised explosive device as he led a patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  <\/font><\/p>\n

The only good news in this article comes from a statement made by a British officer who recently served in Afghanistan:<\/p>\n

\n

“He said: “A British soldier manning a checkpoint at night might watch a man digging a hole for an IED 100 metres away and would not try to shoot at him. It’s a ludicrous situation. <\/em><\/p>\n

“”There has to be an immediate threat to life and that’s a hard thing to prove. An IED does not count as an immediate threat. <\/em><\/p>\n

“”The Americans are different – their Rules of Engagement are pretty liberal. If they even suspect someone of laying a bomb, they can shoot them.”” <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I understand that the accidental killing of civilians by NATO forces is seen as a victory for the Taliban, but this is ridiculous.  Allowing a terrorist to place an IED that later kills NATO soldiers is also a victory for the Taliban.  At least the American soldiers are allowed to shoot the terrorists!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday the U.K. Telegraph posted an article about a totally ridiculous restriction put on British soldiers in Afghanistan.  The British soldiers are fighting under the rules of engagement laid out by NATO.  The article reports: “British soldiers who spot Taliban fighters … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}