I got called into our company operations meeting early one night last week. A terrible incident had occurred. The company commander detailed the serious engagement of an engineer Route Clearance Package (RCP) upon a bus of civilian local nationals. The engineer unit was traveling along highway one during the early morning in reduced visibility. The passenger bus came from the rear at a high rate of speed and the soldiers engaged the vehicle with heavy caliber machine gun fire, killing anywhere from 4-5 civilians and wounding dozens more.
Read it all. You'll be very glad you did.
Thank you for the link, AFW. This is an excellent article.
ReplyDeleteOf course! I'm glad I could get it to you!
ReplyDeleteIt kind of goes back to what I was saying in the movie thread about the catch-22 in "realistic" war movies.
“I view journalistic arrogance on the front lines more as a defense mechanism used to cope with the fact that they are only writing about history, not making it."
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth? Boys following men.
I remember the round table discussion in the '80's where Peter Jennings, IIRC, said that he would warn American troops if they were going to be attacked by enemy soldiers with whom Jennings were imbedded, and the other "journalists" berated him for violating the code of "journalism." Well fuck them. If American soldiers saw that American "journalists" were going to be attacked by enemy soldiers, those "journalists' would expect the soldiers to do something, even if it meant grave danger to the soldiers.
Well fuck them.
Excellent article, AFW. I understand. But my Father was a professional soldier.
Lady Red & AFW...excellent post and article. The truth about Catch 22...you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. What counts, really counts, is "are you and your buddies, left and right, still standing" when the dust up is over? You compartmentalize it and move on.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment Matt.
ReplyDeleteAnd please excuse my ignorance. Thanks afw & lady red for the article.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I can't hold back any longer! I want to see a picture of afw in her shirt that says "Sex deprived for your freedom"
ReplyDeleteI once had an instructor who was a CHP officer who said, "Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6."
ReplyDeleteTY, lady red & afw, I so appreciate reading something from the soldier's POV. I agree with him 100%.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he will be censured for the frank and honest discussion of a soldiers (and more, an officers) mindset in the face of the 'population-centric' rules of engagement.
ReplyDelete