The rules haven't changed, only the players

To those who may be following this blog, you may remember last year when I was in opposition to the naming of General Stanly McChrystal as military commander in Afghanistan. And you may also remember that I subsequently blogged and chastised the general over his idiotic rules of engagement. Rules that were (and still are) getting our soldiers and Marines killed.

You may also recall that I was no big fan or supporter of the appointment of McChrystal's replacement, General Petraeus. And there was and is a reason for that. And the basis of reason for my opinion concerning both these generals is simple. In the Marine Corps of my era, we called it "SSDD." Or, "Same Sh*T, Different Day." Not a damn thing has changed.

SSDD is precisely what we have going on presently in Afghanistan. It is also what has been going on since day one of the present regime in Washington.

Read below...

To the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines serving here, some things seem so obviously true that they are beyond debate. Among those perceived truths: Tthe restrictive rules of engagement that they have to fight under have made serving in combat far more dangerous for them, while allowing the Taliban to return to a position of strength.

"If they use rockets to hit the [forward operating base] we can't shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village. If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can't shoot back," said Spc. Charles Brooks, 26, a U.S. Army medic with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, in Zabul province.

Word had come down the morning Brooks spoke to this reporter that watch towers surrounding the base were going to be dismantled because Afghan village elders, some sympathetic to the Taliban, complained they were invading their village privacy. "We have to take down our towers because it offends them and now the Taliban can set up mortars and we can't see them," Brooks added, with disgust.

In June, Gen. David Petraeus, who took command here after the self-inflicted demise of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, told Congress that he was weighing a major change with rules for engaging enemy fighters in Afghanistan. That has not yet happened, troops say. Soldiers and Marines continue to be held back by what they believe to be strict rules imposed by the government of President Hamid Karzai designed with one objective: limit Afghan civilian casualties.

"I don't think the military leaders, president or anybody really cares about what we're going through," said Spc. Matthew "Silver" Fuhrken, 25, from Watertown, N.Y. "I'm sick of people trying to cover up what's really going on over here. They won't let us do our job. I don't care if they try to kick me out for what I'm saying -- war is war and this is no war. I don't know what this is."

So what has changed since Petraeus took over? Not one damn thing. And this general knows the truth just like his predecessor, they will follow the idiocy of the present commander in chief? Or the present commander in chief will find another useful idiot to replace them with.

What difference does it make whether McChrystal or Petraeus is in charge over there? Neither one has been or is being allowed to conduct this war as a war. We remain stuck in the liberal socialist 'touchy feely' idiocy that these troops are once again bringing to our attention as their own living and dying daily reality. When troops speak out as that one young man does in this piece? Then there is something terribly wrong over there.

Rules of engagement? There are no rules of engagement except for losers.
And I for one can see on a daily basis what the losing game plan of this administration is actually resulting in. I escorted another Marine killed in action to his final rest last week. And there is another one schedule for burial later this week in my state. And we are losing them by the dozens now weekly, from all over America. How many more must die before we pull our head out of the sand and either do the job or leave.

Our troops are being once again sacrificed on the playing field of socialist politics, no different than we were in my generation during Vietnam. That is precisely what the spawn of that hippie age who are now in charge want to see happen again.

I am so sick of these sorry interloping bastards that call themselves Americans, yet gladly offer up the blood of our troops on their alter of egalitarian socialism and Marxist anti Americanism.

The time has come for a stop to be put to their treachery and deceit. Perhaps in two weeks we can begin that change, but make no mistake, at best that is only a starting point for what truly needs to be done. The cancer that is present day American liberalism must be eliminated at all levels. Particularly as it exists in media and our universities.