I just sent the following correspondence to Gen. McChrystal and his Public Affairs officer. I believe he should reaffirm to all members of his command that, consistent w/ the ROE, legitimate calls for fire support must be granted. Dear Gen. McChrystal, I was heartened when President Obama put you in command in Afghanistan as it showed a seriousness about our efforts there. You have taken a long hard look at the situation and made some hard decisions about how we should operate in order to achieve our goals.One of these was to focus on creating better relations with the civilian populace. As a former Special Forces Weapons Sergeant I understand completely that safeguarding them builds rapport and shows that we are focused on helping them build a better way of life. One of the major changes you made was to the rules of engagement as announced in your tactical directive last year. These limited strikes conducted against civilian dwellings and required all other methods of breaking contact to be used before a strike can be called. This is a good and necessary decision and I have supported it in many cases at BLACKFIVE. By announcing this publicly you made this known to the Afghan people and it became a way to show our concern for their lives. This was also obviously distributed down the chain of command along with other guidance about how to effectively interact and operate among the locals. This has helped our progress and operations like Moshtarak demonstrate that restraint does not stop us from effectively clearing areas of the enemy. But you have a problem sir. Some of your officers have taken an overly restrictive view of the ROE and consequently there have been instances where troops in contact were denied fire support. In some of these cases the ROE explicitly authorized such support, but these officers failed to provide it. The recent report on the incident in the Ganjgal Valley shows a clear example. A Marine ETT called for fire and the fire support NCO and the AF air controller were ready to provide it but were over-ruled by officers higher up the chain. This is not the only time something like this has happened. It is time sir to issue another tactical directive reaffirming your intent and ensuring that everyone in your command understands that they are required to provide fire support when it is proper. The restrictions calling for all other tactics for breaking contact to be used is the right answer, but all of your officers and NCOs need to know that once that is done and there is no alternative, or if civilians are not at risk, then they should pull the trigger. All those serving under your command deserve to hear this and given the amount of email I'm getting from family members, so do they. Thank you for your amazing service and good luck and godspeed for the difficult mission you and all our troops face there. -- Cordially, Jim
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/o0cob6KZNlw/an-open-letter-to-gen-mcchrystal-ref-roe.html
Posted
Mar 08 2010, 12:53 AM
by
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