Today I talked to someone who has never served in the military, but who had read somewhere that there is controversy regarding the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan.

I will preface what follows with the following observations: this person is politically left-of-center, not a very aggressive type, someone who sports an Obama bumper sticker and a peace sign on his hybrid car, and someone who once worked in Washington DC as one of those annoying college kids who hangs out on the corner soliciting for the ACLU and Greenpeace. Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog post…

This person asked me, “if Soldiers aren’t allowed to kill the guys who are shooting at them, then how can they survive? I mean, what are they supposed to do? Just walk around and get shot at?”

So why did I just post this?

I just want to point out that it is not only the right-wing, gun-toting, xenophobic, flag-waving rednecks who are griping about ROE (assuming such individuals actually exist). Whenever I hear someone say something stupid like, “the only thing these people understand is force” or “we need to untie our Soldiers hands and let them take the fight to the enemy” – I usually just roll my eyes and pray that the person will shut up. Most people who make such statements are doing so in order to segue into a rambling bullshit session on what a hardcore killing machine he was when he served in [insert conflict here] and what an expert he is on the “art of war” and how much smarter he was than his officers and how the Army/Marines/other screwed him. The individual whom I spoke with today was not that type and my impression is that many people like him have a similar opinion when they hear complaints about the ROE.

This ROE thing can grow legs quickly. I remain very skeptical about the decision-making process that led our leaders to think that COIN is the answer in Afghanistan. I am also very skeptical about a whole lot of other issues associated with the region and how we intend to tackle them. But the ROE – from what I have read of the unclassified, redacted version – appears to be one thing that we have gotten right. Furthermore, my experience on combat deployments, with similar ROE, makes me very skeptical of the negative claims that we are hearing about it contributing to deaths of our troops. It sounds exactly like the ROE brief that I got on every trip to Iraq regarding escalation of force procedures and the unequivocal statement that the ROE does not forbid anyone from minimum necessary force, up to and including deadly force, in self-defense of themselves or their comrades. On the other hand, the notion that ROE is somehow “tying our troops’ hands” is very captivating for someone who has not served in Iraq or Afghanistan – and certainly to those who have never even worn the uniform.

I hope that this ROE nonsense ends soon. If public support for the war is going to wane, then I hope that it at least wanes for the right reasons, not for some ridiculous claim that our best and brightest are incapable of crafting a halfway intelligent ROE.