Quote:
Originally Posted by akv
I was wondering what impression folks here had of the 60 Minutes piece on the Marines in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan this weekend?
In contrast to the McChrystal piece a few weeks back, I felt it was defeatist. The merits of the shift in strategy towards protecting Afghans instead of hunting Taliban is for the military experts to decide. To be fair they indicated increased cooperation with the locals is more important than body count. However, to me they focused on Marines being killed, their frustrations with ROE, IED's, and the terrain.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...in;contentBody |
I was taken back by the marine officer who said that if you killed 1000 enemy and 2 civilians then it was a failure. Perhaps I missed his overall point, but I do not agree with that mindset and I don't think it sends the right message to his Marines if they are victors on the battlefield but are made to feel like failures because of civillian deaths especially when the same 60 minutes story talked about how civilians were assisting the enemy in ambushing the Marine patrols.