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I am cutting and pasting this directly from my blog.In today's edition of Stars and Stripes and the LA Times is an article about a combat engineer facing charges for actions he took in combat in Afghanistan last year. The gist of the story is that the soldier involved shot an unarmed female in the middle of a firefight who was moving towards the rear of her vehicle. The description of the incident from the article is here:
His convoy was reeling from a roadside bomb, his fellow soldiers were engaged in combat with insurgents — and a mysterious black car had just screeched to a stop in the middle of the firefight. Some nine minutes later, a black door opens.Second 1: A figure dressed in dark, bulky clothing emerges.Second 2: The figure begins walking toward the trunk.Second 3: Taylor, with five wounded comrades behind him, sees a thin trigger wire seeming to snake directly toward the black car. Could there be a second bomb in the trunk?Second 4: Taylor squeezes the trigger on his M-4 carbine. The figure crumples to the dirt.The figure was not an insurgent, but Dr. Aqilah Hikmat, a 49-year-old mother of four who headed the obstetrics department at the nearby Ghazni provincial hospital. Also dead inside the car were Hikmat's 18-year-old son and her 16-year-old niece. Hikmat's husband, in the front seat, was wounded.
SFC Taylor now faces charges of negligent homicide in the woman's death. If the facts as presented in the article are correct then I got out of the army just in time. This is an example of the worst kind of second guessing of combat decisions. Prosecutions such as this are likely to lead to more of our soldiers hesitating in combat and will probably lead to more GIs getting killed because of hesitation in combat. It would be one thing if he had just shot the woman out of hand but to prosecute him for a combat decision is unconscionable, something I never thought I wold see coming out of the US military. Apparently I was wrong, the forces of idiocy are getting stronger every day. Policies like this will go far towards making the US military just as toothless as most European militarys.Being a combat vet myself I think it is a crying shame that they are making an example out of SFC Taylor. Based on the circumstances in the article, I would have killed her too. The bottom line is that in the middle of a firefight you don't always have the luxury of waiting to find out if someone is hostile or not. If she had a weapon, should he wait until she starts firing before engaging, I think not. He made the right cal and now he is getting the shaft. Shame on the Army for even bringing charges.Hopefully the panel at his court-martial sees sense and rightfully acquits him. Something like this just calls out for our support of the soldier. I highly encourage every body reading this article to write the secretary of the Army directly and protest this armchair quarterbacking of a combat leaders decision made in the heat of battle.The Honorable John McHugh Secretary of the Army 101 Army Pentagon Washington, DC 20310-0101
Though unpopular, I think that this is seen by Army leadership as necessary. There were similar cases against a handful of Marines back in the early stages of the war in Iraq – and look at the way the courts-martial for the Haditha incident turned out. In a case like this, conducting an investigation and declaring “no fault” would be seen by many as a cover-up. A trial by court-martial, most likely concluding in an acquittal, would exonerate this soldier. I think that this is reality in our current society - commanders won't stand up and make an announcement of innocence. Instead, they'll defer to "the system" - some may call it a lack of moral courage (and it may be), but it may also be reality.
This sort of thing goes back to Vietnam. I think we need to figure out a way to get out of the Middle East without throwing Israel under the bus. Even when we are trying to do good over there we end up in some controversy with the local populace. Kharzai has already turned on us and Pakistan basically has turned their backs on us too. We're in a no win situation because our supposed allies don't even trust us anymore.
You are correct in that this is the current reality, that does not make it any less pathetic. The problem is not with the soldier. It is with the political animals inhabiting the upper ranks of the military and the impossible ROE that they saddle them with. I have friends downrange now and I shudder to think of the danger the current ROE places our troops in. I also don't buy the whole argument about the ROE is necessary to ensure civilian support in Afghanistan. The Afghans tolerate us and can't wait until we leave so they can get back to killing each other like they have been doing for thousands of years. The US military is handcuffed and not allowed to seek a true military solution. The fact that this is going to CM just like Haditha is a testament to the lack of backbone of our combatant commanders who refuse to back up their soldiers and Marines actions in combat. War is about killing people and sometimes innocents die. From what I no this was a legitimate combat action. What is with the charge of negligent homicide anyway? You could use that for anybody who kills a noncombatant in a firefight. Think deeply, this is a scary development and will cause soldier deaths when they hesitate to act out of fear of prosecution. It is defintiely a lack of moral courage on the part of commanders and on the part of our civilian leadership as well.
Mind you, it has been more years than I care to remember since I wore the boots and carried a rifle for a living – but one thing that we always stressed in training for these types of operations (counterinsurgency / peacekeeping) is that non-combatants will either hunker down and hide or will run from a firefight — anyone who moves about freely (or runs toward a firefight) can be assumed to be a threat and therefore a combatant – and ROE generally allow you to use deadly force in self-defense to remove or eliminate a viable threat.Hopefully the court-martial board will be composed of combat veterans.
You would not believe how restrictive current ROEs are. They are tailor made for a case like this and the urge to second guess combat decisions is strong in the political class of that seems to predominate at the Field Grade and Senior NCO levels of today's military. I have found myself saying again and again in the last 7 months how glad I am that I retired when I did.The relevant Unclassified documents are here: Tactical Directive [ROE] and here:ISAF Commander's Counterinsurgency Guidance
