Afganistan - Vietnam Reprised?

American commanders are losing this war with their absurd ROE (Rules of Engagement). To understand how the ROE are killing American soldiers and losing this war, Christian Lowe, describes a small firefight and then offers this concluding thought from Forward Operating Base Rushmore (Afghanistan):

 

When the radios finally went silent, Soldiers here had time to reflect on the remote outpost in Yahya Khel and its reputation as a magnet for insurgent attacks. And like so many others like it over the last three months of Angel, 3-187's deployment, the enemy initiated an intense attack and slipped back under the cover of the civilian population.

"They just like to demonstrate to the population that they aren't secure -- that they can attack security forces anytime they want," Powers explained. "And they know that each time they inflict an American casualty, it becomes an international incident."

In other words, the Taliban accomplished its objectives and escaped to fight another day. Thus, does the Taliban win. As Lowe describes, our ROE essentially limits combat operations to a "show of force". We simply do not engage the enemy on our terms, but on his.

 

I speak from experience: This is truly Vietnam reprised.