Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - 4 Canadian Soldiers killed in Afghanistan

CaptainCrunch · 09-19-2006, 09:31 AM

I completely understand when someone states that they wish that our rules of engagement could mirror those of the people that we are fighting. I've always been part of that debate myself. But there is a simple truth to what we're doing there.

The rules of engagment that the Canadian Soldiers fight under are put in place to protect civilians first and foremost by not applying un-neccessary force. The rules of engagment also are put into place to protect the soldiers and adhere to international law and the various conventions that are put into place. You can't blaze away at approaching civilians without giving them three distinctive warnings (verbal, physical, warning shots). You can't dump an artillary salvo into the middle of a village without either some kind of warning, or an attempt at alternative solutions in the hopes of catching your enemy off guard. And you can't airstrike a large gathering of possible civilians, because its likely that your not going to kill some battle hardened experienced militant, its more likely that your going to kill a woman or a child that was there because the dead person was a relative.

If you break the rules of engagment all your going to do is turn people that should be your friends into enemies. At the end of the day and this sounds cold. If you live up to your standards, protect civilians and illustrate to them that the various insurgency groups are out there killing innocents, you will eventually turn the population against them and give them fewer places to hide. I

On a related note I was happy to see that we're committing more troops to Afghanistan just for the sheer purpose that it will allow us to be a bit more generous in troops getting required rests so fewer mistakes will happen. I was also happy to see that we're deploying the Leopard C2's into this war. The Leopard C2's might be obsolete compared to the modern main battle tank in turns of speed, armour and sheer firepower, but there are very few IED's that can penetrate its armor, its faster and more accurate on rough terrain. Has treads instead of wheels which is safer against RPG's. And its 105 mm main gun using HEAT rounds can hit targets up to 3 kms away with good to great accuracy. Use properly in a recon role it can be an effective vehicle in this kind of roll.

09-19-2006, 09:31 AM	#52
CaptainCrunch Norm! Join Date: Jun 2002 Exp:	I completely understand when someone states that they wish that our rules of engagement could mirror those of the people that we are fighting. I've always been part of that debate myself. But there is a simple truth to what we're doing there. The rules of engagment that the Canadian Soldiers fight under are put in place to protect civilians first and foremost by not applying un-neccessary force. The rules of engagment also are put into place to protect the soldiers and adhere to international law and the various conventions that are put into place. You can't blaze away at approaching civilians without giving them three distinctive warnings (verbal, physical, warning shots). You can't dump an artillary salvo into the middle of a village without either some kind of warning, or an attempt at alternative solutions in the hopes of catching your enemy off guard. And you can't airstrike a large gathering of possible civilians, because its likely that your not going to kill some battle hardened experienced militant, its more likely that your going to kill a woman or a child that was there because the dead person was a relative. If you break the rules of engagment all your going to do is turn people that should be your friends into enemies. At the end of the day and this sounds cold. If you live up to your standards, protect civilians and illustrate to them that the various insurgency groups are out there killing innocents, you will eventually turn the population against them and give them fewer places to hide. I On a related note I was happy to see that we're committing more troops to Afghanistan just for the sheer purpose that it will allow us to be a bit more generous in troops getting required rests so fewer mistakes will happen. I was also happy to see that we're deploying the Leopard C2's into this war. The Leopard C2's might be obsolete compared to the modern main battle tank in turns of speed, armour and sheer firepower, but there are very few IED's that can penetrate its armor, its faster and more accurate on rough terrain. Has treads instead of wheels which is safer against RPG's. And its 105 mm main gun using HEAT rounds can hit targets up to 3 kms away with good to great accuracy. Use properly in a recon role it can be an effective vehicle in this kind of roll.