You are going to want to have a beer in one hand and a shot of whiskey in the other before you read this.
Key graf...
"Q: "On Escalation of force, have you considered engaging the local community on the issue? We could explain at the brigade/battalion level what behavior we find threatening, and how we are trained to react when we feel threatened. We could negotiate with the community leaders over mutually agreeable actions and reactions that are better understood by both and gives part ownership of the issue to the community and empowers them in line with our approach to reintegration."
GEN McChrystal: "That's a great point. I don't know if we have, but we certainly ought to be doing that. We have so many escalation of force issues, and someone gets hurt in the process, and we say, 'They didn't respond like they were supposed to.' Well, they may not have known how they were supposed to respond, so as they approached an area or checkpoint or whatever, they may have taken actions that seemed appropriate to them, and when a warning shot was fired they may have panicked. I think this is a great thing to do, to engage people and tell them the kind of behavior on their part that would lower the chance that they would run into problems.
"I do want to say something that everyone understands. We really ask a lot of our young service people out on the checkpoints because there's danger, they're asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations. However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a
suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it. That doesn't mean I'm criticizing the people who are executing. I'm just giving you perspective. We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
Hat tip to Josh Marshall over at TPM
My opinion...can we just throw in the towel already and say we're done?
I'm glad all those drones are asking the right questions.
ReplyDeleteSheer,
ReplyDeleteWhile I in no way disagree with your recommendation, I will just say it is refreshing to see a senior leader be so honest in an open forum.
srv, which drones are you talking about?
"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
ReplyDeleteExactly what I want my armed forces doing for me. Based on my admittedly dated combat experience, I'd say this is still a pretty smart way to go. It's really, really hard for dead people to present a real threat to the force.
Looks like McChrystal's broken the code. No wonder they fired the last guy. Guess he didn't understand how to do these things.
Harkening back to Sheer's previous post, and to days gone by, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.
You betcha.