The night before the general is scheduled to visit Sgt. Arroyo's platoon for the memorial, I arrive at Combat Outpost JFM to speak with the soldiers he had gone on patrol with. JFM is a small encampment, ringed by high blast walls and guard towers. Almost all of the soldiers here have been on repeated combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and have seen some of the worst fighting of both wars. But they are especially angered by Ingram's death. His commanders had repeatedly requested permission to tear down the house where Ingram was killed, noting that it was often used as a combat position by the Taliban. But due to McChrystal's new restrictions to avoid upsetting civilians, the request had been denied. "These were abandoned houses," fumes Staff Sgt. Kennith Hicks. "Nobody was coming back to live in them."
One soldier shows me the list of new regulations the platoon was given. "Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force," the laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that's like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won't have to make arrests. "Does that make any (F-bomb) sense?" Pfc. Jared Pautsch. "We should just drop a (f-bomb) bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?"
McChrystal is a Democrat, voted for Obama, and based on what I've heard, kind of a PC type that imposes idiotic ROE.
from the same article that caused the kerfuffle
Cheney = NO.
NO MORE CORPORATIST.. NO MORE FREAKING DEMOCRATS, NO MORE REPUBLICANS.
I want an average American. A regular joe.
What a crock. What is an average American? What's a regular joe?
Was that first post meant to be in purple?
As to an "average American" in the white house? The "average American" thinks we live in a democracy and votes along party lines.... sounds a lot like bush and obama to me, no thanks to that either.
We need people in office who realize we live in a Republic and the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not a "suggestion", someone who understands what Liberty actually IS.
No we need Patriots in office, not "average Americans".
No way I'd ever vote for Cheney (again) and no way I'd vote for the next Murtha (Mcchrystal).
What would be their platform? They could both make a stand for healthcare since one has a heart attack once a year and the other has fainting spells.