Military analyst says rules of engagement are costing US lives

Military analyst says rules of engagement are costing US lives

An author and retired military officer says he's witnessed first-hand how American soldiers and Marines are being hamstrung by the restrictive rules of engagement they must follow before firing on the enemy.

Retired U.S. Army Colonel David Hunt says while visiting Iraq recently, he observed rules of engagement that required seven separate steps before a soldier at a guard post could engage the enemy. The last step, he notes, states that if the enemy runs away, the soldier does not have to go after him.

While the rules of engagement are "outrageous," Hunt says, one cannot completely blame the military's lawyers because they only wrote the document explaining the rules. "The lawyers work for a commander, who signed that document," he contends. "They were signed for and approved by people that were in charge."

And now, the author asserts, these rules of engagement "have hamstrung our soldiers to the point where you've got the British, who had to ask permission to fire on Iranians who are taking captive their soldiers, and were told no." These complicated and impractical protocols, he suggests, are heavily costing America's troops.

"The Marines have got this problem in Alhambar Province ... and the Army's got this problem all over the place, from Afghanistan to here," Hunt says. "We have forgotten how to fight. This is nasty business we're in, and we seem unwilling or unable to do that."

Hunt, who has just released a new book titled On the Hunt: How to Wake Up Washington and Win the War on Terror, insists that the military rules of engagement are endangering not only the American troops' mission but their very lives. "Our soldiers are getting killed and blown up because we're not doing what's necessary," he says.