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American failings....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6456969.stm

Report on the Americans justifying killing unarmed civilians. I know it must be tough out there, so you need experienced level headed people leading these young kids. This Staff Sergeant is 26 yrs old, leading a squad? Surely someone this young cannot be put in charge in such a high pressure situation? Our Staff Sergeants are at least in their 30's and certainly not gung ho like this lot.

A failing in the US Services, promoting young to increase newbies interest?
 
JD,

Their Squads are not the same size our troops and the S/Sgt is not comparable to the British C/Sgt or S/Sgt. In our terms this would be a large section/multiple/half troop and the leader would be a Sgt or senior Cpl.

That said, I agree with your point: they don't seem to have the same amount of experience at the lower tactical level and in my experience their level of ability at JNCO/SNCO is not the best.
 
JunglyDaz said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6456969.stm

Report on the Americans justifying killing unarmed civilians. I know it must be tough out there, so you need experienced level headed people leading these young kids. This Staff Sergeant is 26 yrs old, leading a squad? Surely someone this young cannot be put in charge in such a high pressure situation? Our Staff Sergeants are at least in their 30's and certainly not gung ho like this lot.

A failing in the US Services, promoting young to increase newbies interest?

This lack of morality has little to do with age or with rank. The signal from the highest echelons of the US government and from the Pentagon was that the Geneva Conventions could be ignored, torture would be condoned and that the rest of the world were untermenschen. Pax Americana

RM
 
Additional thought - they were not just US troops but US Marines, of whom my experience with out here means i can well believe what happened..
 
silverfox said:
Additional thought - they were not just US troops but US Marines, of whom my experience with out here means i can well believe what happened..

I thought the general consensus was that USMC is significantly better in all respects than the US Army - care to expand on your comment? Not a wah - am genuinely interested in your opinion.
 
The USMC out here are focussed on one thing only - doing to others before they do it to you. What I was tryig to get across was that yes they may be better trained but they suffer from blinkered vision and when it comes to the tactical piece they suffer. They more than anybody will apply the 'shoot first, shoot again, and then ask questions...'

I was speaking to the ex SAS CSM who runs the private security operation that is looking after some of my contractors. He said that although they have recruited some very good locals and other arabs, they cannot arm them up outside of a vehicle because other people, PSD teams, patrols etc will see and Arab with a gun in the Red Zone, and then shoot without asking who they are. Given the casualties they have taken perhaps this is understandable and they would rather shoot an innocent 1 time out of 10 than take casualties of their own .
 
just thought I'd mention that I don't mean in the above post that they go around shooting indescriminately, just that they refuse to take risks and will always err on the side of (their) safety.
 

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