De Opresso Liber….. Don in the Desert

Fighting a War Without Bullets?
Human Events ^ | 5/23/2010

Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2010 12:13:09 PM by Fight4Freedom1

Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan.

American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview. The source was unsure where the order originated or how many other units were affected.

When a weapon has a loaded magazine, but the safety is on and no round is chambered, the military refers to this condition as “amber status.” Weapons on “red status” are ready to fire—they have a round in the chamber and the safety is off.

The source stated that he had been stationed at the base for only a month, but the amber weapons order was in place since before he arrived. A NATO spokesman could not confirm the information, stating that levels of force are classified.

“Our overall aim is to defeat the insurgency which means we must gain and then maintain the support of the Afghan population,” said Lieutenant Commander Iain Baxter, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a statement to HUMAN EVENTS. “This must be the objective of every action taken by ISAF service members, and it calls for responses that de-escalate situations where the use of deadly force may not be necessary. In doing this, leaders at all levels make enormous efforts to ensure that troops balance their own protection with the protection of the Afghan population.”

If there was a spate of friendly-fire casualties, then perhaps a change in the company’s rules would make sense. ISAF keeps no records of negligent discharges, however a search of casualties in Afghanistan showed only three fatalities due to friendly fire since January 2009…

(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com …

Thanks

Walt

Get rid of Alan Stock. He’s awful. The other day he asked a question regarding the Pentigon 8 times; let 2 callers through; one disagreed. He moved on. I had to change stations. You’d be much better off rerunning Coast to Coast.