I remember “rules of engagement”. It’s when politicians and lawyers think they can “manage” a war. Started with Korea, then continued in earnest with LBJ and his whiz kids. Prior to that, war was “Kill as many as you can, and we’ll issue terms to what’s left…”
My father served on a destroyer in Korea. All in all, it was uneventful, according to his recollections, except for when they would be fired upon while steaming along the coast.
The enemy soldiers would roll artillery cannons out of caves and fire at the destroyer as it passed. Their aim was limited, the rounds never came close, and the return fire could only happen after the first round was away, due to rules of engagement. Otherwise, they traded fire and the cannons were rolled back into the caves before the first return round hit.
Even as a child, I found the rules of engagement odd and unproductive. It didn’t seem like a way to win a war.
“Even as a child, I found the rules of engagement odd and unproductive. It didn’t seem like a way to win a war.”
We don’t wage war to win any more. We wage war to feed the military industrial complex. So we can build better bombs waging a better limited war….. it goes on….
If that was a dog or gator in the park it would have been dead already! But WTF do you do with a whale? Reward it with fishes!!