What is more important?

[rov1200]

The new US general in Aghanistan has said the new policy in its operations is to decrease the civilian deaths. This is similar to the current British method of putting civilians first. But it has come at a cost with UK soldiers being killed daily.

Should the first priority of commanders to protect our own soldiers first which involves collateral damage to civilians?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/80 96374.stm

[jake-the-peg]

Troops signed up knowing they could be put in harms way.

Afghan civillians did not.

We are in their country - they did not invite us in.

That makes their civillians the priority

[Ric.ror]

Have to disagree - our troops should be our priority - I would pull the lot out and let them get on with it personally

[another-view]

Put yourself in their shoes. If someone had invaded Britain, I wouldn't give a t0ss about their soliders and the more that got killed the better. Protecting the civilians is by far the most important thing.

Time to bring these brave lads and lasses home NOW.

[tamborine]

innocent civvys move out of war zones. Harboring civvys remain. Treat all with suspicion! If allied troops cant expect protection from home govs - the war should be wound down.

have noticed afghans in local hospital - are they migrating here?

[Gromit]

Unfortunately the order hasn't got through to the ground. From todays news...

ISAF said meanwhile that four Afghan civilians were killed in a traffic accident involving one of its vehicles in the northeastern province of Kunar on Thursday.
Two more civilians were killed in the same province on Thursday by ISAF mortar rounds fired against insurgents, it said.

[jake-the-peg]

Tamborine.

innocent civvys move out of war zones. Harboring civvys remain.

What a stupid thing to say!

Like all those Falkland Islanders who didn't move out of Port Stanley perhaps?

Doubtlessly all Parisians were collaborators by definition

[Gromit]

Care should be taken to make sure bombing targets are the enemy and not Afghan civilians.

May prevent news reports such as this one:

Three British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire from American fighter planes, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
The MoD said the soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were killed at around 1830 local time (1500 BST) on Thursday.

It is understood they died when the planes dropped a bomb near their patrol in Helmand province.

Two other soldiers were also injured. Next of kin have been informed.

[tamborine]

take it or leave it Jake.....Falklands being an island had no where to go. Paris-not going there; too far back.

[youngmafbog]

Tambourinr, dont worry about Jake he cant argue anything without putting someone down. typical labour luvvie type.

Its a fine line between hammering in and protecting yourself. This type of warfare is not straightforward, the Taliban will use any method fair or foul wheras our side is supposed to be above all. If the 'civillians' are trully caught in the middle then the best care should be taken, however I suspect it is not that black and white and many so called civillians are not as innocent as they make out.

Gromit, I'm not sure that a traffic accident can really be 100% classified as war casualty. So you post points out 2 deaths only, not the 6 it misleadingly reports.


As for drawing them out, this cant really happen. This 'war' would just move to somewhere else. Remember these people are terrorists and train others too. They do not do diplomacy which is something many lefties can't get into their thick heads so for the time being we are stuck there.

[Gromit]

youngmafbog

Afghan security forces, U.S. and NATO troops killed 828 civilians. Airstrikes -- many at night -- were responsible for the largest percentage of these fatalities.

[anotheoldgit]

This is not a straight forward war, not when you cannot tell the difference between the enemy and the civilians.

Much safer to class them all the same, just as most do in this country.

If this isn't acceptable perhaps our forces should shed their uniforms and dress the same as the enemy, then the Taliban would not know if they were killing themselves, civilians or our troops.

[rov1200]

Quite right AOG. While we are playing "goody two shoes" the yanks have been blasting the insurgents to paradise.

Question: how do you tell a roadside bomber from the normal Afghan population. Ans: you can't! Their cowardly acts have despatched a 19 year old soldier only yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8096531.stm

Many of them are not career soldiers but sign up to get a form of work. What a price to pay! And like a past politician said " its a price worth paying". Not to me and many others it's not. If we have to make sacrifices our policies should change there and not be sitting ducks.