Mata: Sounds like you just expressed an opinion on it’s execution, blast.

No, I was expressing an opinion on your use of the description of “successful”.

I merely pointed out your use of “successful” and you totally missed my second part “There is no doubt that taking the fight to our enemy is essential, and possibly even taking the risk in this liberation attempt… “

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I dont think that kidnappers are honest brokers anywhere in the world.

Gordon Brown has been inept for most of his administration, but at least he got this one right.

Any way, the carrot and stick approach is appropriate in almost any circumstance… including insurgencies.

Giving carrots to kidnappers is like giving dynamite to bombmakers. This instance clearly called for the stick.

Have a nice dirtnap my terrorist friends…

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I keep thinking that we need to send smarter reporters in. Maybe require all reporters who want to work in war zones or near boarders of nations hostile to the US, to receive common sense training on how to pull their heads out of their asses. Advice on not crossing over boarders without getting a visa, hanging near the troops when interviewing nationals, and how to avoid becoming a hostage/kidnap victim.

If they want to go in with their heads up their ass, then they can figure out how to get their own selves out and not put good brave military members at risk for the foolhardiness of “journalists”.

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Raids are always high risk. Kidnappings, smuggling, murder and mayhem are legitimate enterprises in the Stans. They happen for a definite purpose. Negotiations with Outlaws and Taliban types is generally not successful there as they are not “honest brokers” They are folks that use any advantage to get what they want and use any leverage they can to accomplish their goals.

Their GDP is poppies for manufacture of Heroin and Terrorism. Human life is dirt cheap and westerners do not understand that. The populace by and large have no loyalty to a Central Government and are Tribal. The concept of Democracy is a foreign notion. Sheiks or tribal Chiefs have the power and they do understand raw brute force but representative Government is not in their agenda.

The new ROE has placed limits above and beyond the Geneva Conventions or UCMJ for US Forces. NATO has more stringent restrictions on use of Force. The Stans and Tribal regions of Pakistan are the wild west in a true sense of the phrase. It is not Iraq. It is a wild and wooly atmosphere and Obama, Gates, Gen. Jones and the NATO Command there are clueless at this point.

Western Journos, or Newsies as I call them place themselves at risk stupidly and senselessly. The Taliban residue needs to dealt with ruthlessly and with no quarter given. Newsies need to stay away because there is no Bill of Rights there and none of the Locals give a fat rats rump about Freedom of the Press. Civilian Casualties only matter to Westerners. That is leverage for the Taliban types. The Enemy there knows it. COIN needs to be adapted to the situation there. Otherwise that Fight there will not be pursued with any degree of success. These folks have been at war for a long time. Ask the Russians about it.

Raw brute force is necessary in that Theater of Operations. You cannot keep the Peace there as long as there is no Peace. It may sound harsh but I have been there and It took me about a week on the ground to realize how they do business there.

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There is more than just the the tradeoff in lives at issue here. Generally when negotiators get involved, ransom or some other form of “payback” occurs. Hostage taking in this area of the world is a profitable enterprise and often the means that financially supports these folks in their terrorist enterprises. You may wonder why the targets in Iraq were often from Italy or Germany. It is simply because their governments pay ransom. Hostage takers can net several million dollars from the enterprise and humiliate their enemies at the same time. It’s win/win.

But when the expected payment is a JDAM or a Hellfire, there is a reluctance to target those countries’ nationals.

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blast: I don’t have much opinion about the raid in its necessity or execution, but… from what I have read it was not such a success as one of the two captives were killed (50% loss), long with the British Soldier.

Sounds like you just expressed an opinion on it’s execution, blast.

You are leaving out a dead Taliban commander, and his host… two enemy, gone. The senior Taliban that had also been involved in what to do with the hostages are now put “on notice”, as opposed to being paid/rewarded for their abductions. They can now look forward to raids, not money. You are also leaving out successful intel from the Afghans that led to their knowledge of their whereabouts.

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Mata: “In a daring and successful raid, British NATO commandos rescued the journalist. The price for Farrell’s freedom was heavy…”

Ummm… I don’t have much opinion about the raid in its necessity or execution, but… from what I have read it was not such a success as one of the two captives were killed (50% loss), long with the British Soldier. I would tend to measure success as achieving the objective of returning your captives to freedom, not to a pine box. There is no doubt that taking the fight to our enemy is essential, and possibly even taking the risk in this liberation attempt… calling it a success if premature in my opinion.

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