Robust and Aggressive

If Barack Hussein Obama continues to maintain the presence of US combat forces in Afghanistan, he must untie their hands by relaxing the near suicidal rules of engagement(ROE) and let our forces aggressively defend themselves and also go more on the offensive against those who would target our forces and those of our allies. I for one also do not like to witness American troops fighting and all too often dying under "international command", not being represented by their own commanders and spokesmen as "US soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, reservists, activated national guardsmen (and women), or coastguards fighting in American uniform under American officers and under our own flag" but instead being called members of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) which serves not only to disguise and diminish their contribution and sacrifice but undercuts esprit de corps and natural patriotism as Americans. To hear mouthpieces speak of "ISAF members killed and wounded" in cases where from the beginning it was obvious that the casualties were entirely American must be an undue horror for family members left on tenterhooks wondering if their service member has died or been injured. The monetary cost and more importantly the blood sacrifice in Afghanistan has and continues to be inordinately borne by Americans and their loss should never be hidden from the US public or obscured by identifying them only as ISAF fallen. An unlucky thirteen more fell today. Here is their tragic tale as related by Amir Shah of the Associated Press linked through Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/us-official-13-americans-killed-afghan-bombing-132131947.html. Their blood should never be allowed to have spilled in vain. I have also just heard on ABC radio that one of our Canadian allies also lost his life in the same blast and three Australian soldiers were ambushed by an "Afghan soldier" who turned his gun on them. This articles was in no way meant to minimize the courageous contribution of real allies who bleed alongside our own troops but mostly to call for ROE sufficiently violent that those fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda are able to protect themselves.