by Michael on Mon Jun 05, 2017 7:06 pm
I'll probably watch it again because it's something with which I am not personally familiar as I never saw anything close to combat during my years in, Ford be praised, but here's what I was thinking while watching.
Why did you set up an observation post that could be so easily triangulated by enemy fire and also worth their investment in time to wait for you, as in, why were you so farkin' predictable?
Then i realize all the USA tactics shown in the film are perfectly predictable. Stay in safe area, compound, whatever, go out to "battle damage assessment" after a helo drops some ordnance? What? You're a rolling IED detector sending your men up a mountain in order to see what damage the helo did, all while making yourself completely vulnerable? And then no way to take the fight back to the enemy because it might be an ambush?
Next, let's lead a convoy there and back so that on the first trip all the bad guys can be easily alerted to take a little break from the falafel shop and go and man their IED switch boxes waiting for the return leg of the convoy, and boom, Lewww-ten-nant Daaaan gets blown up on the return trip. If the IED's are buried under the roads and can't be detected by sight as you drive along, just driving along and hoping you don't explode seems a bit off.
Why don't they make themselves more prepared to get the IED switchmen by having air support a few minutes away and able to sweep those corn fields with infrared or whatever? Is that not possible? They're just human bait, bird-dogging roadside bombs the way they do things.
Is sitting in the compound and going out in predictable fashion more safe than constantly engaging the enemy? Isn't this all a repeat of Vietnam? Maybe they've worked it out to have fewer casualties, but it doesn't look effective at engaging and killing the enemy much. We've been in Afghanistan 16 years now, so fewer casualties per year will still add up.
Last edited by Michael on Mon Jun 05, 2017 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.