Troops In Harm's Way

American policy about putting troops in harm's way has undergone a major policy shift over the years.

For all his hawkishness, Reagan seldom deployed troops. The two most notable instanced were Grenada and Lebanon. Grenada fell quickly. Lebanon, on the other hand, was a disaster. Suicide bombers ran a checkpoint and exploded two trucks filled with explosives, killing 299 American and French troops who were there as peacekeepers. The country quickly lost its appetite for peacekeeping and the peacekeepers were withdrawn.

The Gulf War (Operation Desert Freedom) under George H. W. Bush was the first example of the Powell Doctrine. The part that is relevant here was to attack with enough overwhelming force to keep casualties to a minimum.

Clinton learned his own lessons about troop casualties. Shortly before leaving office, Bush ordered troops into Somalia to stabilize the region. Under Clinton, the mission changed to nation-building. This soured after the events depicted in Black Hawk Down. The result was footage of dead soldiers being dragged through the streets. Clinton withdrew the troops shortly after that.

Clinton's take-away message from Somalia was that the American people would not support any action that involved the death of American servicemen (women were kept well away from combat). When the US intervened in Kosovo, the operation was designed to keep American's safe. The operation was conducted almost exclusively by high-altitude bombing. There were some complaints when bombs missed their targets and a general feeling that it was "unsporting" for Americans to bomb from untouchable heights.

September 11th changed everything. George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan. That operations was quick and nearly bloodless. Bush followed up with an invasion of Iraq which was also fairly quick but did have some casualties. Support for the war remained fairly high for the first year or so but the MSM (mainstream media) started playing up each casualty as the insurgency became organized. The constant drip, drip of bad news turned public opinion against the war. Eventually, Bush had to convince not only the American people, but Congress and his own generals, that the war was winnable at an acceptable cost. The cost was a sharp upswing in troop deaths as the Surge progressed. This was followed by a stunning drop in troop deaths and an admission that the Surge worked.

Obama came to office with a stabilized Iraq but an unstable Afghanistan. Bush had never pushed the new government's influence across the entire country and the Taliban was known to be taking refuge in Pakistan. Obama had campaigned on winning Afghanistan. He implemented his own version of the Surge. This included new rules of engagement. Under Bush, the rules of engagement had been tightened to minimize civilian casualties. This was tightened even more under Obama. The result has been a complete reversal of the Clinton-era priorities. Under Clinton, civilian casualties were acceptable if it kept the troops safe. Now, air  and artillery strikes that could save troops are only allowed if there is no chance of civilian casualties.

While this is a defensible counter-insurgency strategy, it is affecting troop moral and causing troops to question the wisdom of their leaders.