INSANITY
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
September 14, 2006
The damning evidence was on the front page of yesterday's Post: A dramatic photo showing more than 100 Taliban terrorists in formation last July for a graveside funeral for one of their own in Afghanistan.
The image was shot from high in the sky by an unmanned American drone - which fed a continuous satellite feed back on the ground.
A ripe target for a surprise missile strike? It certainly would seem so.
But according to a statement yesterday from U.S. Central Command in Afghanistan, "a decision was made" - preposterously - "not to strike the group of insurgents at that specific location and time" because the site was a cemetery with a funeral in progress.
In the end, all intelligence officials could do was to watch helplessly as the terrorists split up into groups too small to be targeted with any precision.
The Pentagon said that it does not discuss rules of engagement.
No wonder.
For the rule makes no sense on its face.
The Taliban, as savage a foe as American troops have ever encountered, follow no rules at all. A failure to fire on an assemblage of that size, simply to protect the cultural sensitivities of a cold-blooded foe, borders on the insane.
This isn't the first time the military has lost an opportunity to strike a major blow against the terrorists.
Back on the first night of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 an unmanned Predator reconnaissance aircraft identified a convoy of cars and trucks fleeing Kabul as that of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban. But a fighter-jet strike was vetoed - reportedly by Central Command's judge advocate general.
Mullah Omar was spared - and today remains in hiding.
To be sure, firing at that funeral would have gotten al-Jazeera in a tizzy.
Too bad about that.
After all, it's not as if the terrorists respect such events.
This past Sunday, the funeral of an Afghani provincial governor - killed last week by a suicide bomber - was itself attacked by another suicide bomber, killing six people, including his nephew.
The Pentagon cited that murder yesterday, proclaiming that Coalition forces "hold themselves to a higher moral and ethical standard than their enemies."
That could have been written by the same lawyers who kayoed the Mullah Omar strike; you can bet they won't be on the firing line the next time the Taliban start shooting.
How many Coalition soldiers will die because 100-plus Taliban were allowed to walk free will never be known, of course. It can't be.
This much is clear, though: The Taliban never show mercy - and they are contemptuous of those who do.
War is about killing.
Or being killed.
About winning.
Or losing.
Time to change the rules.
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