Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoko Takeo
I can believe that they didn't want to do it, but if you ask me, they should've taken better precautions to prevent this "collateral damage" like relying on HUMINT instead of SIGINT. The whole reason they're there is to "liberate" civilians from the talibans, and doing things half-@$$ed like they are now won't help. Now that civilians died, those who lived won't exactly see them favourably. That's what really matters if they're trying to win over civilians.
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Well they can't take any risks. 2 busloads of insurgents/supplies is enough to cause trouble and put down over a hundred marines.
We are not talking about those normal ones. We are talking about those who have fought as the mujahideen or with the SOF and survived. As compared to the marines, they have had tons lot more combat experience, just that they are not well-armed enough.
Since vehicles, let alone buses are uncommon in a failed state like Afghanistan, it is not surprising that NATO would think that they are ferrying insurgents and blow them apart with PGMs. It is a terrible mistake caused by pessimism, but avoiding it is like putting a few thousand civilians and a few hundred Marines' lives at stake.
From a military standpoint, it is tragic. From an idiot generalising civilian's standpoint, it is atrocity. From a well-informed standpoint, well it depends on how well the person is informed, and how much knowledge he can apply. Can't exactly blame anyone for their opinion except for the 2nd example.
Besides the only functional organisation with top-notch HUMINT is the Israeli Mossad. Putting a bomb in a car headrest and setting it off on time is a few hundred times harder as compared to blowing up a couple of cars then scraping leftovers for DNA verification.