Originally posted by meander:
Imagine you go out to war. Would you want to die in a foreign
country? Or be left behind and captured as a POW? Nobody would. The
bn/bde commanders cannot guarantee that they will win the battle.
They can't even guarantee that you will come back alive. The only
promise they can make you, is the one that will try their damn best
to bring you back alive; and should you fall in battle, they will
at least bring the body/dogtag/remains back.
No it's is not some SF gung-ho attitude. I have no idea what to
call this spirit, so I'll just loosely term it "brotherhood". It is
something every fighting unit should posess. This will make
everyone in the unit give their best, give the enemy hell; knowing
the fact that should they falter or fall, their brothers
[b]WILL be there for them.
Call it the least we can do for our brothers in arms, give them a
glimmer of hope. And in the case of the KIA who gave their lives
for the cause, the very least we can do is take them back. Don't
let them "ke si ta siang" while you get your ass safely home by
hiding behind rocks and trees.
Years later, the world might forget the battle. But to those who
were there, they would harbor no regrets having done what they
could, when they could.
Furthermore, the SF snipers went in fully knowing there was a
chance they might not come back. The BG even asked them if they
knew what they were doing. They said yes then and went in. While
they brought the pilot back, they themselves perished.
They took a risk and failed, but they still achieved something
great in bringing the pilot back. If all our commanders don't have
the balls to take risks at appropriate times, then I will be truely
worried about the SAF.[/b]
A grunt suppose to have "never say die" attitude, a commander
should have a rational mind becos his decision affect everyone
under him and the objectives.
The outcome is that one pilot captured, and additional two good men
killed, are you sure it is success to send them in in the first
place? What did they actually achieved?
First thing you must remember that no one knew anyone has survive
the crash, they might be that everyone were dead. If that happened,
the two snipers would be stuck and be killed or captured eventually
and achieving nothing. ( 2 vs 100)
If the situation was one or more did survive the crash, if the two
snipers did not went in, will they all be killed or captured?
Nobody know , but chances are some might be captured or killed
right?(1-3 vs 100).
Even with all of them survive the crash and with snipers sent in,
what are the chances of them getting out w/o being captured or
killed?
(5 vs 100).
You see I have listed out all the possible outcomes for the
decision to be made by the BG, odd are against them becos of the
superior number that the other side have and all dun look
good.
The BG should be looking at all the pros & cons and decide,
knowing that the odds were against them and no means to change that
becos he was unable to know when additional support was available
to the two snipers.
Actual situation, was two additional men were killed, and the pilot
was captured by the militants. The decision to capture him instead
of killing him was made by the militant becos they want to have him
for POW exchange.
So even w/o the two snipers been sent in, the militants might not
even kill him.
And two snipers might actually achieve nothing,only as you called
it "brotherhood spirit".
