War Strategy

U.S. troops are no longer allowed to fight the Taliban in any villages--too much danger to civilians. That's right. All the Taliban need do is run inside any home and our troops are to disengage. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said his measure of effectiveness will be the "number of Afghans shielded from violence" — not the number of militants killed.

Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, commented. "I was heartened by McChrystal's remarks last week stating that, and am now further heartened to see that he's backing those statements up with policies to protect civilians. This is what we've wanted all along." Still, she said the policy has potential drawbacks, specifically that once Taliban fighters learn of the directive, civilian homes will be the perfect place to seek cover.

No...you think? They might take advantage of civilians? It's a no-brainer. We may as well pull out now, for every firefight our troops engage in there will be phony claims of innocents killed. Is this war, or a reasonable facsimile thereof? We're either in it 100 per cent or not. (Photo: Newsweek)