Re: Rules of Engagement examples (DSII/SGII)

At 09:40  3/04/02 +1000, you wrote:
> >Could you give me some examples (more the merrier ;-) of what is
> >included in an ROE for a given force
>
>There was a TV show on here about the training of UK Corporals to be 
>Sergeants.
>They had to do all kinds of stuff, plan, execute and lead platoon
attacks, be
>familiar with the Law of Armed Conflict etc. Things that US Majors and
above
>would normally be taught.
>
>One lesson was on ROE.
>
>The example they showed was a squad proceeding down a road - 2
un-uniformed
>males run up, hurl insults, hurl stones, then hurl grenades, and run
away.
>The ROE stated that they should NOT be shot at, because after throwing
the 
>grenades,
>they were no threat.
>
>In Australia, we call this "Bullsh*t".

The show Alan is referring to is "Battle Stripes" shown here on one of
the 
local commercial networks, but he is confusing it with another series 
"Future War" shown here on the National Broadcaster (ABC), probably
because 
both shows filmed British Soldiers training to do the same/similar thing
in 
the same place, a training establishment in Wales.

The episode of the "Future War" in question was dealing with the issue
of 
how do soldiers trained to fight a war cope with the difficult
transition 
to "peace keeping" duties. This piece of film was used to illustrate the

difficulties that soldiers could face because their training is aimed at

warfighting, they are NOT police but they are being asked to do a 
policeman's job. This was just one of many examples the documentary gave
to 
show how a soldiers instincts/training can lead to the wrong actions for
a 
peace keeper.

The main point of the episode was that you can NOT expect soldiers to be

peace keepers and that it would be much better to have men trained as 
dedicated peace keepers, as it takes extensive training to make people
into 
soldiers in the first place and then even more to make these soldiers to

behave as peace keepers and even more again to get them back to battle 
ready soldiers once their peace keeping stint is over. By asking them to
do 
both the governments/societies involved are endangering the soldiers and

the people they are supposed to be helping in the areas where they're 
operating.

Other episodes of "Future War" dealt with high tech scenarios (the
silver 
bullet ;)) and the dangers of urban fighting (they showed an exercise
where 
an American unit were clearing a multi-storey building and would have
taken 
something like 30 friendly fire casualties in the process if it had been

for real).

As for what we call Bullsh*t here in Oz, well that's a different matter
:)

Cheers

Derek

Derek Fulton
12 Balaka st.
Rosny, Hobart.
Tasmania,  7018.
Australia

Phone; (03) 62459123
Mobile; 0438459123
Email; derekfulton@bigpond.com