{"id":2268,"date":"2010-06-24T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T16:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2268"},"modified":"2010-06-24T12:18:50","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T16:18:50","slug":"mourning-lake-george-family-attacks-obama-administrations-flower-child-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/06\/24\/mourning-lake-george-family-attacks-obama-administrations-flower-child-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourning Lake George family attacks Obama administration’s “flower child leadership”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Glens Falls Post Star<\/a> is reporting today that the family of Army Spc. Benjamin Osborn — killed in combat on June 15th — is blasting the Obama administration for its leadership in the Afghanistan war.<\/p>\n

The family is critical of what it calls Obama’s “flower children leadership,” which includes restrictions on when US forces can fire on enemy combatants.<\/p>\n

The rules of engagement — part of the military’s anti-insurgency strategy — are designed to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

But Bill Osborne says the rules are too restrictive. This from the Post-Star.<\/p>\n

“We send our young men and women to spill their blood and we won’t let them do their job,” he said from his Queensbury home. “Winning hearts and minds is wonderful, but first we have to defeat the enemy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The engagement policy was developed by two top military commanders, Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, both of whom are seen as experts on fighting against guerrilla resistance movements.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear whether the restrictions contributed to Osborn’s death on June 15th.\u00a0 He was killed in a firefight with insurgents in northeastern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The death toll among US forces in Afghanistan is rising, with 76 NATO and allied soldiers killed in June alone.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, international criticism continues over the number of Afghan civilians who are dying each month because of US and other allied combat missions.<\/p>\n

The military says it’s new efforts to reduce “collateral damage” are working, according to NATO.\u00a0 This from the New York Times:<\/a><\/p>\n

A spokesman for NATO, Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz…said civilian casualties caused by the coalition over all dropped by 44 percent compared with the same period in 2009, while those caused by the insurgents increased by 36 percent.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more significant, the number of episodes involving civilian casualties caused by the coalition dropped 7.8 percent, General Blotz said. This suggested that fewer civilians were being killed in each encounter as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what do you think?\u00a0 Is the current approach in Afghanistan workable?\u00a0 Does it leave our soldiers in harm’s way?\u00a0 Or is it a necessary risk, as we seek to enlist local support against the Taliban?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Glens Falls Post Star is reporting today that the family of Army Spc. Benjamin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions\/2269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}