False Readiness Reports on IDF by the Report Writers

 

IDF Ombudsman Major General Yitzhak Brick recently retired and on his way out the door, he just had to write one more report. Ombudsmen are those people you go to when your normal path, chain of command, has not provided you with the satisfaction you sought. In other words, they are the people you go see when you are truly upset and nobody appeared to care. They get to hear all the whining and complaining and they sooth the wounded minds and hearts, or at least try. But Major General Yitzhak Brick has not been the only one who has complained about IDF readiness, there has been a fair share of paper pushers who had only evils to report about virtually every part of the IDF and specifically the fighting forces. Anybody who has served in the military of any nation knows the problems with getting the needed items through the normal supply chain. Such stories of the nightmares and ridiculous miscues of supply requisitions such as getting Bermuda shorts sent to your unit on its way to perform three months of arctic training, something nobody in the IDF will ever need worry, would be an example. Entire books and plays have been written about the Snafu’s in every branch of the military such as Catch 22, What Did You do in the War Daddy, Operation Petticoat and numerous other comedies. Some would say that many of the John Wayne movies were actually spoofs on the military, as he was refused to join the military because Marion Robert Morrison was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor). But he never made a film about the IDF though he was in Cast a Giant Shadow, which told the story about David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus. But what about the IDF now?

 

Unfortunately, I cannot make any direct reports about the readiness of the IDF, as nobody would allow me to do an assessment, which is a shame. But I can tell about the inability for judging an army’s ability to fight simply due to reports and the fact that the higher in the military one is, the less they know about the readiness of the troops and have only a continuous barrage of complaints and immediate problems making up their day-to-day operations. I was placed in an infantry company by the infinite wisdom of the United States Army. So, in a way, I am as much an expert, if not more-so, than almost any ombudsman. The proven best war-fighters in my last unit in which I trained before moving to something a little less dangerous, Crash Rescue Firefighter, was a small core of men who had served anywhere from one to three combat tours in Viet Nam. They had come back with a chest full of ribbons and held high NCO ranks only to rapidly become privates once more in an army not fighting a war. Here is the little secret, the troops often who take their training the most seriously are the worst fighters when the actual war breaks out and the worst soldiers become the best fighting force you will have ever seen. There are numerous reasons for such things.

 

First, when infantry units are preparing for wars they find they are performing the same basic field practice for a small part of the time and the rest of their time is spent performing busywork such as cleaning the barracks, policing the grounds for cigarette butts, washing the motor pool vehicles and guarding often empty buildings. When a unit is not in actual field duty, the people who get the promotions are the ones with the most military school training. These are also the people who were sent to these training schools because they were mostly uptight, paper pushing, whiny and worst of all, by-the-book exactly as described, letter-by-letter people. When things are not performed exactly as described in the military manuals, and yes, they have one for the proper way to use a mop, they will write a report and send it on up the chain of command. These become the first people placed in the rear when the fighting starts. Meanwhile, those goofballs who were constantly playing pranks, being as silly as possible, and mostly scoffing at the idiots who were busy writing a report on their horrible lack of ability to follow simple orders will be the greatest fighting force ever seen. When you want to base a report on soldiering, forget the reports and actually go and watch the teams placed as the opposition in a field exercise. These are the people often placed on such duty to punish them and the only excuse they will need to make whatever unit is in the field training against them appear to be unorganized and useless is to be challenged to do so. Units training in the field are often a perfect example of why the last requisition was filled completely wrong, it was amusing and the worst people are in charge.

 

The truth is that almost any army when in training often cannot do a single thing correctly. Everything becomes a monumental task which simply continues to pile screw-up after screw-up upon one another until you need a true paper wizard (read ombudsman) to untangle the whole ball of string the cat just played with. This is what passes for military preparedness. That is what occurs when there are no real bullets firing. That is what you get when soldiers are under the realization that there exist dozens of NGO anti-Zionists, anti-Israeli and anti-Semites who will run to their favorite judge and claim murder took place should a soldier even accidentally point their weapon at a suspect. Should a soldier shoot a terrorist before the terrorist has murdered anyone directly, there will be NGOs screaming for that soldier’s head on a platter and there will be paper pushers who will give them their wish. Why would they do so knowing it will demoralize the troops? They are paper pushers and their actions are noble and for the good of the soldiers and will mold them into thinking people and not just brutes who use force. The problem is in a war what you want are brutes who are very good at applying force. What makes for a great soldier in peacetime makes a lousy and often dead soldier in a war zone.

 

This is why right before deploying into a war zone, many units completely revamp their command structure and place those troops who never did anything the way they were instructed into the new command structure. Not all of them as there are some truly ungifted troops but a smart commander knows who is a peacetime officer and who are their soldiers who operate just fine in the fog of war and does not require orders to advance or take cover. There actually is a military procedure for how to lie down and take cover while with a weapon in hand, and it is cumbersome. Then there is the method used when bullets are whizzing past your ear, this is the method where one throws their body to the ground behind something very solid. There is no five-step maneuver as taught in Basic Training; you just act. We all understand why there exists the correct means of lying down while with a weapon, safety. The proper and taught method for performing this task keeps the barrel of the weapon, the end the bullets are spat out, pointed down-range and not at another soldier. In a war zone it does not matter where the barrel is pointed until you intend to shoot, the emphasis is surviving in order to shoot that weapon. There are no reports required, no by-the-book performance regulations and anyone fool enough to walk up and down their defensive position measuring, actually measuring, your grenade sump to make sure it is exactly half a meter deep will most assuredly be the first person shot by the enemy when they engage.

 

When You Know it is Just Training

 

The soldiers who go by the book often find that book torn to shreds and thrown away once the bullets start flying and then it become expediency and staying alive. No sergeant is writing reports other than requisitions for more ammunition. There are few if any reports being written as coming home alive is the best report one can hope for in combat. Doing things the Army way in actual combat will get one killed as the correct way to get things done in a war zone is quickly and quietly as possible while taking minimal risk to you or your fellow soldiers. As written by Lt. General James M. Gavin in his book titled, “War and Peace in the Space Age” and published in 1958, he quoted as follows, “George Patton’s last words to us before we left Africa came home with meaning: ‘No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.’” (citation here) These are true words and probably would be countered by a peacetime leader who will claim that the military manual gives the proper way of performing virtually everything a soldier will ever execute. Pushing such folly to the limit in training simply means more paperwork, more reports of incompetent behavior and not following procedure, and why higher-ranking people who do most of their interaction with the fighting man through such reports have such a low opinion of their readiness for what they have been trained to do, fight.

 

But the training is what will keep them alive. Actually, that is a true statement and often something which occurred while training will make a life-saving act automatic instead of the soldier having to think what to do next. But the idea of what needs to be done and not exactly what is the twelve or twenty-five step military correct means of taking cover and seeking cover and concealment. You just know that behind a fair-sized boulder is far safer than behind some shrubs which is better than being out in the open. There is no need to measure the bolder to make sure it is ample enough or to check the density of the shrubbery, you know what will serve you best of the available options and also do not need the military manual means of taking a prone position with a weapon in hand, you throw your body to the best cover or concealment if there is no cover, but get down at the very least. The good soldier knows these things and checks regularly for such cover. Some soldiers find they have a sixth sense which tells them when to take cover or check the path for mines or booby-traps and so many other things which normally you would claim are impossible. I have known of one troop who could smell vehicles and pretty accurately tell when they were ahead, what numbers and the sizes of the vehicles, and we never figured out how they could do this. The soldier claimed he could small the metal as well as the grease, fuel and any lingering exhaust.

 

While the IDF may not be ready to fight an enemy following the strict application of the manual, from what I have seen as the interplay between soldiers in public, these young men and women are prepared for just about anything except losing a battle. They have the familiarity which is so essential in combat because you need to know how the others are going to act, who is best at which tasks, and you need to know who the go-to person is for plans for victory in the actual combat and not on some sketch sheet. The comraderies of the troops is a big plus and joking is the sign that a combat soldier is prepared. It is one thing to play war in training and completely another task when it is real. Many outfits will equate winning at laser-tag as being a great soldier, as long as the person winning is a by-the-book soldier. Give me your nonconforming and most irreverent troops and we will win the war. Why, because these are most likely the brightest and best trained who understood everything before the lesson was half over. These are the troops who know that field duty is goof-off time where you have fun playing laser-tag and nothing is for real. Then you find yourself in the real world and the other side is throwing everything they have at you and your platoon of soldiers, or so it seems. This is where more than the training comes into play. Now thinking in a nonconformist manner becomes instead of a liability as the means for turning the tide of battle. The troops who played on training missions may now be the individuals who save your platoon and thus the company et al. Just be prepared for the paper pusher to be left behind to write reports and with a good deal of luck and much understanding of the principles of their training, reports and not letters to the loved ones is all you will write. Our conclusion is very simple, No army, no people, no country is prepared or can know what a future with war will bring upon them, they can only hope and be prepared just in case they end up with no other viable choice.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

No Elections in Israel for Now but How Long?

 

The government has been stabilized for the time being and it appears that Prime Minister will fold and provide Jewish Home Leader Naftali Bennett to become the Defense Minister in addition to being Education Minister under the condition that he will do all that is required to keep Jewish Home in the government through end of term. In the meantime, Ayelet Shaked, who holds the Justice Ministry, stated on Sunday morning, “At this stage, the government is no longer a right-wing government, unfortunately, What was to be done (appointing judges, changing the approach in the state’s positions in the Supreme Court, the Regulation Law, Ariel University, dismantling the Council for Higher Education, and many other things) – we have already done.” She further stated, “What still needs to be done (the Override Clause, the removal of infiltrators, the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, bringing back deterrence, the prevention of terrorist funds) – it is already clear that it will not be done under this government.”

“The only justification for the continued existence of the government until November 2019 is that Bennett will revolutionize security, restore Israel’s deterrence that was lost under Liberman over the past two years, and help to break free of the deep crisis in trust in security. Without this, this government is called ‘right-wing’ but in practice fulfills left-wing policy,” Shaked continued.

Ayelet Shaked concluded, “The public is fed up with voting right and getting left, and the continuation of a faltering left-wing government will endanger right-wing rule. Therefore, we must go to elections as soon as possible in order to form a new government headed by Netanyahu, with the Jewish home the strong party to his right, such that we will finally vote right and get right.”

 

The Jewish Home now holds three of the most prominent and important Ministries, Defense which protects the nation and her citizens, all her citizens with Bennett, Education Ministry where the future is formed and children are given the tools to form the future of Israel, and the Justice Ministry under which the immediacy of the legal decisions are molded and the future of the law and its implementation and interpretation for the future. This places Jewish Home in the limelight with far more power than many might expect from a party with merely eight seats. Part of the reason that this is even considered is because Jewish Home all but committed suicide in order to avoid a Zionist Union formed government bowing before Netanyahu and his Likud Party losing a sizable percentage of their voters who may or may not ever return. The government stands and where it will now travel will depend very seriously what other events from the world around us act and what threats we will face. Naftali Bennett has stated he intends to reform parts of the IDF and intensify training making them even more capable to face the threats which Israel may face in the future. So, what will the new training actually include?

 

Well, even if we knew, we would not post such things in so public an arena. What we hope will come to assist the IDF in its future endeavors is something about which we can write. First and foremost, we have hopes that those in higher command positions who have represented a limited ability of the IDF to face certain challenges will be replaced with commanders whose faith in the strength of their forces is something which these troops will live up to. They should also invest in more intensive training for the reserves with those who require additional training to be up to the full expectations of service in the IDF made available. There might be the concept of making special units which are specialized in particular scenarios which are likely to be required such as working within tunnel and underground bunker systems, city and built-up area warfare and other such specialized training. Standards for the combat units be considered to be upgraded demanding more of the soldiers, not lower standards so the majority or even all will qualify. Fighting for the State of Israel should require soldiers who are above the normative levels. These higher requirements should start with basic training and be rigidly enforced for soldiers to serve in the infantry, tankers, Airborne, Special Forces and other specialized units. It is necessary that the Israeli infantry soldier be trained to attain a physical level above what is expected in the majority of other developed nations as the nation of Israel has a special requirement of their military fighting forces as Israel cannot afford to lose most battles and never a war as to lose a war would bring the nation to an end. The Israeli soldier needs to be capable of outperforming any adversary they may meet on the battlefield. This includes the Special Forces units from Iran or any other nation which may attack our nation. This is what every Israeli fighting soldier must be capable of meeting and out-performing.

 

 

We need to try to understand exactly what transpired governmentally yesterday morning. There was a confab of the various party leaders of the coalition where they were asked whether or not they desired elections where we suspect that Prime Minister Netanyahu opened the meeting by clearly stating his desire to complete the final year of the governance and then hold orderly elections. This would have made sense as Netanyahu has an angry public on his hands and thus going to elections at the current time would be holding an election under duress. The last time such an event occurred was when the government in 1992 of Prime Minister Yitzḥak Shamir collapsed and was replaced by the government of Yitzhak Rabin and the Labor Party formed the next coalition and within a little beyond a year Israel entered into the problematic Oslo Accords which have been the basis of the problems with the PLO, Palestinian Authority as well as Gaza Disengagement leading to Hamas and Islamic Jihad amongst others and the recent barrage. This is the possibility which everyone at the meeting this morning were fully aware was a distinct possibility even if it was not a likely probability. By preserving the current government for the time being, and by trading a guarantee the Jewish Home remain in the coalition in exchange for Bennett receiving the Defense Ministry, Netanyahu has kept the one party which is most likely to gain Knesset Ministers in elections even if snap elections were called now. The remaining parties mostly face an uphill battle where they will benefit by having time to build up their voter rolls and possibly draft new candidates to attract voters over the coming year. The one who was facing the potentially greatest loss was the Likud unless they replaced Netanyahu but that would leave them with a far weaker candidate due to loss of name recognition and the experience claim. The real contest will come when Netanyahu retires from being Prime Minister, something pundits claim will not before he clears himself of accusations and investigations.

 

The legal challenges facing Netanyahu and his wife may have substance, especially if you believe most of the media, or may not, but they are very probably not going to go away. Even should Bibi be found not to be guilty of any of these current charges, some of which would be considered nonsense in much of the world, they will simply be replaced with entirely new accusations, conspiracies, denunciations, misjudgments, horrific acts and potentially accusations of treason because of something he did or something he did not do but should have done. The one thing which Netanyahu can claim is that he has been one of the most targeted Prime Ministers in Israeli history, but that will be a title he will merely hold for a limited amount of time. When another right-leaning, nationalist, Zionist and potentially religious Prime Minister forms a coalition and lasts through maybe two elections, they likely would decide that continuing further is really not worth the aggravation or the loss of one’s name, but in that brief period such a Prime Minister would collect far more such accusations etcetera in this age where if one is not a leftist politician, then they are the devil incarnate and the most demonic person the world has ever been required to suffer. If Netanyahu is not sufficient proof, look at the United States and President Trump or Britain and Prime Minister May or the past French elections and Marine Le Pen of the National Front and witness the offensives each have faced from their media as well as the world media. This is a reality for as long as the world remains capable of having nationalist and people who believe that the traditional positions and, in most cases, that the Judeo-Christian Ethic is something worthwhile and needs be saved from being transplanted by the leftist views of open morality where morality and cultures are all equally valid and everybody may pick and choose the parts of existing cultures or invent their own culture and everything is valid and acceptable. There is a simple problem with these arguments in that adage which has multiple authors, “One who believes in nothing will fall for anything.” We would like to adapt it somewhat and state, “Those who equate all cultures lose sight of the difference between good and evil.” Those who require proof, there are some far-leftists who accept devil worship as simply a choice which should not be condemned as long as no harm comes to anyone. Devil worship is acceptable and accepting evil as equal and of not of any determinable difference when compared with any other worship. Somehow, we have a problem with such a concept, but then we believe in Hashem.

 

Back to Israeli politics and why elections were avoided. Largely, it was selfish desires to hold on to power for many of the parties currently in the coalition. Then, Avigdor Lieberman’s resignation was also partly political and partly his being angered by being misrepresented and defamed by the announcement of the unanimity of the Security Cabinet vote. He had company with Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked who also challenged the statement. They made a demand to be given the vacated Defense Ministry which was the prize which kept them in the government. Bibi Netanyahu simply did not desire facing an angry public and trying to explain what just occurred under his stewardship and preferred to have a period of time pass before having to campaign. He was also facing strong resentment and potential opposition within Likud, or so some have rumored, and that was something relatively unprecedented for Netanyahu. Everybody either were rewarded for remaining in the government, feared a snap election for which their parties were unprepared, some fear their party support had eroded with time and now would be a danger to their having to face elections and one, in particular, desired for a cooling off period to pass before having to explain why there was no serious response to the Hamas launching of four-hundred-sixty rockets and launching an anti-tank missile at a bus injuring a young soldier severely. Once sufficient time has passed, Bibi will claim that he maintained peace on the southern border without the loss of soldiers and minimal damage in Israel. Of course, he will not make this speech in the south of Israel, as that would bring back memories of being treated as if they were second-class citizens. So, in the end, everyone had their reason to remaining in the government, and so the government will remain in power for now, for how long, we will have to wait and see.

 

Posting Time Morning Update

Guess here is the proof that news changes, often by the hour, and we can be misled but at least we admit our faults. Latest word is that Bibi balked withdrawing his agreement to give Bennett the Defense Minister position and has announced that he will take that position himself. This will cause Bennett and Shaked resigning and taking Jewish Home from the government. What Bibi has in mind is something fearful if we are correct. We suspect Bibi is going to try to make a super-coalition government inviting Zionist Union and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party into the government giving him the majority he requires to remain in power. This would be a drastic step and as most drastic actions, will have ruinous consequences. This will definitely place the government left of center and out of step with the Israeli people. Should Netanyahu actually do such a move, we might be witnessing another Sharon style capitulation to the leftist demands for Israel weakening her stance vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas. This would entail ending all building in the Shomron, no destruction of anything the Palestinian Authority claims is valid and, heaven forbid, a return to the destruction of Jewish homes, settlements, villages and towns. The other choice is elections somewhere from late February to mid-March. The problem is it would not be all that surprising to see Bibi make a sudden turn to the left and embrace their policies similar to what Prime Minster Sharon did when he formed Kadima in order to execute the Gaza Disengagement which brought us to this point, and may now take Israel further down the rabbit hole, except unlike Alice, our rabbit hole has only the nastiest of bunnies.

 

Meanwhile, the realism has to point to the “Really Big and Precious Secret” which he claims he must never share, even with his former Defense Minister or any of the other Security Cabinet members. Bibi has a secret and he’s refusing to share. On the other hand, this secret appears to imply that Bibi is right and every one else is clueless as they do not know his secret. For now, Jewish Home will remain in the government, but they did so demanding the Prime Minister start to consider all Israelis equally and be strong in defending the people. He left a challenge for the Prime Minister to prove he will be a forceful response and work regardless of the world reactions keeping Israel as his top priority.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Palestinian Future Will Fully Involve Hamas

 

The immediate future with the Palestinians will remain Hamas and company launching what they are able whenever they desire from Gaza and Mahmoud Abbas turning on different levels of violence and calm such that Israel is never quite brought to intervene militarily. All of these restraints being applied when Israeli population begins to reach their limits and demand an intervention is dependent on Mahmoud Abbas remaining the governing force. That may be less a given than some presume as eventually one of two events could change that. The first would be the Arabs in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) demanding elections as every poll indicates that in any fair election Abbas would lose and Hamas and company would take over the parliament and replace Abbas as the head of the Palestinian Authority. This would bring into effect many changes other than just a change in leadership for the Arabs; it would also break all agreements with Israel as those agreements are with Fatah and not Hamas. This would mean that any provocation would allow for an Israeli retaking of all of Judea and Samaria and either placing a moderate Arab leadership in charge replacing Hamas or simply apply military rule while considering what the next step should entail. This might come to pass sooner rather than later as Abbas is eighty years old and who can predict his future health. Further, there is always the possibility of Hamas or Islamic State challenging Fatah in an election or in a coup similar as Hamas had done in Gaza. The reason this has yet to occur is largely due to the presence of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent just such a putsch.

 

Needless to point out, Israel would be forced to act should either Hamas or the Islamic State make a move to replace the theoretically more moderate Fatah leadership in Judea and Samaria. The main reason that Israel has yet to militarily intervened again in Judea and Samaria is due to Abbas restraining any level of violence when Israeli leadership appears ready to respond to demands that any violence emanating from the Arab population in Judea and Samaria reaches levels deemed unacceptable. What has been remarkable is that any level of terror is considered acceptable to the Israeli general public. The main reason that such has not triggered an immediate intervention when terror violence reached even a minimal level is that the vast majority of such violence had been targeting the Israelis residing in Area C of Judea and Samaria or East Jerusalem and not targeting Tel Aviv and surrounding population centers along the shores of the Mediterranean. Still, the Israeli population as a whole has slowly been lowering the level of terror which will be tolerated. Even the rock attacks on Israeli licensed vehicles have been restricted almost exclusively to drivers on roads beyond the Green Line in Judea and Samaria. When they began to strike vehicles within main roads within Israel proper the Israeli population reacted strongly demanding that such attacks be halted, period. This also led to interventions attempting to terminate all rock attacks within and outside of the Green Line.

 

Mahmoud Abbas proved beyond any doubt that he actually was controlling the recent knife attacks which had plagued much of the Old City of Jerusalem and the bordering areas of Jerusalem as well as in Judea and Samaria and was starting to wear on the collective nerves of the Israeli nation as a whole. Still, the main reason that Mahmoud Abbas called a halt to the knife attacks was after an IDF soldier killed a terrorist who had been presumably disarmed but the soldier believed the terrorist was reaching to press a detonator and detonate an explosive belt. Still the IDF command had initially charged with murder and subsequently changed the charge to manslaughter. The distressing reaction of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense all but trying the soldier in the media reacting with horror and charges of needless, intentional and spiteful charges against the soldier casting doubt on his claimed reason for reacting and shooting the terrorist was disturbing at the very least and unprofessional and spiteful and thus met with a fair degree of scorn from many sectors of the population. What proved interesting was that a human motion and action specialist also believed that the terrorist was actually reaching to detonate an explosive belt which would justify the soldier’s shooting. Another piece of evidence was that the soldier had walked onto the location mere moments before and had not discussed whether or not the terrorist had been searched for explosives or simply disarmed of his knife and simply subdued but not cleared of any other threat. Additionally the terrorist was wearing a heavy coat or sweater which easily could have concealed an explosives belt adding to why the soldier may have acted shooting the terrorist. Additionally the terrorist was wearing a heavy coat or sweater which easily could have concealed an explosives belt adding to why the soldier may have acted shooting the terrorist. Finally, B’Tselem, a leftist NGO and agitating influence set up the entire provocation and filmed it for the expressed purpose of hoping for just such a scenario playing out. The terrorist was incited by the NGO and brought to the site to press the situation to provoke an over-reaction from any single soldier for the expressed reason of showing Israel as an oppressive force.

 

Indicted Soldier

 
The media has gone to some length to display the soldier in the worst possible light. They have made public that the soldier had stated in barracks bravado that he thought no terrorist should be taken alive. Barracks bravado rarely is indicative of soldiers’ actual actions in the field where their training and professionalism overrides stupid boastings. Further, every soldier knows that their actions will be poured over by their commanders and the legal eagles from command, something which tempers actions often to the point of overt caution all too often to the point of paralysis which has been the cause of many soldiers and too often also civilians being murdered or severely injured when an explosives belt was not discovered before detonation. There are those who will side with blaming the soldier for shooting before actually checking the terrorist and ascertaining whether he indeed had an explosive belt. There was a recent editorial which quoted Dror Zicherman’s Facebook post about just such a scenario where the soldier obeyed his orders from his ranking officer and did not shoot despite his strong suspicions. The soldier is disabled and suffering from permanent injuries and constant pain as the terrorist did have an explosive belt and detonated it murdering the officer who ordered him to hold his fire. Please take the time and read about this ordeal as it will cast a different light on the fears and apprehensions soldiers hold in such situations where they are watching a terrorist who has on a heavy leather coat who then reaches inside the coat. Second guessing a soldier’s actions after the fact is easier and what is more disturbing is when Minister of Defense Yaalon was in a similar situation during his service he reacted identically to the way our soldier acted in this instance. As far as our judgement, we are not so foolish as to make such a call as we were not there and have not had the opportunity to investigate the entire series of events and question the soldiers and others at the scene. We would tend to fall on trusting the soldier if there is any doubt as doubt in such a situation one must fall on the side supporting the actions of the soldiers at the moment. If we are unable to trust the soldiers then we need to adjust their training until they can be trusted in any situation, especially when the safety of the troops and the public is involved. In the time being all we can do is hope that the investigation will exonerate the soldier and find his actions justified.

 

Beyond the Cusp