Or something like that. I used to hear, growing up in El Paso, that the ROE were handcuffing “Our Boys” in VietNam. Same way the cops say that having to respect people’s rights would tie their hands behind their backs. Like, how would they know? They’ve never actually tried respecting people or their rights. But we’ve seen the pictures, over and over, a weeping mother holding her slain child for the last time… the faces are different, but the soul of that mother multiplied over all the times the ROE were disregarded either for matters of convenience (although the cops or soldiers would never admit that) or for the “safety” of one or more of the Invaders or Police State Storm Troopers domestically, backfires against the trigger pullers.
Or their comrades. Or the sons and grandsons of their comrades when they face the families of their fathers’ and grandfathers’ Victims. That “crazy” suicide bomber with the nine pounds of dynamite strapped to his chest in front of the BX or in a bar habituated by Americans is probably the son or brother of one of those slain infants, held in their mothers arms for the final time.
The person who “signs” his speeding ticked with a “shotgun Ambush” might be the brother or sister or father or son of somebody like Alyanna Jones, the 7 year old kid murdered by the Detroit Po-Po or Etta Collins, the 87 year old grandmother MURDERED through her front door by the Dallas Police in South Oak Cliff more than two decades ago. The same with the victims of soldiers ignoring the ROE.
The “safety” it might have bought them would be temporary. There are still people in the Arabian Peninsula celebrating long ago violations of the ROE (on all sides, too) such as Richard Couer de Leon almost a thousand years ago. And incidents farther back.
The Rules of Engagement and other manifestations of civil behavior aren’t there only and exclusively for the protection of the people who are on the receiving end of your gun-muzzles.
They protect your comrades now, and comrades to come, in generations you’ll never live to see anyway.
Violating them will breed implacable enemies. Ones who will be loathe to surrender to the descendants of your Empire.
