PC costs American lives. In 2000 when the USS Cole refueled in Yemen's port of Aden, Navy
brass were so concerned about appearing to be "sensitive guests" that
sailors patrolling the deck were not permitted to carry loaded weapons. Nor did
the destroyer deploy "picket boats" and establish a defensive
perimeter—even though Yemen had only recently been taken off the State
Department's list of countries that sponsored terrorism.
All this pandering to imaginary foreign sensitivities made it pitifully easy
for an al Qaeda motorized skiff packed with explosives to approach the
destroyer and blow a hole in its side, killing seventeen sailors. Two hours
after this entirely avoidable terrorist attack, another motorized skiff
approached the stricken vessel. A sentry raised his rifle, only to be told by
his superior: "Let me tell you something about the rules of engagement.
You can't point a loaded weapon at these people. That's an act of
aggression."
And you wonder why our enemies no longer take U.S. military power seriously?
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