[vundy33]

Terrorists fighting out of uniform are not covered by the Geneva Conventions. My understanding is that only combatants fighting in uniform on behalf of a nation that is signatory to the conventions are covered.

Our politically-correct government is granting Islamo-fascist terrorists rights to which they are not legally entitled. Not content with affording prisoners the rights equal to those covered by the Geneva conventions, the Obama administration plans to bring 9/11 terrorists into this country and grant them the full constitutional rights of US citizens.

Members of the military deserve better leadership and support from their own government. It must be very frustrating to be hamstrung by rules of engagement that no member of Congress or the administration would apply to themselves.

It is.

In my opinion, my bestfriend was killed because of all the red tape we have to go through to fire back.

He was on a COB (Combat Out-Post) in the Konar Province along with about 200 soldiers and I think around 60 or so Marines. They were in a valley, on a little hill in the middle of it, surronded by mountains. They recieve sniper and mortar fire every single day. He told me that it would take them 20 minutes of going up the chain of command, trying to get permission to fire back, to fire artillery on the Taliban's position. By that time, they are long gone.

Anyway, they started recieving incoming mortars and small-arms fire that morning and started firing artillery on the enemy's position. After about 10 min or so of doing that, the mortar's and small-arms fire stopped. As soon as it stopped, about 300 Taliban rushed the COB, from all sides. The battle was 10 hours long. They had snipers and mortars pinning our guys down while they tried to breach the COB, they actually got in too. Only a few got in and they were killed immediately. Anyway, after 10 hours they finally got a Special Forces A-Team up there, thats 8-12 guys. They have something called a SOFLAM, or atleast I'm pretty sure thats what its called. It's a laser that they can point on something and jets drop bombs to where the laser is pointing. The Taliban were ALL dead within minutes.

You all might remember this battle, it was in September and it was the most US soldiers at one time in Afghanistan since 2005. 8 soldiers died that day, including my best friend. He had a 3 week old daughter that was born 3 weeks after he deployed...He chose to stay at the COB with his buddies because they were in the **** and they needed him, instead of going to see his daughter born. He was also engaged to his fiance' and was going to marry her during his R&R leave, around the 6th month of a 12 month deployment. It's a sad and heart-breaking story, but there are many many more just like it. His beautiful daughter, and people it's not just because it's his daughter, this was the most beautiful baby I've ever seen, big blue eyes, will never get to meet her dad, one of the most amazing people I've ever known and will ever know. He was a real-estate agent and made good money when he decided to join the Army and be a Cavalry Scout, a grunt soldier that pretty much has no skills that would help him in any job outside of the Army, after the Fallujah attack on the Blackwater agents. I was lucky to have him as a friend, and theres not a day that will ever go by that I won't think about him.

Just wanted to share that story with you all, whether you are for or against the war, please support the troop surge. Don't let guys like my friend die over a lost cause. IF we do not get these extra 30,000-40,000 troops, we will end up leaving that country worse than it was before, and an even bigger safe-haven for the people that have killed so many of us.

Please, please, support the surge. We need it more than you know.