Please tell Me This Isn't True

Michelle Malkin, Wizbang and Confederate Yankee are all reporting that Pentagon Officials allowed a large gathering of Taliban leaders to simply walk away because they were, now get this, in a cemetary.

From the New York Post:

Taliban terror leaders who had gathered for a funeral - and were secretly being watched by an eye-in-the-sky American drone - dodged assassination because U.S. rules of engagement bar attacks in cemeteries, according to a shocking report.

U.S. intelligence officers in Afghanistan are still fuming about the recent lost opportunity for an easy kill of Taliban honchos packed in tight formation for the burial, NBC News reported. The unmanned airplane, circling undetected high overhead, fed a continuous satellite feed of the juicy target to officers on the ground.

"We were so excited. I came rushing in with the picture," one U.S. Army officer told NBC.

But that excitement quickly turned to gut-wrenching frustration because the rules of engagement on the ground in Afghanistan blocked the U.S. from mounting a missile or bomb strike in a cemetery, according to the report.

Pentagon officials declined comment and referred The Post to Central Command officers in Afghanistan, who did not respond to a request for comment or explanation.

Agonizingly, Army officers could do nothing but watch the pictures being fed back from the drone as the Taliban splintered into tiny groups - too small to effectively target with the drone - and headed back to their mountainside hideouts.

This is exactly why we should not be allowing the Pentagon and Centcom to be running this war via remote control. They are detached from combat and can not possibly understand the value of the on the ground report, simply because they are not there.

Our men are running around on the ground in harms way and some REMF has decided that cemetaries are off limits? That officer should be drummed out of the service immediately! If this is a State Department Rule, what the hell are they doing getting involved in war making, and more importantly, why are we listening to the nattering nabobs at all, they haven't promoted America's Policies for years.

This is more than a missed opportunity it is malfesance of office and everyone involved in allowing this to occur should be immediately charged.

And we wonder why the left says we can't win this war....