Officers faulted in Iraq mission that left 3 troops dead

[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I think it's right that the officers were relieved, and totally nothing new. If a captain of a ship gets relieved if he runs aground, so should a commander be relieved if he leads his soldiers to an ambush that could've been avoided with even a slight precaution. I don't think it would be right to throw criminal charges on officers for mistakes, that would probably have very negative effects on morale, but military discipline should apply.

I'm not saying the commander and platoon leader shouldn't have been relieved. The battalion and brigade commanders should have been relieved also. Not just the juniors. They knew what the mission was and they knew the strength's of those units. The buck doesn't stop at the lowest, it stops at the top.
Yes soldiering is a deadly business and no the higher commanders don't need to know the minuet details but they are payed to know what the their units are capable of or incapable of. You know that unit has so many checkpoints and that they have so many people. Simple math would tell the story. The battalion and brigade commander would also know that no reaction force was available. The whole point of my comment was the leadership covered their arse by sacrificing junior officers.