
The Rise and Fall of the ‘Kill Box’ in US Military Strategy - xkcd-sucks
http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/02/when-enemy-everywhere-rise-and-fall-kill-box-us-military-strategy/126263/
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sjbase
I'm not a military guy, but was surprised that the weapons-free, kill-
anything-that-moves zone described in the article could exist in today's
warfare. Turns out it kindof doesn't.

After some quick reading, [1] a "kill box" is still subject to the standard
rules of engagement. Its purpose was to make sure everyone is aiming at the
same stuff, and to make resupply/logistics work smoothly, not to lift fire
restrictions.

Maybe the tactic was abused to circumvent ROE in practice, but the intent
seems clear.

[1]: DoD publication: [https://info.publicintelligence.net/MTTP-
KillBox.pdf](https://info.publicintelligence.net/MTTP-KillBox.pdf)

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iwlbebnd
If you still believe the US military obeys the rule of law, international law,
common decency, and their own rules of engagement then you have not been
paying attention to 1, the Manning leaks, 2 Snowden leaks, 3 recent war crimes
involving the bombing of hospitals operated by doctors without boarders,
Senate report on torture, Obama refusal to exercise the laws against torture,
Gitmo, the 'disposition matrix' aka kill lists without oversight, 'double-
taps'. The list so long, extensive, and well documented that I can only
question your sincerity.

~~~
jessespears
> I can only question your sincerity.

This is the mark of a viewpoint unfettered by exposure to the other side.
Assuming malicious intent of someone just because they have an opposing
viewpoint is simplistic and naive.

1\. Manning leaks: exposure of one war crime and its coverup. Hardly a trend.
Furthermore, Wikileaks edited the Collateral Murder video to imply malicious
intent and obfuscate the ambiguity in the situation.

2\. Snowden leaks: where was the U.S. military implicated in any of them?

3\. Hospital bombings: yes, targeting fails happen in wartime. It is tragic
and regretful. War zones are dangerous.

4\. Senate report on torture: wasn't that the CIA as directed by Attorney
General Gonzalez?

5\. Obama refusal to exercise the laws against torture: this is the first time
I'm hearing of this, please discuss.

6\. Gitmo: hardly the U.S. military; this is an artifact of a Congress that
refuses to allow any appropriations toward relocating prisoners elsewhere.

7\. Kill lists: how would you approach terminating military commanders
engaging in continuous operations (that kill noncombatants) against your
country, yet they don't belong to a nation-state?

In the last 100 years, the U.S. military is guilty of much wrongdoing.
Compared to other nations, and considering the volume of combat in which the
U.S. military has been engaged, the U.S. military fares well when compared to
other nations. The reality is that warfare inherently involves the killing of
people who should not have been killed, simply because their homes were in a
combat zone. You could argue that the U.S. shouldn't have entered most of its
wars; that might be true. At the time, it was considered to be the right thing
by the U.S. electorate in order to prevent much more bloodshed. World War 2 is
the textbook example of a war entered too late to prevent massive bloodshed.
This informs U.S. decision makers and cannot be discounted.

~~~
iwlbebnd
1, your willingness to whitewash the calculated murder of a civilian
journalist is chilling, it's hard to believe you argue in good faith.

2\. Clapper lying under oath to Congress, numberous illegal programs under the
NSA.

3\. Just another isolated example right? Honest mistake, just like the
weddings and the explicit double tap strategy that explicitly targets
emergency medical responders.

4\. Forget about abu ghraib? Just another isolated example... Seeing a pattern
here of your refusal to look past the numerous examples, as if you have your
head in the sand.

6\. Gitmo is the result of our Governments decision to violate the Geneva
convention on the handling prisoners of war, the Taliban certainly qualified,
but our military industrial complex did the legal contortions of enemy
combatants instead. Gitmo existence is a clear war crime.

7\. I'd pursue by continuing to respect the rule of law, international law,
and our Constitution, apparently trifling concerns to you.

5\. Look it up, Obama violated his oath by refusing to execute the law of land
against one of the most henious crimes possible.

~~~
rvdavis
1\. His point was that the Manning leaks revealed one war crime, not a trend.

2\. Clapper is/was not a military official.

3\. Being a former US Army infantryman, I have no clue what you are
referencing with regard to an "explicit double tap strategy." However, you did
describe a well-used TTP of insurgents in Afghanistan.

6\. A "clear war crime" GITMO is not; it is an artifact of civilian policies
in a legal grey area. Personally, I think it does more harm than good and
should be shut down, but there are real questions (i.e. where do the prisoners
go?) that CIVILIANS in Congress can't answer yet.

7\. That sounds lovely, but lacks any real substance.

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gefh
That's not my understanding of the term at all. A kill box is just a region
you try to contain or shepherd the enemy into to make your concentrated fire
more effective and the enemy's less so. It's a tactical device unaltered since
the middle ages at least.

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saycheese
The "Joint Doctrine for Targeting" would be a another source of information:
[https://www.aclu.org/files/dronefoia/dod/drone_dod_jp3_60.pd...](https://www.aclu.org/files/dronefoia/dod/drone_dod_jp3_60.pdf)

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maxlybbert
When John Kerry ran for President, several news organizations ran clips of him
as a twenty-something Vietnam veteran complaining, among other things, of
free-fire zones. The Wikipedia article ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-
fire_zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-fire_zone) ) points to similar
tactics from WWII. The idea pre-dates the Gulf War by a lot. And, as
described, doesn't require the level of technology that the writer mentions.

There is either more to the story (that distinguishes kill boxes from WWII
tactics) or less to the story than what is presented.

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tossaway322
Why limit yourself to a "kill box" when there are so many useful and charming
patterns available: the "kill banana" ("Oops! Slipped!"), the "kill
cross"(reserved for non-Christians) and my favorite, the "kill doily"(for the
most vile of the unfaithful, cake-haters)?

I can almost see the UI for the "kill design" now: pre-defined patterns + GUI
etch-a-sketch (for personalized kill pattern design), a kill pattern library,
a website discussing design principles and associated blog, twitter feed
("Killing you softly NOW!"). It will be all the rage.

~~~
sctb
Please don't post such unsubstantive comments as this, especially on a
sensitive topic.

~~~
ry_ry
Distasteful perhaps but I think their comment was almost certainty satirical,
and referencing the ludicrous nature of a 'kill box' having existed as a
doctrine, rather than simply being grossly insensitive for the sake of it.

