AMU Homeland Security Opinion

“Leave No Man Behind” Should be Left Behind

By John Cote MSSI, CPP
If we are truly fighting a war on terrorism then its time we start fighting like we are. Our military has taken on the doctrine of “leave no man behind” and it is this doctrine which is getting our men killed. In time of war, you need every fighting man you can equip to fight. We can’t afford to loose the investment we put into our fighting forces.


The doctrine was established back in Viet Nam; a different time, a different war. The concept is that if a soldier should fall (die) in combat, the body would be recovered at all costs and if a solider was captured, he would never be left behind.
If you look at history though, we did exactly that in Viet Nam. Who knows for sure how many POWs were left behind there in the war which spawned the concept of leave no man behind?
What’s so wrong with the doctrine of Leave No Man Behind? For starters it’s an old doctrine for an old war. The war on terrorism is a new type of war. It’s is being fought by groups using asymmetric warfare. Our enemy has studied us and understands how we fight inside and out.
Our fighting men need to learn how to save themselves and not rely on someone coming to get them. One only needs to look as far as the Jedburghs of World War II . These men were trained how to survive behind enemy lines on their own.
How long does it take to fully train an American soldier? Some people would say eight weeks at boot camp. Boot camp is just the process of taking a civilian and turning them into GI’s. A soldier needs to go to his or her specific school which they signed up for. Even your regular infantry grunt needs to go to infantry school. Once a soldier finishes his qualification school he is then assigned to his unit. At the unit he must learn the specific ins and outs of the unit. The first time they are deployed with their unit in a hostile situation it will take them a year to become truly tactically aware of that particular area of operations. Take Iraq present day. The area of operations is full of hazards, IED’s, snipers, the general HEAT, unit politics to name just a few. It takes a soldier at lest one year to become completely situational aware of his surroundings in his current Area of Operations. With all the time and money invested in our soldiers today we need to maximize their usage.
The problem today is that our fighting forces expect to be saved by their teammates. This type of thinking is just plain wrong. We need to train all of our soldiers to be able to fight their way out of a situation or die trying.
If our enemy is willing to lay down his life in order to destroy us we must be willing to do the same or perish. The doctrine of ‘leave no man behind’ should be dead and buried. We need to stand toe to toe with our enemy and beat him at his own game.
By no means am I suggesting that we deploy our own suicide bombers, I am just saying that we need to be ready to fight our enemy on a level playing field. We can level that field by training our soldiers to fight until they win or die trying. Our soldiers can’t always rely on others coming to save them. They need to be trained well enough to know that when things start to get rough they can use their brains and fight smarter than the enemy.
Our enemies know us way too well. They know our capabilities, our weapons, and our tactics. We taught most of them our tactics at one time or another. Remember back in 1980, when Russia invaded Afghanistan? We taught the mujahideen how to fight Russia.


John Cote is a terrorism and security analyst currently living in the Czech Republic. Cote holds a master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from American Military University.

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