Yeah, and that's why soldiers don't set policy, their commanders and leaders do. If we let soldiers do whatever they wanted, they would piss on the whole world and tell them to like it. You don't insult an entire people by pissing on their corpses, especially when we are trying to positively incentivize their region to endorse our foreign policy and strategic infrastructure; and especially when our operations have already killed members of people's families.
Just how stupid can you get?
OK, you blow their infrastructure to hell, you destroy the workplaces for many, you destroy homes, you mistakenly wound or kill their family and friends, you treat men and women of authority with great disrespect and hold them at gunpoint, you screw their women when you can, you invade their homes and schools. Your are a "representative of America?"
They or people who look like them or live with them or live near them wound or kill your friends, refuse to give you information (often because they are scared ****less of the Taliban and they know that one day Americans will leave, but the Taliban will not), women can't be trusted, children can't be trusted and nothing can be taken for granted. A small metal box near a house or a path is taken as a serious threat (and turns out to be a small tool box), a rattle that shouldn't rattle in a vehicle, someone who is friendly, people in the wrong place, people in the right place, cars, trucks, two people on a motorcycle, someone carrying a backpack and on and on have all proven at one time to be lethal to you, everyday, all day. Sheeit!
The ones who give the orders are not the ones who die.
Policy comes from Washington. Don't kid yourself. How many Bush policy makers had been to war? How about Obama? Don't think for a second they don't **** with field troops. They do. At times Americans die as a result.
There are many great books that explain the idiocy of command. A recent classic, phenomenal read, is
Matterhorn. I cannot recommend that book highly enough. My all time favorite is
About Face by Col. David Hackworth. If you really want to know then read either of those two books. Also, concerning asymmetric warfare tactics read
Vietnam Primer by Col. Hackworth and S.L.A. Marshall. An unbelievable book detailed lessons ignored by SECDEF Rumsfeld and the Bush W. Administration. Those same lesson apply today.
After a while you lose faith in Washington and the command structure unless you have a hell of a leader or three in your direct command. Often the leaders you trust the most are ones next to you who have proved themselves. The rest of it is bull****. In case you forget that, some completely dumbass directive will come down that blows your mind. It never fails.