Time and again, the POLAD and LEGAD teams would scrub through the list removing non-compliant targets - generally because they did not meet proportionality or legitimacy tests, or would have had a wider (and negative) political and
PR impact amongst the Coalition.
And that is the ultimate expression of the politicisation of the military. Legal and political logic is often at odds with military logic. Politicians are all too keen to start wars, but not so keen when the penny drops and the realisation kicks in that war is a brutal, messy business, and that their reputations are on the line as is their chance for re-election when the viewing public turn on the evening news. And the legal profession, like a bunch of ambulance chasers, has jumped all over that to ensure their status and role in a shrinking military.
Given the level the LEGADs and POLADs are operating at, the military commanders at that level are professional operators with huge amounts of operational experience, and one would hope, a good degree of common sense military judgement built up over the years. It is their job to conduct operations in the most effective manner consistent with the ROE and and constraints placed on them at the outset by the politicians. It isn't the job of the POLADs and LEGADs to dictate how operations are run because what needs to be done might upset a politician somewhere. That is where the commander's military judgement and experience should be coming in to play. The LEGADs, if they have a role to play, have a role as a handrail offering guidance, not directing operational decisions. And frankly, having seen the standard of some of the MOD's legal work in various disciplinary cases, I don't think I'd want half the MOD's lawyers in the same country as me let alone working in the same HQ as me on ops.
If politicians are so concerned about their image, stop declaring war like it's a game of cricket. And if the LEGADs are so keen to get involved in running operations, they need to ditch the 'wig and gown' and pick up a rifle. I suspect the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanstan would have been over far more quickly and with far less suffering and costs had the politicians actually done their job properly in the first place.
Politicians and lawyers - a curse on them all
