A lot of good men paid with their lives in Vietnam because they couldn't bust a SAM site during the construction phase because some Russian/Chinese might cop a bit of shrapnel.

Had the misfortune to be called out one night to support a SVN fire support base which was in the midst of battle. Arrived just after dawn to find it had been wiped out - 200 men, women and children slaughtered. The enemy? They were sitting on the other side of the canal giving us the bird, knowing that they would be able to melt away before we could get the necessary authorisation under the ROE in force. By way of explanation, the canal formed the border between two provinces, and it was necessary to have the province chiefs authority to engage. We had the wrong province chief on board.