The Pentagon won't say why its targeting manual was released online

@1SG James W. it is marked clearly as unclassified. That strikes me as odd. I would think something that would give a potential adversary insight to how targets are selected would be at the very minimum COFIDENTIAL. Most of it is common sense stuff. How does it hurt the enemy? How will they react? What is the risk to civilian population? Though it makes sense to ask those questions from a fiscal perspective as well. If we are going to use a two billion dollar drone to drop a one million dollar bomb on a building, there better be a damned good reason to do so. Otherwise it is just a waste of resources. I don't have any idea how much it costs per mission, not including ordinance, to attack a target, but when it all works out that has to be a consideration as well. It is more complicated when talking about boots on the ground. When attacked, shoot the attacker, simple straight forward. Where it gets complicated is when a patrol is out, and has to make a split second decision as to whether the car coming toward them is a threat, or just some person driving around. Is that thing under the kid's jacket an IED or a soccer ball? Is that guy on the phone giving intel to the enemy, or just talking to his buddies? These are the assessments that have to be made on the spot under pressure, and must be correct. Far more complicated that planning a strategic strike. Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

someone is in for a major spanking...