I'd suggest at this point, that anyone with no professional experience and/or actual information of the situation there, keep their speculation and opinions to themselves....
I sort-of-agree (if they don't post then wrong ideas can't be
challenged). I'll also add that care should be taken about commenting
on Bomb Disposal Experts, Lifeboatmen and the like.
The EOD operators are very carefully psychologically tested as part of
their selection. One of the things looked for is a sensible attitude to
risk vs gain. They only go in person if they need to, either because of
potential loss of life (there was a case in Iraq of a bomb outside a
hospital full of patients that couldn't be evacuated) or for other
reasons such as the need for evidence collection. Prior to the
introduction of this policy in the 1970s the casualty rate was getting
silly.
'Charging the enemies Machine Guns' is not an approved way for a
soldier to behave. Finding another way, if possible, that avoids
casualties as far as possible is the right thing to do. If our soldiers
didn't say 'that’s a bit dangerous' and reserve doing dangerous things
only for when its necessary then our casualty rate would be far worse
than it is - which would hand a victory to the bad guys, whose whole
objective is to cause casualties...
The Lifeboat world received a very big wakeup call from the US
Coastguard a couple of decades ago. Like many services the USCG
Lifeboatmen used to live to the motto 'Never Turn Back'. Until an
entire crew was lost in atrocious conditions attempting to recover two
people that they knew were already dead. Now 'Dynamic Risk Assessment'
is taught. - Is the risk worth the benefit? Is there another way that’s
nearly as good but entails significantly less risk to the rescuers?
We have a duty to those who are willing to lay down their lives for
others and that is not to make them do so unnecessarily - even if that
is against their own wishes.
This post is dedicated to the memory of my distant colleague William
Blanchard, a member of the Territorial Army serving in Afghanistan, who
was shot whilst preparing to destroy a bomb on the 30th of October 2010.
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/SapperWilliamBlanchardKilledInAfghanistan.htm