Like "stepping through a mountain pass and seeing Shangri-La below" was how Major Robert Bowers described his arrival at the 75th Ranger Regiment and assumption of duties as the regimental judge advocate. "There weren't any money issues there, everybody wanted to be there, you only had to tell the enlisted soldiers to do things once and, boom, it got done. It was just a dream," he recalled. "There was a lot of competency and professionalism. It was just a great place to be." A key member of the commander's staff and responsible for advising him on all legal matters, Bowers (a tabbed Ranger himself) deployed from October to December 2001 with the 75th in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan and, in this interview, discusses a wide variety of operational law topics related to these early stages of the Global War on Terrorism, including target identification; detention, international border and sovereignty issues; (unsubstantiated) law of war violation accusations; and his feeling that, with respect to the rules of engagement, his Rangers "were being Monday morning quarterbacked by Navy JAGs who didn't get it." Still in the same duty position, in February 2003 Bowers also deployed with the regiment initially to Ar'ar, Saudi Arabia in preparation for what became Operation Iraqi Freedom and soon found himself dealing with a second legally intense battlefield until he redeployed in May. Perhaps most prominently, Bowers was responsible for developing the ROE for the now-famous rescue of kidnapped PFC Jessica Lynch from a Nasiriyah hospital, an operation which he recounts in great detail. He also talks about the "under-reported" and "amazing" battle at Haditha Dam; the "looming problem" represented by the International Criminal Court; enemy prisoner of war issues; interrogation standards and methods; and his related belief that "the Army is knee-jerking to the Abu Ghraib scandal." How one fights an enemy that has no regard whatsoever for any law of war is also discussed, as are counterinsurgency operations from the legal perspective in general. "Right now," Bowers observes, "we've educated our foe that there isn't any consequence for violating the laws of war. America follows it, but who in the world is going to fight us wearing a uniform anymore?"

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