Fog of War

[Thailandnotes]

“By the end of 2014, U.S. “combat troops” are to be withdrawn, but left behind on the giant bases the Pentagon has built will be thousands of U.S. trainers and advisers, as well as special operations forces to go after al-Qaeda remnants (and other “militants”), and undoubtedly the air power to back them all up. Their job will officially be to continue to “stand up” the humongous security force that no Afghan government in that thoroughly impoverished country will ever be able to pay for. Thanks to a 10-year Strategic Partnership Agreement that President Obama flew to Kabul to seal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai as May began, there they are to remain until 2020 or beyond

“A 15-year-old “tea boy” at a U.S. base opened fire on Marine special forces trainers exercising at a gym, killing three of them and seriously wounding another; a 60- or 70-year-old farmer, who volunteered to become a member of a village security force, turned the first gun his American special forces trainers gave him at an “inauguration ceremony” back on them, killing two; a police officer who, his father claims, joined the force four years earlier, invited Marine Special Operations advisers to a meal and gunned down three of them, wounding a fourth, before fleeing, perhaps to the Taliban.”

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1755...shington/#more

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Fog of War

What is happening in Afghanistan is a magnified version of what I understand occurred also in Vietnam.

Embedded training teams were targeted in Vietnam, and they are being targeted now in a more magnified fashion it would appear.

There is no way Afghanistan can afford to run a US/Western type domestic paramilitary/security apparatus.

As stated they just don't have the ability to fund it internally, and external funding will have to dry up.

So they will eventually and inevitably revert back to cheaper/affordable local paramilitary/security infrastructure.

I would think some of the reasons for the increase in intentional targeted attacks against coalition personnel include:

1.)lack of dedicated careerist embedded trainers(US Army SF do this as their bread and butter, infantry do not...it is outside their core capability) which can more easily lead to.....#2

2.)cultural conflict.....US Army SF receive considerable intercultural training and language training to cross the often wide divide......less well trained and selected personnel could reduce the ability to mitigate this

3.)intentional infiltration by the bad guys to disrupt embedded training teams and sow distrust as well as genuine progress...either voluntary recruitment or under family/personal duress.

4.)frustration at the inevitably of coalition partners that could include a sense of betrayal or broken promises for leaving amongst the indigenous personnel who bought into it and are anxious about the next chapter

I'm of the belief that the original mission, post dropping the Taliban government and disrupting AQ nearly 11 years a go, should have been left to a light footprint/SF embedded training and capacity building mission built on a local sustainable model.

$100 million deployed frugally 10 years ago would be a far better long term investment in sustainable security and stability than $1 billion frittered away on mirroring ourselves in the locals temporarily today.

THAT, and the fact that we tried to evolve a culture by force by a century or three.....the folks in the know about Pashtunwali should have been put in charge or at least better leveraged.

Their country their rules.........I don't see anyone trying to bring the Amish into the 21st century....but then again, the Amish don't have guns, Pashtunwali, or harbor terrorists.

[flintlock]

Re: Fog of War

I can see the recruitment posters now. " Join the Army and get shot in the back. This must do wonders for morale.

[don]

Re: Fog of War

I can see the recruitment posters now. " Join the Army and get shot in the back. This must do wonders for morale.

In Vietnam it was the brand spanking new West Pointers looking to kickstart their careers who were getting the same treatment - via friendly fire.

[don]

Re: Fog of War

War is politics by other means. the US is being outmaneuvered.

Five Australian soldiers have died in southern Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, a toll Australia's prime minister described as the country's worst combat losses in nearly half a century.

Three soldiers were shot dead in southern Uruzgan province by an Afghan army soldier who turned his gun on them as they were relaxing at their base late on Wednesday evening. Two others died in a helicopter crash in neighbouring Helmand province in the early hours of Thursday morning.

"I believe this is the most losses in combat since the days of the Vietnam war and the battle on Long Tan," said Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In that 1966 battle, 18 Australians were killed.

"This is news so truly shocking that it's going to feel for many Australians like a physical blow," she said.