The Perils and Pitfalls of the ANP
By Lt Col P
This was sent to me today, and it illustrates the difficulties of raising competent, capable security forces in Afghanistan:
"At the top is Ali Ahmad Hakimi, the 23-year-old chief of District 10. While [US Army MP, SFC] Morgan rifles through papers, Hakimi sits behind his desk, fielding calls on a cell phone. The station doesn't have landlines, so Hakimi serves as a one-man 911 dispatcher. When he goes out on patrols, he gives out his personal number. Today, the calls are personal. Twenty days ago, the chief of District 8 was injured in an IED blast. He died today. Hakimi is spreading the news. "The really sad thing is if they don't change their operations, the same thing's gonna happen to him," says Morgan. Like many ANP officers, Hakimi didn't make it past elementary school, and like almost all of them, he doesn't speak English. The plaque on his desk displaying his title in English and Pashto is upside down."
Hakimi might or might not make it to see 24, but his shortcomings aren't his fault. Illiterate? No surprise-- when he was elementary school age, the Taliban held sway; for his entire life Afghanistan has been mired in war, chaos, turmoil. Under those conditions, there is no way a nation-wide functional police structure could have survived.
Unfortunately, ISAF needs to improve the police if we want to win the war, and the police are the biggest headache. The police are one of the visible links between the government and the people, *if* the police are seen to be a force for good and are trusted by the people. A counterinsurgency is really a police matter, even if at times the Army has the lead in operations. Furthermore, and more to the point in Afghanistan, once the war is won, a large police force won't carry the baggage that a large Army will.
I think the battle for the ANP is one of the war-winners. On the minus side, every little sociological problem in Afghanistan gets magnified in the police ranks, and we get news reports like this one. On the plus side there are many dedicated people and organizations-- such as the RCMP-- working overtime to get the ANP up to par. They have been making headway.
The Lion Retracts His Claws
By Lt Col P
"LONDON - Washington's closest ally unveiled its deepest military cuts since the end of the Cold War, with a cash-strapped Britain announcing Tuesday that it will withdraw thousands of troops from continental Europe, decommission warships, mothball an entire class of fighter jets and delay upgrading its nuclear arsenal.
"The cutbacks would not affect the war in Afghanistan, where British troops make up the second-largest contingent after the United States. Britain said it would invest in more helicopters and armored vehicles to aid military operations there. By also committing to boost combat-ready special forces, officials here are seeking to reassure the Pentagon that Britain will still retain its global role as deputy to Washington's sheriff."
This does not portend well for us. As we have said before, the Anglosphere MUST be preserved! Let's hope our cousins get their financial house order so they can re-assert their role. We need them.
Hell, let's hope WE can get our financial house in order... Much depends on it.
Read More »
Yorktown's Unsung Victors?
By Lt Col P
"Why didn't the French and Americans fall ill, too? Some did, but far fewer and too late to matter. With malaria it takes about a month between infectious bite and the onset of symptoms. The British had been absorbing the parasite since June, but the Franco-Americans arrived in the Tidewater only in September. So malaria had two extra months to work its mischief in British ranks."
Read More »
Weekend Wrap-Up
By Lt Col P
It was a spectacular weekend here in Northern VA, the first weekend where it really felt like fall, although today was a bit on the warm side.
Did you know that October is Virginia Wine Month??
Although slightly under the weather with a cold, I did get out saturday a.m. for more bow hunting after I moved my stand to a new location. I saw a doe with an older fawn in tow, which I took to be the pair I dubbed "Bristol and the Kid" when I saw them at the beginning of the season last month. The landowner says don't take does with fawns so I didn't shoot although I was sorely tempted. Anyway, as I was descending from the tree in my Summit Tree Stand, without warning the platform slipped and dropped away, followed by the seat, followed by me. It happened in a nanosecond, with no warning at all. I was about fifteen feet up, and the only thing that saved me from serious injury or worse was my harness. Yep, it scared the shit out of me, but I managed to regain control of both halves and descend on my own, although it took me several hard minutes. WEAR YOUR HARNESSES, FOLKS, AND HAVE A RECOVERY PLAN. The harness will save your life, but only if you have it on.
The rest of the weekend was joyous but uneventful. I made a dent in the woodpile, thanks to the truly outstanding 30-inch Fanno logsaw. (My right arm hasn't had a workout like that since, uhhh, about 10 o'clock last night.) That thing kicks ass, and makes a mockery of seasoned oak. (BTW, I get my wood-- "he said wood"-- from Freedom Tree Service, right by the Manassas battlefield.)
Did anyone have any luck this weekend? If so, send in the pics to vmijpp at hotmail dot com.
Next Secretary of Defense
By Townie 76
Politico is reporting that retired General Colin Powell and current CIA director Leon Panetta are being mentioned as possible replacements for Secretary Gates.
Read More »
"Strike and Destroy"
By Lt Col P
Back in September we began discussion of the allegations that soldiers from the 5th Stryker BCT killed Afghan civilians for shits and grins. I suggested that the Army command structure and that brigade's chain of command might have a lot to answer for. Two commenters tended to agree.
Now, details about the brigade's chain of command are emerging, in a WaPo article published today:
-- "When the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade arrived in Afghanistan, its leader, Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, openly sneered at the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy. The old-school commander barred his officers from even mentioning the term and told shocked U.S. and NATO officials that he was uninterested in winning the trust of the Afghan people. ... Instead, he said, his soldiers would simply hunt and kill as many Taliban fighters as possible, as dictated by the brigade's motto, "Strike and Destroy.""
-- "In March, the platoon's first lieutenant and sergeant were removed from their posts because their soldiers had been caught shooting at dogs, according to Army investigative records. In contrast, no disciplinary action was taken after platoon members shot and killed four Afghan men - who were allegedly unarmed - in as many incidents. (Three of those shootings are now the focus of murder investigations.)"
-- "...[T]he brigade was undergoing mission rehearsal exercises at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Evaluators warned Tunnell that his disdain for counterinsurgency would cause trouble in Afghanistan, but the brigade commander ignored them, said Richard Demaree, a retired lieutenant colonel who served as a battalion commander for the 5th Stryker Brigade. ... "Everybody was astonished he has this war-fighting philosophy toward Iraq or Afghanistan that was totally out of sync with the Army," Demaree said."
-- "U.S., Dutch and Canadian officials asked Army Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, then the deputy commander of Regional Command South, to intervene with Tunnell. Nicholson agreed to talk to the brigade commander, but the chat had little effect, the State Department official said. Nicholson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment."
-- "When Capt. Matthew Quiggle, the platoon's company commander, heard of the incident, he became "furious," according to one soldier, Cpl. Emmitt Quintal, who later gave a statement to Army investigators. The platoon had shot and killed another unarmed Afghan man two weeks earlier, so Quiggle told the soldiers "they needed to search until they found something" that would justify the shooting, according to the statement. Quiggle did not respond to a request for comment submitted through the Army."
Unbelievable.
Granted, this *is* the WaPo, so we'll see how it plays out. However, if the facts stand up, I think we see now where the brigade's chain of command was, or wasn't. Someone please tell me where I'm going wrong here, or if they know something contradictory, PLEASE say so.
And there still remains the separate but related topic of a brigade commander pursuing a "divergent" strategy.
Wacky Weapons Wednesday
By Lt Col P
You just NEVER know what you'll find on Gunbroker.com.
Here's the question-- would that thing qualify for archery season?? :-)
"It would look like this -- except more of it"
By Lt Col P
More on the subject of what victory would look like in Afghanistan:
"Small groups of Taliban fighters -- sometimes a dozen with a leader -- are approaching local Afghan government officials, asking what kind of deal they might get. "First, they want to be taken off any list, so they are not targeted," explains a NATO official in Afghanistan. "Second, they want protection from the insurgency. Third, some kind of economic opportunity."
"In counterinsurgency doctrine, this is known as "reintegration." The official admits it is "spotty" in Afghanistan but spreading in all regions. "It is happening in small numbers -- drip, drip, drip. It has not yet changed the battle space. . . . It is not a tipping point, at this point." The goal is to push these numbers much higher, with more insurgents driven to negotiation and exhaustion, so they "put down their weapons and go home.""
Gerson goes on to credit SOF ops, but we must remind him that the conventional forces' operations are also critical to success: the patient, persistent presence, the grinding daily battle in village and field, where the Taliban see their freedom of movement restricted and slowly but surely their grip on the population removed. Victory is going to come from the whole coherent, concerted effort.
It's a good article, and it contains an appropriate and wholly correct admonishment at the end. Let's hope it reaches the right ears.
Wednesday like a tuesday
By Lt Col P
Good morning all, just checking in from the bus ride. We'll have more later on Afghanistan, but for right my attention is rooted on the mine rescue in Chile.
More to follow.
Something is rotten in the California National Guard
By Townie 76
From today's Sacramento Bee allegations of fraud and impropriety within the California Army National Guard. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/10/3093093/massive-guard-fraud-alleged.html. I have to wonder whether the United States Property and Financial Officer (USPFO)was doing his job. The USPFO as it called in the Guard is a National Guard Officer in a Title 10 status who is responsible for the accountability of all Federal Property and Funds in each State National Guard.
Keeping Up With the Joneses
By Lt Col P
"A retired Marine general, Jones brought decades of national security experience to the post and military credibility to an administration whose senior civilian members have never served in uniform. He expanded the National Security Council to include agencies responsible for American energy, economic and environmental policy, believing that those issues would play a far larger role in shaping U.S. defense and diplomatic strategy in the decades to come.
"But Jones, a towering if aloof figure [100% true, that], often had trouble fitting into a National Security Council culture dominated by several hard-charging veterans of Obama's campaign who have known the president for years. His condition for initially taking the job - that he would be the last one to see Obama on the most pressing national security issues of the day - was often unmet."
In other words, he got rolled by the fellow-travelers and Marxist agitprop operatives upon whom we bestowed power two years ago.
My own high opinion of him, shared I think by the vast majority of Marines, has declined somewhat because of my extreme disdain for the current President, and consequent puzzlement over why a towering figure like Jones would consent to be even in the same room with him. But perhaps he saw something I don't.
Perhaps he sees a little more now!
I'll conclude as always on the bright side, with this send off worthy of a unit plaque-- Don't worry, General, Marines will still remember you as being better than Krulak.
Drifter Abroad: "No Pics of This One"
By Lt Col P
Devil Dogs
By Lt Col P
"These new weapons/dogs are in fact Marines and actually outrank their handlers. One black lab 'Susie' will soon become a sergeant before this latest deployment, as her handler also moves up in rank. The teams will stay overseas for about 7 months before both come home and the dogs eventually handed over to another marine for four months of training again before the dog heads back as part of a new team. The Labs purchased from a breeder in Virginia are trained to detect the scents found in homemade explosives and other elements in IEDs."
And here's one veteran war dog who's found the right home...
"Taliban in high-level talks with Karzai government"
By Lt Col P
It's waaaay too early to tell what the result of this will be, but there are some interesting indicators in the text:
* "Although Omar's representatives have long publicly insisted that negotiations were impossible until all foreign troops withdraw, a position seemingly buoyed by the Taliban's resilience on the battlefield, sources said the Quetta Shura has begun to talk about a comprehensive agreement that would include participation of some Taliban figures in the government and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops on an agreed timeline."
* "Several sources said the discussions with the Quetta Shura do not include representatives of the Haqqani group, a separately led faction that U.S. intelligence considers particularly brutal and that has been the target of recently escalated U.S. drone attacks in northwestern Pakistan."
* "Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, told reporters last week that high-level Taliban leaders had "sought to reach out" to the top level of the Karzai government. "This is how you end these kinds of insurgencies," he said."
The important thing now will be to keep the pressure up on the battlefield, and not back down. It's all fine and good to offer the olive branch to certain elements on the other side, but that needs to happen from a position of strength.
STAY TUNED. Hopefully Drifter can shed some light as time goes on.
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller
By Lt Col P
"Wounded and running out of ammunition, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller battled a force of more than 100 insurgents in Afghanistan, allowing his fellow soldiers to seek cover from a blistering attack in 2008.
"Miller's actions, which helped save 22 U.S. and Afghan troops and resulted in his own death, were recognized Wednesday when he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor.
"The award was accepted by his parents, Phil and Maureen Miller, at a White House ceremony."
Wounded and running out of ammunition... God bless you, SSG Miller. We are all very much in your debt.
