Some Details on the Afghan “Tet” in Nuristan

http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/10/10/some-details-on-the-afghan-tet-in-nuristan/ ^ | 10-11-09 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

U.S. Army Spc. Zackery Cely provides security from a tower at Forward Operating Base Lane in the Zabul province of Afghanistan Oct. 5, 2009. Cely is from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. (DoD photo by Spc. Tia P. Sokimson, U.S. Army)

Last weekend, two military outposts came under siege, resulting in the deaths of 8 U.S. soldiers, 7 Afghan soldiers.

The U.S. military destroyed both Camp Keating and Camp Fritsche 4 days later (56 soldiers who evacuated from there apparently lost everything except the clothes on their backs), giving the Taliban a victory claim (nevermind their loss of 100 Taliban fighters in the same battle), along with the symbolic raising of their flag in the region.

Part of General McChrystal's plan, however, is the withdrawal of U.S. forces from such remote outposts to concentrate upon population centers where the people are the prize. A counterterrorism campaign as opposed to counterinsurgency, runs the risk of alienating the Afghan people back into the abusive arms of the Taliban:

Another Taliban member says they benefited from American violence and the abuses of the Kabul government:

The Afghan Taliban were weak and disorganized. But slowly the situation began to change. American operations that harassed villagers, bombings that killed civilians, and Karzai's corrupt police were alienating villagers and turning them in our favor. Soon we didn't have to hide so much on our raids. We came openly. When they saw us, villagers started preparing green tea and food for us. The tables were turning. Karzai's police and officials mostly hid in their district compounds like prisoners.

So the Taliban's loss of 100 militants to take over outposts we were going to be leaving anyway, is a great victory only in their brain-addled minds.

Thomas Ricks posts an account- the most detailed one we have thus far- by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey of last weekend's battle in Nuristan:

[Gaffer]

If you don’t control the movement of the enemy in the countryside, you won’t be able to control them when they reach the city.

[hinckley buzzard]

So the Taliban's loss of 100 militants to take over outposts we were going to be leaving anyway, is a great victory only in their brain-addled minds.

Give the media time. They will turn it into a symbol of why the war is all wrong and we need to get out. Hence the comparison to "Tet."

[Oldexpat]

When ever you turn to a defensive position and hole up in a compound, you are just a “target”. If we don’t have enough troops to seek out the enemy, then we are in trouble.
McXtal says we can buy the lower level taliban fighters. Maybe, but how do you know they will stay bought? Or will they just be “rice christians”.

[hinckley buzzard]

Ditto. about as bad an idea as putting a fixed position in a bowl so the enemy can shoot down on you from the high ground.

[elhombrelibre]

"War is fighing and fighting means killing," said Nathan Bedrod Forrest. We need to balance the winning-hearts-and-minds strategy for the Afghan people with an efficient kill-the-Taliban-whenever-we-can policy. There is an urgent need for a close area denial system that assures that these types of FOBs are not endangered by what amounts to massing of light infantry. Now is the time for an ONS with urgent fielding.

Develop close area denial weapons, GEN McChrystal. These weapons could be modeled on a much smaller MLRS, or the Stalin Organ, the recoiless rifle, the 105mm beehive round, etc. The weapons need to be cheap, effective, unsophisticated, easy to use, adaptable, and devastating enough to annihilate an enemy at close range. We Americans, of all people, have the technological ability to come up with a material solution to preclude a threat like this. Do it, damn it.

[squarebarb]

Taliban leaders are saying that about American soldiers killing civilians so that they can continue to use civlians as screens and cover.

They read our papers and they watch CNN. they know what to say to appeal the American left.

[Condor51]

Part of General McChrystal's plan, however, is the withdrawal of U.S. forces from such remote outposts to concentrate upon population centers where the people are the prize.

(Head shaking) General, general, what are you thinking? Your plan is a 'William Westmoreland War'₍₁₎. And we all know how that turned out in Vietnam. Plus, your 'hands off' ROE's aren't helping at all (Are you channeling LBJ?). Contrarily the enemy is using the tactics and strategy of Sun Tzu. They're practically going chapter by chapter from 'The Art of War'. Ironically, the illiterate jihadists don't even know it. But your plan guarantees them victory ₍₂₎.

Sheesh, I don't know what happened?!? With all your SF experience I thought you'd be one kick-ass commander and take the fight to these mutts with SF A-Teams flooding injun country, working with local good guys and be the Force Multipliers they were rained to be. You're turning out to be a combination of George B. McClellan and William Westmoreland.

(1) Control Provincial Capitols and 'prop up' the government, while leaving the countryside and villages to the VC & NVA.
(2) Sun Tzu has never been wrong, not in 2,500 years. And YOU should know this General. You studied his dam book at the War Colleges you attended!

[Redleg Duke]

"So the Taliban's loss of 100 militants to take over outposts we were going to be leaving anyway, is a great victory only in their brain-addled minds."

Or in the drug-addled minds of the so-called "journalists" in the SRM.

[denydenydeny]

Really infuriating to read, with the increasing fervor of the attack while headquarters is all "La dee dah, help is on the way, la dee dah," followed by

The weather in the high passes interfered with the helicopters.

People need to lose commissions over this.