Posted on 09/18/2010 1:49:29 PM PDT by pissant
In a shift in tactics, the U.S. military in Afghanistan plans to rely more on old-fashioned surveillance, as compared with new-age technology, to stop the biggest killer of American service members in the field.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was informed by the Pentagon in recent weeks that the command is building up a special task force to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify, Neutralize) is designed to constantly watch troop and convoy routes to catch the enemy planting IEDs, which account for more than 50 percent of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan.
"I just found out they finally instituted ODIN in one province, Ghazni, in Regional Command East," Mr. Hunter, California Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Washington Times. "IED attacks dropped by 70 percent. They have already killed 25 insurgents. That was after 20 days of being on line."
The Pentagon has spent nearly $20 billion in a concerted effort since 2004 to blunt IEDs after they became prime weapons for insurgents in Iraq and then for the Taliban in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Agreed. Anyone seen digging along a road, especially at night, needs an immediate death sentence.
Someone set up them the bomb.
Sounds like the old ‘a good offense is the best defense.’
This sounds great,but it seems to me we should`nt be advertising everything we`re gonna do
Wasn’t O.D.I.N. the original primary objective?
“Agreed. Anyone seen digging along a road, especially at night, needs an immediate death sentence.”
We could then anticipate a huge number of wedding parties that were preparing for the festivities the next day by “planting flower seeds along the bridal path” for the nuptials.
Just wow.
Now if they'd figure out how to have a platoon waiting to ambush the Taliban who systematically and with regularity ambush our platoons on their way back to their firebases after a patrol to the villages.
It is a set in stone pattern.
Platoon walks to village.
Taliban now knows the path and time they will be walking back
Taliban set up ambush.
Our troops have suffered the highest KIA and WIA’s due to the PREDICTABLE song and dance.
How about end-running them and setting up an ambush team along the route BEFORE the platoon goes to the village - and then ambush the ambushers?
Wouldn't take long to break that pattern.
Do the powers that be really want success?
Shhh... Don’t tell anybody.
Well the next group of dummies might learn thats a bad idea!
The Brits ran into this problem during thr Boer War. Afterwards, they always took a different way back. Dunno if the terrain in Afghanistan allows that.
The WWII warning that “Loose lips sink ships” is true, but perilously ignored by today’s politicians.
They should start baiting them by using the same routes over and over and focusing all eyes on those routes. Then have QRF’s ready to roll when they take the bait.
If they are serious about stopping IED attacks, they will arrest the filthy little sawed off runt heading for meetings at the UN, place him in detention at Gitmo for 444 days, then assign 1 year of additional “service” for every IED attack from that date forward.
The fact that the leader of a nation that is responsible for as many deaths as the USA has endured, is able to freely enter and exit this country is beyond reason. Anyone remember a proclamation that “the war on terror has no borders”?
“Well the next group of dummies might learn thats a bad idea!”
You’d think so .. but they keep right on doing it ... the sympathetic press picks it up around the world to make us look like monsters .. in other words, they are taking one for the team.
That's hard to believe. Even with government accounting methods.
Added to that, it is right on the border with Pakistan - making it way to easy for the Taliban to ooze across the border, down through the mountain passes, hit our guys, and melt back into Pakistan.
That scenario could have been stopped had we the honest help from the Paki’s on their side....and had we insisted on it.
Not under “commander zero’s” ROE.
“Seems you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one of those.”
Unless of course you are a moose limb.
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