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 ...
It does not. But we have the advantage of technology. We can fine tune area denial down to a 'T'. Publicity is good in this case. If the locals know that, say a 100 meter zone on either side of a particular road is a danger area, then that's good for anyone traveling on that road. (This got me thinking about close support, and I sure do like the GAU-8-A.))
What if they were only hunting Snipes with a pillowcase and a candle?
Mike
On the other hand, advertising that we kill anyone caught planting an IED would seem to serve a strategic purpose.
Why the hell don’t we just mine the passes between Afghanistan and Pakistan? To hell with the mountain goats! If they want to cross the boarder they should have to creep over the frozen hell of mountain summits.
Considering how darn effective it was in Iraq the last few years, it’s criminal not to have duplicated that in Afganistan. Especially considering how few roads they actually have.
Or even level ONE village caught giving aid to the Taliban...give them a warning. Drop leaflets telling them they have 20 minutes to clear out - then turn the village into a gravel pit.
The other villages would quick decide which side they wanted to be on.
At the same time, the villagers had seen the Americans cut and run before, leaving them to their enemies - and the revenge of their enemies. they are in between a rock and a hard place.
Indeed, in the “most Dangerous Place on Earth” the Korengal Vally of the Kunar - where our troops fought the hardest and lost the most? - Obummer just handed the Valley over, (in April) lock, stock and barrel - LITERALLY - to the Taliban.
Left them thousands of gallons of ammo, bullets, missiles, rockets - all without a fight. Just pulled out and left it to them.
Obummer said it was because there were no longer any Taliban in the Valley.
However, almost immediately after the pull out - this was filmed...
(No mystery why the locals are afraid to help us)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsyNvgDvvQw
A major victory and a crucial area just gifted to the Taliban. (I, for one, was not sad to see McCrystal go - of course, he was only carrying out orders from the top.)
For the reality of that Valley and what we have put our troops through, see my next post to you.
footnote: WE had the war won way back at Tora Bora. We had Osama B L. We bowed to ? - turned our backs and let him go. It seems that since then we've just been treading water - at the expense of our troops.)
I’ve long thought that a way to discover IEDs on important traffic corridors would be for a helicopter to do a little “crop dusting”.
That is, come up with a chemical that can be added to water, that when sprayed onto ground, will do the equivalent of fluoresce under a particular UV band. Even urine will do this. Use a crop dusting helicopter to spray the route.
At night, another helicopter can fly over the route, shining a UV light. When it looks at a road, it will see the road illuminated, with four stripes of blackness created by vehicle tires. However, if it sees a large “hole” in the glow, it likely means that the ground there has been disturbed, likely by the planting of an IED.
The scanning itself might even be done by computer, which might spot something missed by the flight crew.
Again, this is pretty much only for high traffic areas, but might be yet another tool in the anti-IED arsenal.
Sebastian Junger (wrote “Perfect Storm”) and Tim Hetherington (Pulitzer Prize winning Brit photojournalist) embedded with Battle Co (173rd Airborne) in the Korengal Valley for a year for the Platoon's 15 months ghastly deployment.
Sebastian's best selling book “WAR” came out in May, the movie took Grand Jury Award at Sundance and both have had rave reviews (just ‘google’ Sebastian or “Restrepo” or watch a trailer at
http://restrepothemovie.com/
- and go from there. This is a book and a movie about SOLDIERS at WAR...how it is, how it has always been. The ‘stars’ are the Soldiers themselves and no script...it puts you boots on the ground with them. It has brought the truth to the American public.
any one of the hundreds of interviews on national TV will give you the gist - this is THE ‘war movie’ of decades: no Hollywood, no script, no agenda, no politics, no brass involvement: just the cameras rolling with the Sky Soldiers as it goes down. (They were in over 1,000 firefights during their 15 months and they lost many brothers.)
Perched on a spit of mountain top, far from the nearest base, no running water, no power, no hot food, - or as Sebastian put it, “We were, essentially, on Mars.”
One small solace, we didn't hand the Korengal over to the enemy until several months after Battle Co's deployment was over. It hit them hard.
Beside Sebastian's book and the movie, Tim's book “Infidel” - on the Platoon - has just been released, available on Amazon. He also has a short clip that is powerful to watch, called “Sleeping Soldiers” - he crept around the firebase snapping pics of the soldiers as they slept, then superimposed videos over them depicting their “dreams” = actual battles they had been involved in.
“Sleeping Soldiers” -
Battle co has had 2 feature stories on Vanity Fair, a cover story in NYTimes Magazine, among others - and Admiral Mullen, himself, went to the Korengal to present medals.
Another very good documentary was done on them in their first 4 months by ABC. (this is by Sebastian and Tim also)
Excellent doc.
part ONe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_o9OhX_x3c&feature=related
Part 2: (the deadliest battle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIKR-OD3-pk&feature=related
since then, since the change in DC, things have changed in favor of the Taliban. With the new regimes’ ROE, our soldier's hands have been tied - and it has resulted in DOUBLING of our losses every month.,,back to the level of the first year.
So, if we aren't going to allow them to fight, to defend themselves, to WIN, if we're going to ‘Veitnamese’ it - let's get them out now.
(The award this week of the first Medal of Honor to a living soldier since Viet Nam was to a Soldier from this Platoon on this deployment)
With graded roadways you can see when something has been buried and IR shows the disturbed soil as it is warmer.
We have made great progress with overwatch drones to monitor roadways. So big changes are coming.
One problem is that the Afghans move their herds at night over the roadways when it's cooler and that is used to mask diggers and the critters blend the disturbed soil.
Milk Factory ping! IED’s just accidently appeared one day..../s
He should be arrested the next time he gets off the plane in New York and the UN should be expelled.
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."
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