Securing the Afghan border (merged thread)
Posturing for the Durand Line - ‘We Can and Must do Better’?
by Paul Smyth, Small Wars Journal
Quote:
On 10 July 2008, the Pakistan Daily Times reported a political agent in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as stating that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been ‘completely sealed’ to criminals. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation along the forbidding 2430km border is rather different, and the 24 coalition casualties suffered in the insurgent attack against a joint US/Afghan outpost in Eastern Afghanistan on 13 July, clearly illustrated the severe consequences of instability in the border zone. Unsurprisingly, when speaking about security in the border region at a Pentagon press briefing on 16 July, Admiral Michael Mullen (Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff) said ‘we can and must do better'. While this sound-bite has more application in Washington, Islamabad and other capitals than in-theatre, he was right, and with the significance of the border area indubitably set to increase, his public sentiment is a timely catalyst to consider the ‘border problem’ in a little more detail...
Air-centric epistle; some good points
but two, IMO, glaring errors. First, aerial ISTAR is not the solution to the problem; while more is better, it will not be a panacea and will not curtail most of the line crossers.
Secondly and more important, any reduction of CAS/TIC is a very bad idea.
Feasibility of an Afghanistan "Morice Line"
All,
Related to my RFI on crossing points ...
I have recently been doing some basic research into the effectiveness of barriers or obstacles in counterinsurgency ops. As we know, micro-level barriers (city berms, "gated" communities) were used to good effect in OIF, and have lots of historical basis.
During Algeria the French successfully employed the "Morice Line" of fences backed by sensors and mobile detachments to interdict resupply from Tunisia. The US attempted with less success to do this in Vietnam. This tactic stretches back to the Romans and Chinese two thousand (+) years ago.
Would a "modern" version of the Morice line be possible, or effective in Afghanistan? I acknowledge a fence is an impossibility, but what about a sensor barrier backed by a reaction force? It may not even be feasible on the entire 1500 mile border, but perhaps it only needs emplacement in certain areas? Like any obstacle emplacement, it could serve to canalize movement into areas we want it to go.
A salient argument against such a bariier is that we have been unable (or unwilling?) to do the same with the Mexican border.
Have modern sensor technology advances made this more affordable/practical? Is it even feasible given Afghanistan's terrain?