Economist comments on Afghanistan
I dont want to post the text itself (not sure about copyright laws, if its alright tell me and ill post it)
They discuss unity of effort, too few troops, and the recent civilians we have killed.
1) They call for the ISAF to have 'primacy' and 'oversight' over ther OEF.
2) They call for a population centered not insurgent centered approach.
3) Lastly, they call for aborting strikes against high risk targets if there is a 'serious risk' of civilians getting killed.
#1 I dont know enough about to say. In theory it makes sense. I dont know about the situation on the ground enough to say
#2 seems to make sense
#3 Will just make the Taliban hide among civilians more. If they know we will back off.
Have you guys actually been reading the other forums and available doctrine??
Gentleman,
I am surprised by some of the responses in this forum. There is little or nothing in the Economist article that would surprise anyone with even a cursory understanding of either current US doctrine (FM 3 -24) or the writings of Galula,Thompson, Kitson, Gwynn, Caldwell (or for that matter Kilcullen).
Remember the line 'some of the best weapons do not shoot' ? That wasn't something just thrown in for a chuckle - the record of history shows that it is true. And, despite all the extravagant claims that have been made from time to time, (here, and in other venues) I have not seen sufficient objective data (as opposed to opinion) that I can conclude that our current conflicts are all ahistorical.
The matter of civilian casualties from the use (or misuse) of airpower is not a trivial matter. As long ago as the 1920's the Brits 'pulled' their use of air power in Iraq because their concerns that the risks posed by deaths of innocents outweighed the benefits to own troops vis a vis the ultimate objective. The truism of 'minimum force' as an adage was not one pulled from someone's backside in COIN thinking - it was derived from years of experience and evaluation of results. Every innocent civilian death from airstrikes and indirect fires in our various current theatres, ultimately sets us back in some way.
Maybe, if we cannot get 'them' without resorting to a blunt instrument that denies verification of who is actually in the room / building / village we should hold off until we can get some form of discriminatory shooter in location. If we 'lose' an opportunity that we are not sure of, but gain the surety of not killing members of the population we are trying to win over, then perhaps we have 'won' in the scenario anyway. Do not get me wrong - if the shot is there, we should take it - if we know what we are doing, as opposed to rolling the die. Hope has never been a good substitute for informed planning and knowledge in such ops.
Indiscriminate application of firepower is for COIN naifs , Play station games and Hollywood movies.
Final observation, in response to some of the other commentary in this forum- there have been a few more nations having successes in Afghanistan other than the US, Brits, and Canadians. In Australia and NZ we tend to measure success and effectiveness, amongst other ways, by the number of enemy killed, not own troops killed ... I recall that George Patton used a similar measure ...
- Mark