British COIN (merged thread)

[Ken White]

The Red Rat needs no help from me but the sideswipes merit my limited intrusion.

To be brutally honest other than the special forces ops not seen much evidence of good practice from the line infantry...that of short tours...One needs to recognise this fatal flaw in the approach and address it and not (as the Brits are famous for) continue to muddle on.

What if one recognizes those things, would change them if within ones powers -- but they are not?

In short, once again your ire is justified but your aim is atrocious.

That sound like a yank spin doctor speaking I interpret that to mean in effect the Brits (and probably the yanks) don't have a f***ing clue what is going on on the ground.

Yank Spin doctor, South African Prescriptive doctor, takes all kinds...

There are British and Americans there with no clue and there are more who fully understand the issues. They aren't the problem -- the problem is not in Afghanistan, it's in the places shown below. Everything, including recruiting, retaining and sending the clueless to Afghanistan, support, whatever and particularly what both the highly clued and the unclued can do starts there...

Everyone seem to understand that but you.

OK but when a yank troopie notes to the journalist that he cant fire unless fired upon when does the robust fit into that?

I know this will amaze you but some of those clueless who shouldn't be there are senior, LTCs and even higher and can give commands and those types are often prone to tell troops that work for them that regardless of the ROE, "My ROE are designed to protect my career, so listen to me, not what you read..." That happens all too often. It did in Viet Nam and was usually ignored by most units -- the kids today can't do that due to Drones, Blue force Tracker, giant eyes high in the sky and so forth. Recall the White House Situation Room with a USAF BG running the video feed during the OBL raid. The Micromanagers have won -- this time...

... the institutional lack of aggressive action starts to eat away at the heart of fighting units like a cancer.

That's true and good Commanders know and try to guard against that. Poor Commanders and Politicians encourage less aggressiveness -- easier to control. Not right or even sensible but it is reality in every modern democracy. recall also that the law of averages in Armies that emphasize egalitarianism first and merit second says half the Commanders are good, the other half less so...