Light Infantry and Afghanistan

[JMA]

How do you arrive at that conclusion? There are about 200± Rifle Platoons plus Scout Platoons, LRS units and SOF elements in Afghanistan. I do not know how many Journalists are there but I suspect the number is far smaller; all of them are not embedded with Infantry units and all of them do not elect to go out with patrols -- nor, often are they allowed to (not for censorship purposes -- other than the SOF folks who are paranoid about OpSec -- but because the Army is leery about getting them injured). I talk to folks who are there now and there's much that does not make the news for both good and bad reasons. The good primarily concerns OpSec, the bad the fact that the US Army and media have a strong distrust of each other.

All the information I have from different sources informs me that very few if any night ops are being carried out by non special forces units. They seem to have the kit to do it so there must surely be some serious questions asked of commanders.

Nah, body count is irrelevant. We don't like to be seen bragging (if their KIA count is higher) or complaining (if our KIA count is higher). We learned that the hard way in Korea (the media will misrepresent and play for the gora angle...), relearned it in Viet Nam, relearned it yet again in this series of conflicts. We're a sensitive caring if slow learning Army.

Body count is irrelevant?

On a flight a while ago I found myself next to a British couple who when we discussed Afghanistan their point was that they only see and hear of the bodies of Brit soldiers being brought back and nothing of the Taliban dead. I did not have the heart to tell then that 80% of Brit casualties are through IEDs where they don't even see the TB let alone kill any of them. If the Brits were indeed killing the TB then it would slip out into the media one way or the other.

I mentioned, as did the reporter, that it was the first big success for that Platoon. We do not know how long they've been there, nor do we know what previous or other units in the same area did. In short, we don't know enough to comment intelligently about the action...

OK so I need to quote for you then:

"The patrol, Second Platoon of Company B, was in a place where no Americans had spent a night for years, and it seemed that the Afghans did not expect danger. "

"Second Platoon, Company B has endured one of the most arduous assignments in Afghanistan. Eight of the platoon’s soldiers have been wounded in nine months of fighting in the valley, part of a bitter contest for control of a small and sparsely populated area. Three others have been killed."

"“It’s the first time most of us have even seen the guys who were shooting at us,” said Sgt. Thomas Horvath, 21."

So yes by all accounts it had been a really s###ty tour so far for that platoon. Glad they could salvage something out of it in the end.

Not just in Rhodesia, it happened in Korea, in Viet Nam, in Iraq and it happens now in Afghanistan. Not much the west can -- or will -- do about it.That's a simplistic message. If the Armed Force do it, they'll be accused of propaganda. If embedded reporters do it, they frequently get accused of being 'co-opted' by the forces. There will never be enough reporters who are not embedded to do even a marginal job of reporting -- if they could be trusted to be objective. Our experience in Viet Nam and Iraq was that such objectivity was not as common as one would hope, the Afghan conflict looks la bit better -- only because it's smaller and far fewer journalists are there...

It is of intense interest to the rest of the world that the US can put a man on the moon but can't figure out how to facilitate a free and accurate flow of information to the media. So who is screwing this up? Is it the military themselves or politicians?