Great point by Raymond Millen but he is missing the point. The “threat” in Afghanistan is comprised of various groups who may or may not call themselves Taliban and may or may not be motivated by Islamic passions. That fact would be to our advantage if our military leaders could capitalize on it. They cannot because they restrict themselves to their large FOB’s where they infrequently sortie out in their large armored vehicles to show the flag and accomplish nothing. Or they confine their infantry to small FOB’s up in the Kunar Province where everyday they exchange fire with the local villagers in a Hatfield – Mc Coy style more reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons than warfare.
Every FOB has a commander and every commander is evaluated by what us Marines call a fitness report (fitrep) at the end of his tour. That report will probably be the only combat command fitrep an officer receives in 30 years of service and it is the most important fitrep of his career. What are they evaluated on? What happens inside their base – just like back in America. There is a ton of things which must be done correctly in order to manage thousands of people on a base and that work load is well inside the comfort zone of you average Colonel. What is not inside the comfort zone of your average Colonel is conducting competent operations in Afghanistan so they default to World War II tactics. This means all interactions with the local people we are supposed to provide a secure environment for is done in body armor and at the point of a gun. That is because every time you leave the wire you are in a “combat environment” and therefore need all your protective gear on, the guns loaded, and fingers on the trigger.
The Afghans, lacking our sophisticated, nuanced seeking way of interpreting peoples actions consider this posture to be cowardly. They think we are not being serious when we say we are here to help because they don’t see us helping. They just see us driving around in big armored vehicles which tear down their electrical wires every time they drive down a village street (MRAPS are really tall but not the average village electrical grid.) The commanders work exclusively through Afghan government officials which is stupidity in action because the Afghan government is major part of the problem. It is a Kleptocracy plain and simple thus confining all you interactions to government representatives is similar to turning an abused teen age boy over to NAMBLA for counseling. It doesn’t make sense, it cannot be justified, and it is indicative of failure at the highest levels of military command.
We are getting our butts kicked in Afghanistan not because the Taliban are outfighting us but because they are out governing us and our allies which is why they control so much of the country now. It is great to see guys like Raymond doing their third tour here but I have been here five years and I see our military making the same mistakes over and over again – they do not know anything (collectively) they have not learned anything (collectively) and they are not accomplishing anything (unless you call the continued loss of important Provinces to Taliban affiliates progress.) The military has an excellent counterinsurgency doctrine which specifically warns against fighting a counterinsurgency using big bases with troops who are isolated and removed from the civilian population. We need leaders who are confident enough to use that doctrine. Where are they?
