Send In the Marines: Kinetics Kills Terrorists [Steve Schippert]
THE TANK - NRO
As happened in Basra, where the predominant British strategy of a defensive posture was supplanted by an extremely kinetic offensive operation, the seemingly staunch enemy is being killed in significant numbers and faced with the prospect of defeat or retreat. This time, the arena is Afghanistan and the kinetics supplied by the United States Marine Corps, never much accused of defensive postures or lack of initiative.
For two years British troops staked out a presence in this small district center in southern Afghanistan and fended off attacks from the Taliban. The constant firefights left it a ghost town, its bazaar broken and empty but for one baker, its houses and orchards reduced to rubble and weeds.
But it took the U.S. Marines, specifically the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, about 96 hours to clear out the Taliban in a fierce battle in the past month and push them back 10 kilometers, or six miles.
The operation stood in stark contrast to the events of March 2007, when a Marine unit shot and killed 19 civilians after a suicide bombing attack.
This time, the performance of the new unit of marines, in Afghanistan for seven months to bolster NATO forces, will be under particular scrutiny.
Four days. A stark contrast is right, as well as a mirrored image of Basra. We should hope the Marines will be "under particular scrutiny" in Afghanistan, and likewise hope that observers will take careful notes.
Kinetics kills terrorists. Nothing has changed in the equation of kinetic operations and dead terrorists where they mass. This, still, is counterterrorism. Defensive postures, conversely, create static, target-rich environments for them.
Like the Aussies, the Brits are fantastic soldiers. Unfortunately, like the Aussies, the British combat soldiers are too often saddled with civilian leadership decisions that are based more on fear of the domestic political impact of casualties than the strategic — and ultimately life-saving — impact of victory.
It's probably safe to say that there are a lot of Australian and British soldiers who are or have been in the Afghanistan theater of operations that wish they were permitted to operate with the Marines' kinetics. It's not a reflection upon the British or Australian soldier, but rather on the character of their respective civilian governmental leadership.
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