Low-tech mule essential weapon in hi-tech war
thetimes.co.uk
INCREASING military coordination between the American forces and the Northern Alliance has produced an extraordinary liaison between ancient and modern warfare.
While the Afghan tribal fighters on the ground rely on the surefootedness of their mules and horses, above them and beyond view fly the world’s most complex surveillance aircraft and unmanned aerial platforms, whose cameras and eavesdropping systems are capable of reading their lips when they mutter in the cold.
Predator, an unmanned air vehicle that takes high-resolution pictures from 25,000ft, has been operating over Afghanistan for weeks, but the Global Hawk, a new high altitude (60,000ft) unmanned surveillance platform, and Joint Stars, a converted Boeing 707 that monitors ground movements from 150 miles away, are about to be deployed over Afghanistan to add to the state-of-the-art hardware already filling the skies.
The Afghan terrain below is hostile. There is no infrastructure and the few roads that once existed have been destroyed or are in the hands of the Taleban.
For the Northern Alliance, the horse is as valuable as the new batch of tanks that has just been supplied by the Russians.
The role of the mule and horse in Afghan fighting was recognised by the CIA in the 1980s when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. Apart from Stinger anti-aircraft weapons, the CIA also supplied the Mujahidin with thousands of mules, imported from Tennessee.
When US ground troops deploy in any large numbers in Afghanistan, they, too, will find that sometimes the most primitive form of transport is preferable to the most expensive. Transportation is archaic. A three-year drought has hardened the earth into murderous crevices that make driving a car impossible. A journey of 12 miles takes nearly two hours.
If the Northern Alliance had cars, that is. Unlike its enemy, the Taleban, who favour Datsun four-wheel-drive vehicles with tinted windows, the Northern Alliance has a few ancient Soviet military transporters but far more often they rely upon four-legged creatures.
Afghan stallions are the most highly prized beasts. But for the poorer soldiers the slow-moving donkey is hardier, more able to cross rivers and can transport up to two artillery shells per animal across lines to supply soldiers cut off without ammunition.
The animals are so important to this war that the United States has begun air-dropping horse feed to the Northen Alliance forces to enable them to prepare to charge against enemy tanks.
The sight of the rugged Afghan horsemen leading cavalry charges across the bleak Central Asian steppes is legendary.
The contrast between the high-tech Americans and the extremely low-tech Northern Alliance is glaring.
Some opposition soldiers were issued recently with Russian-made camouflage uniforms, but the men are used to wearing their shalwar kemeez, the loose-fitting traditional clothing, and they were not sure which way to wear their new army hats.
Others said they were uncomfortable wearing lace-up army boots, having spent most of their lives riding their horses barefoot and simply pulling on a pair of galoshes in the winter.
Yet their style of fighting, slow and methodical, has proved extremely effective. During the war against the Soviet Union, the Mujahidin destroyed their enemies’ morale by launching hit-and-run operations from small bases in the hills.
A Russian military analyst said: “They would come down at night on their horses, strike before anyone knew what was happening, leave booby traps, and then disappear. They were like ghosts.”
The cost of war
US high-tech:
Joint Stars: £180 million
Global Hawk: £7 million
Predator: £3 million
Mujahidin low-tech:
Mule: up to $500 (£350)
Horse: $2,000 (£1,400)
AK47: $100 (£70)
RPG7 rocket launcher: up to $500 (£350) |
