washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Iraq Blast Kills 9 GIs, Injures 20 At Outpost
Suicide Attack in Diyala Among Deadliest of War
29 American families will have a bad day today.
We all knew this was inevitable. It is a direct result of our current tactics. Unfortunately the press labels our tactics unconventional warfare (UW), yet our current tactics are anything but.
The wall is a premier example of Petreaus' false UW tactics. Armies have built walls since before the days of castles. There is nothing unconventional about that. Yet, I cannot think of a single war that was decided by a wall. The most recent wall, "The Berlin Wall" was also the most hated. It was hated by the civilian population on both sides and civilians from both sides participated in tearing it down, crushing the oppression as they did so.
The technique Petreaus used made it even worse. Apparently Petreaus ordered the wall built. Two days later the JCS Operations Officer (a 2 star general) denied it was being done, explaining walls are not in the surge plan. That comment was followed two days later by Prime Minister Al-Maliki ordering a halt to the construction. And we now have the opinions of those who were to be surrounded by concrete walls. They are totally opposed to the idea. All of this means there was no coordination within our military nor with the locals. Petreaus embarrassed JCS and Al-Maliki. In turn, Al-Maliki embarrassed Petreaus and all of this played out in the international press...lovely just lovely. Unconventional it truly is!
We cannot operate on behalf of the Iraqis and oppose them simultaneously. We should never expect Iraqi civilians to volunteer to be walled into neighborhoods that they know may later become easily controlled killing fields.
The goal of UW and COIN (Counter Insurgency) is not to forcefully impose our will on innocent civilians. To attempt that is an error of the highest magnitude. Our goal must be to recruit and convince the innocent indigenous population to help us help them eliminate the source of oppression, provide security, and build a better life. And (This is important.) we must do that within their lifestyle not our own. Separating families living in the battle area with huge, unwanted American built walls is "nuts".
LT General McChrystal, CG Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), recently stated that his units are practicing graduate level unconventional warfare. Sounds cool but what pray tell is that? I have been a student and practitioner of UW for 45 years. I never heard of graduate level UW. To the best of my knowledge the good general never attended the SF qualification course. Did he go straight to graduate school without getting a bachelor's degree? If as I suspect he means Delta operations are graduate level UW, I would point out that in past wars the mission of conducting raids was usually and successfully assigned to the USMC. Navy SEALS and Army Rangers are also highly trained and efficient in conducting raids. In fact every infantry unit in our army is trained to conduct raids. Given access to Delta's specialized training any battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division could be used for specialty raids. And let us not forget Special Forces ODA's. They conduct raids constantly. The argument that Delta is too expensive and redundant is easy to make. We should eliminate JSOC, and assign the three star position and staff and funding to Special Forces thereby creating a true unconventional warfare senior command. A command that can prosecute all forms and levels of Unconventional Warfare anywhere, anyplace, anytime.
From the insurgent point of view, the success of yesterday's attack against us will only ensure that more such attacks will be attempted against American outposts.
We are operating like blundering fools and as I wrote several days ago, the price for that is being paid by American soldiers.
We can begin to fix this by examining our own motives, tactics and techniques. To evaluate these and make recommendations for change we need to bring in the UW experts. The key element missing from our military operational planning tables and meetings are members of our only trained, equipped, and experienced truly Unconventional Warfare force, the US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets.
Properly deploying and supporting SF units and letting them plan and conduct their own operations will result in an immediate and significant reduction in friendly casualties, ditto for collateral damage, and an ever improving relationship with the indigenous population. Folks, our big gun, heavy handed, conventional military has had over four years and the job is not done. 30,000 more of the same will only beget us more of the same. The insurgents are tricky and dirty. We have a sneaky, tricky and dirty force designed specifically for this kind of warfare. It is time to use them properly in Iraq.
We cannot depend on the military to make the necessary changes. Last week, General McCaffrey told the House Armed Services Committee what must be done when he said -
"THE CONGRESS MUST STEP UP TO YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES"
"The U.S. Armed Forces are in a position of strategic peril. Congress must act."
unclewest |
