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I saw a story with a disturbing headline yesterday and I have to admit after reading it, I don’t seem to find anything wrong with this if it happened.
Villagers in Afghanistan say they were forced to walk ahead of Afghan and U.S. Soldiers along roads in areas believed to be mined by the Taliban.
National Public Radio reports villagers said the Afghan and U.S. troops pulled them from their homes one evening in early September and forced them to walk in front of the troops for more than a mile in the Panjwai district, southwest of Kandahar city.
No one was injured, but if the incident happened, it would appear to violate the Geneva Conventions governing treatment of civilians, NPR said.
Sure that may initially sound bad to the casual and ignorant observer, but the reality is that most of these people (especially those in places like Panjwaj district) are harboring and allowing Taliban and enemy fighters to operate there.
Regardless if it was Afghan soldiers or US soldiers who came up with this idea and executed it, the reality is that for a area to be a Taliban stronghold means the local populace supports them, which in turn makes them the enemy for the time-being.
The Panjwai district had been a Taliban stronghold until the U.S. troop surge in 2010 started to displace insurgents, NPR said. The Taliban now use roadside bombs and suicide bombers to fight there, said Faizal Mahmud, the deputy head of Panjwai’s council of elders. Continue reading →
The Rumor Doctor over at Stars and Stripes, Jeff Schogol, has done a good piece on the issues that conventional force commanders have with Special Operation Forces (SOF) and their relaxed grooming standards. The article points out how the wearing of a beard by a man is very well-respected.
For Afghan men, beards are a sign of manhood. And that is why special operations forces tend to look like Grizzly Adams — to earn the trust of locals.
Delta Force operators never shave all year except for official military functions so that they can be ready at any time to quickly insert and appear as a non-military person. SOF forces have been growing bears in Afghanistan since we got there in 2001. You would think that conventional commanders would be used to it by now and not have their panties in a wad over it.
The BOLD emphasis below is mine.
But the higher ups have decided that at least some of the U.S. special operations forces should get better acquainted with their razors…“Soldiers who work as training cadre and those in operational activities where we partner with Afghan Commando and other Coalition troops who are themselves mostly clean-shaven, are better prepared, and set a better example if they meet a traditional military appearance standard,” said Bob Coble, spokesman for Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, via e-mail.
What I think the issue is with these commanders is that now that conventional forces (not just National Guard anymore in Task Force Phoenix) are embedded with and personally mentoring Afghan forces, that their own troops are having relaxed grooming standards, wearing ball caps, etc. But the reality is that the embedded mission with local forces is a true Special Forces mission, but there are not enough of those guys to do it. That is why the National Guard took over that mission in 2003 and kept it until Aug 31st of 2009 when the ETT mission essentially went away and the new Brigade Combat Team model took over. When that happened, then conventional forces (101st, 82nd, 10th MTN, etc.) took over both kinetic and embedded and mentoring missions.
Back in 2006-2007 when I was there as an ETT, our Commanders and leaders did not give a crap about un-bloused boots, ball caps and some facial hair. To be quite honest, it was not important as we did not have to “set the examples” for junior soldiers because we did not have any junior soldiers. We had all Sr. NCOs and officers. When I went downrange for extended missions of 2-4 weeks I never shaved. There wasn’t time and we could not afford the water waste to do it. When I came back to my FOB, then I shaved as it was the right thing to do and I had no reason to grow a beard anymore. All of my soldiers on my team were the same way. Conventional forces didn’t typically mess with us, but the higher Task Force Phoenix did if we happened to go back to Camp Phoenix in Kabul. They had a very over-zealous BCT CSM that had nothing better to do that worry about patches, clean uniforms and other minuscule soldier looking things.
So the Big Army pushed and pushed to take over the ETT mission from the National Guard whom I feel (and this is purely my opinion) were the only ones conducting the real COIN fight and were on the path to success as we were training the military and police which is the path to leaving Afghanistan. Well Big Army got it and all that comes along with it, but now the whole beards and ball caps issue bothers some in the field grade and higher officer ranks.
You can take a look at the movie RESTREPO (which if you haven’t seen, I suggest you do) and see Big Army soldiers from the 173rd ABN with some relaxed standards, ball caps, etc. and their Commander, CPT Kearney (son of LTG Kearney) did not give a crap about that. Because in the grand scheme of things that stuff does not matter. It doesn’t save lives or help kill more enemy.
I think the officers and probably some of the Sergeant Majors in Afghanistan need to worry about many more important things then beards on SOF forces or what the reflective belt color of the day is. They need to worry about making sure that everything humanly and technically possible is being doing to support, arm, feed, and provide intel to our soldiers on the battlefield.
I saw the story below over the weekend. It is textbook Taliban TTP 101. The story below took place in the QaraBaug district. A place I know all too well as I spent several months there in 2006. This is a very small but not always a overly-friendly area. However these fake allegations of coalition forces murdering civilians is as old a trick as they come. The enemy forces persuade and force the locals to make these fake allegations all the time. I saw it first hand when we killed true threats and enemies to us, yet there would always be some group that claimed we killed some innocent person.
I understand they will make these claims, but I don’t understand why supposed reputable MSM organizations don’t put that caveat somewhere in the stories. A caveat that would highlight the fact that these accusations are usually unfounded and typically found to be exaggerated or completely untrue.
I love this quote in the article:
“All those killed were definitely Taliban,” he said. The boy, he said, was 13, but he, too, was Taliban.
It highlights that yes, sometimes kids are killed by coalition forces, but when those kids are acting on behalf of the enemy and trying to harm or kill our forces they are acceptable targets to be eliminated.
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and Afghan soldiers swooped into a village in a Taliban-heavy district early Thursday, fired their guns and came away. And in a scene repeated often in Afghanistan, one side cried murder and the other side claimed success. Late Thursday, this much was clear: Just after midnight, a team of soldiers launched an operation to detain a Taliban commander named Qari Faizullah in a village called Baran. The village is in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province, where the Taliban insurgency burns hot. Four males, including a boy, were killed in the raid, and another was detained. There the clarity ends. The U.S. command said four insurgents had been killed in the operation. Faizullah, the Americans said, was a “high-level Taliban commander” who helped lead attacks against U.S. forces and smuggled fighters and guns. The boy killed, the Americans said, was 15 and had reached for a gun and shown “hostile intent.” “No innocent Afghan civilians were harmed in this operation,” the command said. The police chief of Ghazni province, Gen. Kial Baz Shirzai, supported the U.S. account. “All those killed were definitely Taliban,” he said. The boy, he said, was 13, but he, too, was Taliban. Several residents of Baran said all the dead were civilians, and about 500 Afghans went to the provincial capital, Ghazni, to retrieve the bodies, which had been carried there by the soldiers. The villagers shouted anti-U.S. and anti-government slogans and called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to stop the attacks. In addition to those killed, two villagers were wounded, villagers said. “I have known all these people since my childhood, and they are civilians; they have no link to the Taliban or any militant group,” Abdul Manan, a Baran resident, said in a telephone interview. He joined the protest. Muhib Khapalwak, the local governor of Qara Bagh, said he would investigate. Operations like the one in Qara Bagh — night raids in which the course of events is unclear — occur regularly in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban dominate. But night operations are unpopular among Afghans. U.S. commanders have acknowledged the unhappiness; they have made protecting Afghan civilians their primary goal in the war. The Americans said recently they would tighten the rules governing night operations. Under the new rules, U.S. and other NATO forces would be required to explore alternatives, such as cordoning villages at night and moving in at sunrise.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has quietly rolled out its new Avenger unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) – formerly known as the Predator C – and completed its first three flights on April 4, 13 and 14.
While company officials are not calling it a stealthy aircraft, they will admit to a reduced radar signature. The 20-hour-endurance UCAV’s undeniably low-observable design offers clues about how it could be employed.
A weapons bay allows internal carriage of 500-pound bombs with GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions with GPS navigation and laser guidance kits attached. Given the aircraft’s 41-ft length – which will increase by at least two feet in the second test aircraft – the weapons bay appears to be 10-feet long.
The bay doors can be removed to allow installation of a semi-submerged, wide-area surveillance pod. The aircraft is designed to carry about 3,000 pounds of weapons and sensors. For an additional two hours of flying time, fuel tanks also can be installed in the weapons bay.
A long, featureless underside further provides an ideal location for a sensor such as an all-weather, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The wide-area surveillance system – to be provided by the U.S. Air Force – has yet to be defined. It would be carried by a specialized all-reconnaissance version of the Avenger.
The V-tail both deflects radar and shields infrared signature of the aircraft’s 4,800-pound thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545B turbofan. Predator C has two all-flying tail surfaces that each have two servos for flight-control redundancy.
The hump-backed design of the aircraft offers room enough for a serpentine exhaust to prevent radar observation of the turbine. Pratt has been developing an S-shaped exhaust system that both offers protection from radar and cooling to reduce the infrared signature. The engine is expected to provide an airspeed of at least 400 knots, but company officials say envelope expansion tests may prove the speed to be “considerably greater”. The UCAV’s operational altitude would be up to 60,000 feet.
The Avenger’s 17-degree sweep, 66-ft. span wing and tail are all aligned in plan view with one or other of the leading edges. This is the same shaping discipline used on classic stealth designs like the F-22 and B-2.
The cranked trailing edge provides the aerodynamic and structural benefits of a tapered wing and helps shield the engine inlet from radar. Other design elements, from nose to tail, help avoid radar cross-section hot spots that would be caused by a curved side.
The aircraft was designed from its inception so that the wing could be folded at the point where it cranks for storage in hangars or for aircraft carrier operations. The UCAV also comes with a tailhook, which suggests that carrier-related trials are planned.
The inner section of the cranked wing is deep, providing structural strength for carrier landings and generous fuel volume while maintaining a dry, folding outer wing.
Here is some hot news from the ground in Afghanistan….Apparently CNN now has setup a bureau in Kabul. This is probably the first time since 2002 I am sure.
Anyway, the word on the (dirt) street is that CNN does not care to cover any Humanitarian Assistance stories. All they want is direct action (kinetic) operation stories.
So I guess now that there is no more real bad news in Iraq, they have decided to go back to Afghanistan and only want to focus on the bad, bloody things there too. Who cares about girls being able to go to school, or children being fed, or farmers being able to grow something besides poppies and provide for their family? Not when there is blood and gore to be splashed across America’s 42″ flat screen plasma TVs every night.
This is why I refuse and always will refuse to watch that the Crappy News Network.
This could be rumor control as I have not been able to verify yet, but I am getting word that some active duty units may be getting extended in Afghanistan for several months. I am waiting to hear a verification, but so far the intel seems valid.
Stay tuned for more info on this one way or another
UPDATE #1- It appears that after vetting this intel through in-country sources that the extension is only for some units and it is only for 5 days. Heck you can spend 5 days in Bagram waiting to get a flight out, so I would not really consider that an extension.
