bobdina
10-10-2009, 02:07 PM
Symposium: Conventional tactics prevent victory in Afghanistan
By Amy McCullough
amccullough@militarytimes.com
The top general in Afghanistan believes conventional military tac*tics, including the fight to keep troops safe, are interfering with efforts to win over the Afghan people.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose review of the war continues to cause considerable debate, said coalition forces face defeat unless they alter the way they operate.
“At the end of the day we don’t win by destroying the Taliban,” he said recently. “We don’t win by body count. We don’t win by the number of successful military raids or attacks. We win when the people decide to win.” Top military and academic lead*ers echoed McChrystal’s senti*ment in late September during a one-day symposium on counterin*surgency in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by Marine Corps Uni*versity and the Marine Corps Uni*versity Foundation, the event took place just days after McChrystal’s much anticipated assessment of the situation in Afghanistan was made public.
Panelists at the symposium — called “Counterinsurgency Lead*ership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond” — agreed tactical leaders are moving in the right direction, but many said a better overarch*ing strategy is needed to guide them.
Thomas Ricks, author of two books about the U.S. military cam*paign in Iraq, said senior leaders must think critically about the challenges in Afghanistan and be able to recognize when they are given insufficient tools.
“When you have a military that is tactically proficient, without an adequate strategy to guide you, effectively you are arriving at high speeds in a Ferrari without a steering wheel,” Ricks said.
The key, panelists said, is inte*grating with the local community full-time and taking the time to learn and understand the local culture.
Leaders must dedicate the hours to seeking out community leaders willing to step forward and help organize their neighbor*hoods, while developing a commu*nication campaign with a clear, simple message detailing what the U.S. is trying to accomplish, said retired Army Col. Peter Man*soor, former executive officer to U.S. Central Command comman*der Gen. David Petraeus when he was in charge of Multi-National Force-Iraq.
Former Marine Bing West, who served as an infantry officer in Vietnam and later as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration, said lead*ers have to consider how much risk they are willing to assume moving forward.
Specifically, he said, U.S. forces need to ensure they are either killing the enemy or making more arrests, which he said average only about one every two months for an American battalion.
McChrystal is seeking substan*tially more troops for the war effort, which he said would “buy time” as Afghan military and police forces are improved with an eye toward taking control of security by 2013. President Barack Obama met with top military advisers, including Petraeus and McChrys*tal, at the end of September to dis* cuss realigning the mission in Afghanistan.
Troops now experience almost 4½ times as many improvised explosive ordnance incidents as they did two years ago, according to the Joint IED Defeat Organiza*tion, which leads the Defense Department’s counter-IED efforts. But Marine Col. David J. Furness, the Corps’ legislative liaison to the House of Representatives who has been to Afghanistan 10 times with congressional delegations, argues that those numbers might be reduced dramatically if troops didn’t have to drive 90 miles from their base just to get to the one vil*lage in their area of operations.
“The first thing we should do is get rid of these big bases,” said Furness, who also commanded Battalion Landing Team 1, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s ground combat element, while deployed to Iraq in 2004-05. “We want everybody to live on [forward operating bases] because it’s better for force protection, but it prevents us from living with the people.” Ë
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Amy McCullough
amccullough@militarytimes.com
The top general in Afghanistan believes conventional military tac*tics, including the fight to keep troops safe, are interfering with efforts to win over the Afghan people.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose review of the war continues to cause considerable debate, said coalition forces face defeat unless they alter the way they operate.
“At the end of the day we don’t win by destroying the Taliban,” he said recently. “We don’t win by body count. We don’t win by the number of successful military raids or attacks. We win when the people decide to win.” Top military and academic lead*ers echoed McChrystal’s senti*ment in late September during a one-day symposium on counterin*surgency in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by Marine Corps Uni*versity and the Marine Corps Uni*versity Foundation, the event took place just days after McChrystal’s much anticipated assessment of the situation in Afghanistan was made public.
Panelists at the symposium — called “Counterinsurgency Lead*ership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond” — agreed tactical leaders are moving in the right direction, but many said a better overarch*ing strategy is needed to guide them.
Thomas Ricks, author of two books about the U.S. military cam*paign in Iraq, said senior leaders must think critically about the challenges in Afghanistan and be able to recognize when they are given insufficient tools.
“When you have a military that is tactically proficient, without an adequate strategy to guide you, effectively you are arriving at high speeds in a Ferrari without a steering wheel,” Ricks said.
The key, panelists said, is inte*grating with the local community full-time and taking the time to learn and understand the local culture.
Leaders must dedicate the hours to seeking out community leaders willing to step forward and help organize their neighbor*hoods, while developing a commu*nication campaign with a clear, simple message detailing what the U.S. is trying to accomplish, said retired Army Col. Peter Man*soor, former executive officer to U.S. Central Command comman*der Gen. David Petraeus when he was in charge of Multi-National Force-Iraq.
Former Marine Bing West, who served as an infantry officer in Vietnam and later as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration, said lead*ers have to consider how much risk they are willing to assume moving forward.
Specifically, he said, U.S. forces need to ensure they are either killing the enemy or making more arrests, which he said average only about one every two months for an American battalion.
McChrystal is seeking substan*tially more troops for the war effort, which he said would “buy time” as Afghan military and police forces are improved with an eye toward taking control of security by 2013. President Barack Obama met with top military advisers, including Petraeus and McChrys*tal, at the end of September to dis* cuss realigning the mission in Afghanistan.
Troops now experience almost 4½ times as many improvised explosive ordnance incidents as they did two years ago, according to the Joint IED Defeat Organiza*tion, which leads the Defense Department’s counter-IED efforts. But Marine Col. David J. Furness, the Corps’ legislative liaison to the House of Representatives who has been to Afghanistan 10 times with congressional delegations, argues that those numbers might be reduced dramatically if troops didn’t have to drive 90 miles from their base just to get to the one vil*lage in their area of operations.
“The first thing we should do is get rid of these big bases,” said Furness, who also commanded Battalion Landing Team 1, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s ground combat element, while deployed to Iraq in 2004-05. “We want everybody to live on [forward operating bases] because it’s better for force protection, but it prevents us from living with the people.” Ë
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.