Asymmetrical Warfare

By Semperpapa

I too can use the fancy words, just like members of Congress. Asymmetrical Warfare: something that rolls over the tongue, adding importance to the statements of IQ-challenged individuals like Barbara Boxer.
And yet really important words when spoken by those in the Military as they have the responsibility to conduct a war like any other.

Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal had an article on February 21 that just explained, once again, the obstacles our Military is facing in Afghanistan.
The story involves a Marine Capt. Anthony Zinni, who was monitoring the images from a Predator UAV flying over the battlefield near Marjah. The images from the drone were clear: four terrorists in the process to plant an IED on a road where a Marine convoy was due to pass in couple of hours.
Capt. Zinni had the choice to call in a strike on the terrorists, but, according to the article, the current ROE dictated that authorization was requested, so Capt. Zinni did just that, asking the Judge Advocate representative with the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Capt. Andrew, for counsel.
The images being so telling, authorization was given, but the strike had to be aborted when some children wondered into the strike zone.

The call was a correct one, without any doubt in my mind, on several levels, from the humanitarian to the strategic one, as nobody wants to impart death on innocent civilian, especially children (BTW, the Marine convoy was able to defeat the threat upon reaching the spot, so the result was only that the four bad guys got away).
But what this incident demonstrate is the enormous difficulties our Military is facing in its quest to defeat an enemy that uses our own ROE to fight us.

The offensive now just 12 days old in Marjah, is probably as good an example as any to corroborate my thoughts.
Our forces are advancing on a brutal terrain littered with IEDs and booby traps of all kinds, a battlefield the enemy had plenty of time to prepare for the purpose of slowing down Coalition Forces, emphasis to be on the words “slowing down”, because the outcome of the operation is not in doubt, just the cost.

When the offensive begun on 12 February, the Media was all over it, the promise of a blood bath being so inebriating for the misinformation weasels that one could almost see the drool oozing, but the careful advance aimed at curtailing not only Military but especially civilian casualties, obviously dampened the enthusiasm, removing much of the reporting from the front pages.

Just few days into the operation, some so-called news outlets started to speak of ISAF forces being “bogged down”. Headlines became limited to reporting incidents of civilian casualties, while stories like the one reported by Mr. Phillips on the WSJ are relegated to the public who willingly remains in tune with the events in Marjah.

And when the Media headlines anything from the operation it usually relates to some event that caused civilian casualties. When few days after the start of the offensive a rocket fired by Coalition forces leveled a small building, the headlines were that the missile had been fired and as it missed the target, it struck the home killing 12 civilians. Red meat for the peaceniks!
Conversely, the report that the rocket had been fired at the right target, in pursuit of four terrorists that were trying to escape after attacking our forces and that they sought refuge in a home they knew contained innocent civilians, was mentioned as a side note by reporting agencies.

What our Military commanders in the field are dealing with is an enemy that hides behind innocent civilians to live to fight another day. But also an enemy that has no reservations about sacrificing his life and have innocents die in the process for the pure purpose of propaganda.
And yet our forces are slowly prevailing, allowing the Afghan people the possibility to capitalize on the sacrifice of total strangers to eventually build a better life for themselves. We are not imposing a specific way of life, but we are attempting to give a chance to a whole people to improve their chance at a greater self determination, while denying terrorists safe heaven.

The victory achieved in Iraq is a sample of the blood and sacrifice of our troops to give the people of Iraq a better future. Only time will tell the long term success for the Iraqi government to maintain the level of democracy that fits their social standards, but there is no doubt that once again American sacrifice has given a whole country a chance for a better future, while protecting our own.

And Afghanistan will be another success story, in spite of defeatism and apathy.

Just my thoughts.