Jeff Huber (@ at-largely): Wham, Bam Bananastan

Wham, Bam Bananastan
Posted by Jeff Huber

“If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” -- Sun Tzu


The New York Times reports that those wily guerillas in Afghanistan are throwing a curve ball at us. They’re fighting back, the so-and-sos, and it sounds like they know how to do it. “In Iraq, they hit you and run,” says one Marine who served three combat tours in Iraq’s deadly Anbar Province. “But these guys stick around and maneuver on you.”


“One force will put enough fire down so you have to keep your heads down, then another force will maneuver around to your side to try to kill you,” says another Marine. “That’s the same thing we do.”


Do you think maybe they do the same thing we do because we were the ones who armed, trained and funded them to drive out the Soviets? And do you think maybe some of those Afghan guerillas who drove the Soviets out remember how they did it?


We should have known we were up against a savvy enemy when, in June 2005, they set a trap for one of our helicopters and shot it down, killing 16 U.S. troops on board. The helicopter was flying in to rescue a reconnaissance team that was missing in mountainous terrain. The Afghan fighters had seen both the Soviets and us conduct this type of operation many times. There are only so many suitable landing zones in mountains. You don’t need radios or cell phones or even smoke signals to coordinate this type of ambush. All you have to do is put a couple of guys with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles at the landing zones and tell them to wait for a helicopter to show up. It’s telling that the brass in charge of our forces didn’t realize the Afghan fighters would be smart enough to work out a tactic that simple.


In early July the Marines mounted an offensive in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, and encountered less resistance than they anticipated. It’s clear to the Marines, the Times notes, “that Taliban fighters made a calculated decision: to retreat and regroup to fight where and when they choose.” In this regard too, the Taliban display superior intelligence to our senior military and civilian national security leadership.

"In war,” Sun Tzu admonished, “the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory."

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http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/08/wham-bam-bananastan.html