What is absurd is you, a conventionally minded soldier by your own admission, attempting to tell the unconventionally minded soldier(s) what our job is or what it is that we do. FID and UW are two sides of the same coin (no pun intended) at different times in the continuum of war.
I agree and I was not telling anyone what his or her job is, I was saying that I thought that FID was a mission of SF. At least it listed as one, I have not the smallest clue as to how you guys operate or think. However I know that a few ODA’s and a few other SOF personal fought A-stan in the beginning, and the masses coming from Afghani’s. Was it not? So why is it that now you need a bunch of conventional to pull security for you and hold blocking positions?
Maybe b/c you could not trust the Afghani’s then and you can’t trust them now? That seem’ s to be whatever SF written book has said since OEF kicked off.
Now that that is out of the way. Since conventional commanders saw the writing on the wall (when a couple handfuls of SF soldiers conquered an entire country without their heavy handed approach to warfare) it has been SF supporting a conventional commanders intent in this war. A war quite frankly they havent a clue how to fight so instead they take a "kill them all" mentality which has filtered down to Joe. It is the exact opposite of the way it should be in Afghanistan.
The kill them all mentality is bread into you from day one; it had nothing to do with Afghanistan. When you lose a guy, you want to punish those who did. The problem is there are no (one person) so we turning the fucking heat up on everyone. Is it wrong? Hell yeah it is, but to think I am going to let my PSG/ TL’s death go unanswered is a big fucking no-go! The big picture is that conventional has no business in COIN operation b/c we are too big and we are not going to allow our people to die unanswered! And that is where you Public support falls b/c when there is a small force out of the news and out of the lime light, less of you die and less is publicized to in rage the public.
Furthermore, the security of the Afghan people is directly linked to the security of America. As long as AQ and the Taliban have a safe haven to spread their vile hatred, recruit the weak minded, and train them Americans will continue to die where they do so is of little importance.
I disagree, the stability of the afghan people is essential to the American peoples security. But it needs to come from with in; the afghan people need to step up, with the help of a small unconventional force conducting FID operations to assist them in doing so. Not a massive conventional force policing them and enforcing conventional rules, also being the primary target for the insurgents. Thus causing a lower support by the American public, due to a growing death toll of young American soldiers.
Apples and Oranges...
Those were conventional wars, fought against an enemy who wore uniforms, who fought with conventional methods... Vietnam was lost before we got started good. It was lost on the streets here in America, not in the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. It was lost because America didnt have the stomach for war, the same is true today...
Again you are proving my point; the conventional force has no business in an unconventional war where FID/ COIN is the primary mission. Of course that is in order for it to work, something that has yet to happen b/c conventional has been involved in some level.
Noone said conventional doesnt work. It has its place. The trouble is the conventional commanders dont seem to know what they dont know. And regardless of how many times they are told so they dont seem to want to accept the fact that tanks and infantry divisions cant do it all...
I fully agree however if you are going to put conventional in the game, it has to fall with in the conventional game plan. Meaning something for tanks and infantry divisions to shoot at, b/c again we are not just going to sit around and die. I fully agree that in order for the modern version of COIN to work, conventional needs to stay out of the game plan.
JAB: I see where you are trying to go, but you are woefully out of your depth in this discussion. Your heavy-handed approach to this is what has gotten us to where we are today in OEF... In all honesty you need to do a little more reading on COIN and a lot less posting
Crip