RANGER AGAINST WAR: War Stories <

Monday, May 04, 2009

War Stories


Q: What's the difference between a war story and a fairy tale?
A: A fairy tale starts, "Once upon a time. . ."

A war story starts, "This is no bullshit. . ."


Q: When is a fairy tale and a war story the same?

A: When it appears on the front page of the New York Times

_______________

What is the mission of the week in Afghanistan? What is to be accomplished by the fighting, violence and death being inflicted upon the Afghan society? Why is the mission statement as elusive as Osama bin Laden himself?

Or is what we are trying to achieve in Afghanistan a national security secret?


C. J. Chivers uplifting report,
Training Afghans as Bullets Fly: A Young Marine's Dream Job, spotlights two young Marines and spins a positive future for Afghanistan, extrapolated from the efforts of this earnest dream team:

"If all goes according to the Pentagon’s plan, this tiny perimeter — home to an Afghan platoon and two Marine Corps infantrymen — contains the future of Afghanistan. The Obama administration hopes that eventually the Afghan soldiers within will become self-sufficient, allowing the fight against the Taliban to be shifted to local hands."

Always the ubiquitous "hope" when the Obama administration refers to U.S. military objectives in Afghanistan. Does the entire U.S. policy fall upon the backs of two USMC grunts?


"There are nearly 30 Afghan soldiers here. Their senior mentor, Cpl. Sean P. Conroy, of Carmel, N.Y., is 25 years old. His assistant, Lance Cpl. Brandon J. Murray, of Fort Myers, Fla., is 21.

"On the ground, far from the generals in Kabul and the policy makers in Washington, the hour-by-hour conduct of the war rests in part in the deeds of men this young, who have been given latitude to lead as their training and instincts guide them."

The problem is, Lance Corporals are not advisers, have not been trained as advisers and lack the experience level or knowledge to train a Platoon-level element. Lance Corporals are trained at the fire-team level. They are not squad leaders or platoon sergeants, but fire team leaders -- plain an simple.


In a Counterinsurgency environment, advisers must be trained before they can train up others. During the Vietnam war, advisers were trained at Ft. Bragg, attending the Military Assistance Training Adviser course (MATA). MATA was a three-month course for those going to advisory slots.


Yet even with this specialized training, the advisory aspect of that war didn't exactly pan out. And now we are placing this burden upon simple E-4 level grunts? Never happen, G.I.!


This is not a critique of the Lance Corporals, but the system that cannot come up with anything that is strategic in concept and executed at the tactical level. The U.S. is surging in Afghanistan, but lacks the civic action and advisory capabilities -- both civilian and military -- and is plagued by a dearth of long-term plans or considerations.


Sort of reminds Ranger of the VN war, and we know how that one ended. If in doubt, look at the label in your skivvies. At least we get cheap underwear out of that war.


What will be the benefit of Afghanistan?

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5 Comments:

Blogger FDChief said...

OK this is fucking nuts.

Two joes - regular, government-issue, USMC joes? - to "train" a short platoon of Afghan grunts?

Don't tell me that these guys speak Pashto, or Urdu, or whatever-the-hell their jundis speak, 'cause I know for a fact they don't. So technically, they're not even training these guys. They're training the interpreter, who then passes their instructions on to the gang.

And, more to the point, this is SEVEN YEARS after the Taliban got tossed. The so-called National Army has had the time between Bunker Hill and Yorktown to get their shit together - and they still need a couple of yay-hoo corporals from Camp Pendleton to "train" them?

WASF.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 7:36:00 AM GMT-5  
Anonymous sheerahkahn said...

I like the dream aspect of this Ranger, it has all the qualities of a Hollywood movie, an uplifting story, and it just stirs the cockles of the American heart.
Think about it, two young Marine L.Corporals, fine upstanding enlisted men, good American boys, probably some fine shooters with their marksmen and expert medals, and doing their best to galvanize the locals to fight for their right to...and this is where we go into the absurd...party!

Because really, as much as I love me some Marines, and as much as I'm all for apple pie, mom, and all things Red, White, with a splotch of Blue thirty (30) locals with two Marines does not an Army beginnings make.
A nice raiding force, sure, a bridge guard, you bet, a village police unit, okeydokey, but a full on national military?
And so yes, the fairy tale slips in where it doesn't belong, and with Chief, I can only /facepalm and hope that some officer, somewhere in the chain of command says, "You know, this idea is sh*t, and I'm done sitting on it."

I'm serious Jim, the learning curve of our current officer corps is approaching the point of Darwinian selection, and I fear that we'll loose good soldiers because the weaker aspects of our species are in charge of our assets.
We have soldiers there, not lemmings for christ sake!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 11:25:00 AM GMT-5  
Blogger Terrible said...

What will the benefit be? It's already here and has been since weeks after the invasion. Cheap heroin! Even in small rural towns now. Who actually benefits from this I wouldn't speculate on but I know it isn't you or me.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 12:38:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

lance corporals? E4's? advisors?

lance corporals are barely qualified to take orders from guys who know what the hell they are doing and pass them on to privates.

as far as the cheap heroin goes, i have already heard horror stories of guys bringing stuff back and having it hit the streets around oceanside and lejune.

what is the objective? nobody knows. every time it is asked they mumble about stuff like "not a threat to its neighbors and a prosperous democracy."

well, they don't have to worry much. one of alexander's biggest problems when he was trying to slog through there was that his troops were getting strung out on pank and nazz. (opium and hashish)

alexander tried to cope by beefing up the wine rations, but then wine became too expensive.

i would be shocked, pleasantly shocked, if the CIA spook types didn't reinstitute the "long silver train" of g.i. coffins full of dope to fund their more nefarious schemes.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 4:25:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger rangeragainstwar said...

FDChief,
Really we don't know if this is a platoon(minus), this may be what they are gonna utilize as their to&e. Who knows? And nobody is telling us.

Sheerahkhan,
Yep, it'd make a great movie- we could call it - For whom the bells toll. But maybe we've already done that one.
This will not float as a movie b/c the entire squad must be present to fill out all the archetypal characters ala Battle Cry by Uris.

MB,
1LT's are barely qualified as MATA types and that's what carried the RVN war as advisors.
E4's are surely not in the frame to successfully train up a platoon. But as you know even if they did so in a glorius manner this will still not lead to anything of value being achieved.

Thanks all, jim

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 10:06:00 AM GMT-5  

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