Thoughts on Operations in Southern Afghanistan
Thoughts on Operations in Southern Afghanistan – Major General (Ret.) Jim Molan at Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter.
Due to the dramatic failure of NATO to conduct out-of-area operations, making NATO irrelevant as a military force, the US has taken over the Afghan war, and is trying very hard to resource it. NATO had an adequate strategy but failed to resource it due to lack of will and experience. The US has extraordinary experience, will have less trouble resourcing its strategy but is unlikely to get near an adequate number of troops until about 2011.
The current reinforcement of 21,000 US troops is not a ‘surge’ in the Iraq sense but a small start of what must become a large US build-up. Compared to the magnitude of Afghanistan’s problems, 21,000 is better than nothing, but is a drop in a bucket.
It is only fair to see the current US Marine operation in southern Helmand (Operation KHANJAR) as the first operation conducted under the March 2009 Obama strategy, the military part of which was ‘disrupt, dismantle and destroy’. The Marine operation is complemented by UK operations to the north and Pakistan operations to the south, with a strong rhetorical focus on protecting the population, controlling collateral damage and re-establishing governance.
There is unlikely to be anything like a decisive result out of this operation, even in the local area in the short term. Marine commanders will talk up the operation because that is what you do, and the media, Congress and commentators will project their own hopes and desires onto the operation, and then castigate the Marines for not meeting them…
Much more at The Interpreter.