Feral Jundi

   This is the question to ask. Did we kill hundreds of Taliban, or did eight of our own die?  Do you call this a success or a failure?  I mean in wars, people die, and battles often require an investment in blood.  So did we get a return on investment in this battle?  That is what I want to hear about.

   What a fight I tell you, and my heart goes out to the friends and families of the fallen.  I am sure this attack will be studied just like the Wanat attack, and we will be making adjustments if needed.  Or not.  War is a dirty and deadly business, and sometimes stuff like this happens and soldiers die.  I am not going to comment on what they did right or wrong, just emphasize that we must learn from the incident. There are always lessons to be learned.

    But back to the reporting on this. One thing I would like to hear from the MSM one of these days, is how many Taliban we killed in skirmishes like this. I want the Taliban to be sick to their stomaches from all the death of their fellow jihadists, when they read reports like this.  I want them to know, that they just lost a lot of folks because of this attack.  The Taliban are only motivated and empowered, when the MSM reports on this as some kind of tragic loss on our side.        Reportage seems to always emphasize how many we lost, and it never focuses on what was gained in these types of incidents.  We could have killed hundreds in this skirmish, yet I am told to focus on something else.

     Don’t get me wrong though, because every death on the Afghan and Coalition side is tragic. It’s just in a war we should also try to promote what we are doing right, and say ‘hey, that was one hell of a fight boys, good job’.  That is the least we could do, to honor the deaths who fell in that battle.

   The other angle on this one is the defense of a base.  This attack emphasizes the importance of having your defenses well thought out and properly resourced.  Don’t be a marshmallow eater, and take the easy way out on preparing the defense.  If you apply Kaizen to your defense, and continue to spitball ideas on how to repel the various types of attacks out there, then you are in the right. Your defense should be hardened, flexible, random, surprising, and show constant vigilance and strength. Your defense should only enhance your OODA, not hinder it. You must always look at your defense through the eyes of the enemy, and think how you would attack your position. You should also be studying other attacks in that region, and learn all you can from these in order to adjust your own defenses. Lot’s to think about, and this latest attack must be studied over and over in order to gain any lessons learned.-Matt

P.S. – I think Bill over at Long War Journal had a far better treatment of what happened, and has a far better title for the incident: US, Afghan Troops Beat Back Bold Enemy Assault in Eastern Afghanistan

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8 US troops killed in fierce Afghan fighting

By ROBERT H. REID and RAHIM FAIEZ (AP)

October 4, 2009

KABUL — Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said Sunday.

The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war.

It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, plans to shift U.S. troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new strategy to focus on protecting Afghan civilians.

U.S. troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and airstrikes Saturday to repel the attackers, inflicting “heavy enemy casualties,” according to a NATO statement. Fighting persisted in the area Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said the assailants included a mix of “tribal militias,” Taliban and fighters loyal to Sirajudin Haqqani, an al-Qaida-linked militant based in sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Afghan authorities said the hostile force included fighters who had been driven out of the Swat Valley of neighboring Pakistan after a Pakistani military offensive there last spring.

“This was a complex attack in a difficult area,” U.S. Col. Randy George, the area commander, said in a statement. “Both the U.S. and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together.”

Details of the attack remained unclear Sunday and there were conflicting reports of Afghan losses due to poor communications in the area, located just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Pakistani border and about 150 miles (230 kilometers) from Kabul.

A NATO statement said the attacks were launched from a mosque and a nearby village on opposite sides of a hill, which included the two outposts — one mostly American position on the summit and another mostly Afghan police garrison on a lower slope.

NATO said eight Americans and two Afghan security troopers were killed.

An Afghan military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security issues, said three Afghan soldiers and one policeman had been killed in two days of fighting. He also said at least seven Afghan army soldiers were missing and feared captured.

In addition, provincial police chief Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh said 15 Afghan policemen had been captured, including the local police chief and his deputy. Jangulbagh estimated that about 300 militants took part in the attack.

“Kamdesh is one of the most dangerous areas of Nuristan province,” he said, noting that the area is across the border from parts of Pakistan where al-Qaida-linked militants operate.

Jangulbagh said that after Pakistani forces drove militants from most of the Swat Valley five months ago, militants “received orders to come to Nuristan and destabilize the situation.”

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said militants overran both outposts, but U.S. spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said U.S. troops were holding the outposts Sunday. She also said a roadside bomb killed a U.S. service member southwest of Kabul on Saturday, bringing the U.S. death toll for the month to 15.

The fighting occurred in a region where towering mountains and dense pine forests have long served as a staging area for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who move freely across the Pakistani frontier.

The region was a key staging area for Arab militants who fought alongside Afghan warriors during the U.S.-backed war against the Soviets in the 1980s and is one of the few parts of South Asia where Muslims follow the hardline Wahhabi sect of Islam.

The weekend fighting was reminiscent of the July 2008 battle of Wanat when an estimated 200 militants stormed an outpost defended by about 70 U.S. and Afghan soldiers, nearly overrunning the position.

Last week, Army Gen. David Petraeus ordered a new investigation into the Wanat fighting due to allegations of mismanagement by senior commanders.

The Wanat fighting convinced U.S. commanders that they should move Western forces away from remote areas where foreigners are unwelcome to more populated parts of the country, closing outposts such as the ones attacked Saturday.

However, the governor of Nuristan, Jamaludin Badar, complained that more — not fewer — Western troops should be sent to the area to stop infiltration from Pakistan.

“We had concerns about security in Kamdesh and we have already asked for extra forces,” he told The Associated Press. “If there are fewer security forces, this sort of thing will happen again.”

He also complained about a lack of coordination between international forces and Afghans.

Associated Press Writers Rahim Faiez and Lori Hinnant in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

Story here.