Bill Roggio « Feral Jundi

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Pakistan: The Long War Journal–Pakistan Launches South Waziristan Operation

Filed under: Pakistan — Tags: Bill Roggio, military, Pakistan, South Waziristan, war — Matt @ 11:42 AM

I wanted to post Bill’s running commentary on the whole thing, because he ‘builds the snowmobiles’ out of all of this information. He is also a war maven, and I highly recommend following the Long War Journal with Google Reader or similar.

Now on to this operation. This could be bloody for the Pakistanis. But this operation will certainly kill a few rats. More than likely many of these rats will scatter into other areas, but at least they won’t be able to call South Waziristan a ‘safe haven’. Which is good. The enemy should not have a comfortable winter hide out anywhere in Pakistan, and anything that keeps them on their toes and moving around is good.

I do know that operations like this are awesome opportunities for UAV operators and SIGINT folks. The more you can get the enemy off balance by moving him around and talking up a storm on cell phones or with messengers, the more opportunities we have for mistakes to happen. Especially when guys are fearful for their lives and desperate for support. So I am hoping this operation turns into a bonanza of intel for everyone. So go get those ‘miscreants’!!! –Matt

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The Long War Journal: Pakistan launches South Waziristan operation

Written by Bill Roggio

October 17, 2009

The Pakistani military has launched its much anticipated ground assault into the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan.

“The army has launched an operation after receiving orders from the government,” Major General Athar Abbas, the top military spokesman, told AFP. “The operation was launched early in the morning. Both air and ground troops are taking part.”

Infantry and armored columns have begun the advance into the Taliban controlled regions of Lahda, Makeen, and Sararogha in South Waziristan, where forces under the control of Hakeemullah and Waliur Rehman Mehsuh.

Large columns of troops have been reported to be moving south from Ramzak, northeast from Wana and Shakai, and northwest from Jandola. Army units are being backed by helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers.

The operation will focus on the eastern areas in South Waziristan that host Hakeemullah Mehsud’s Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Other powerful Taliban leaders such as Hafiz Gul Bahadar, Mullah Nazir, and Siraj Haqqani will not be targeted.

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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Afghanistan: Could PMC’s Be Used in the ‘Hold’ Phase of This New Strategy?

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: Afghanistan, Bill Roggio, contractors, Long War Journal, nagl, security contracting — Matt @ 9:27 PM

John Nagl, a counterinsurgency expert who was appointed last week to the defence policy board at the Pentagon, said: “We do not have enough troops to hold what we have cleared in Helmand. The additional American troops are a help, but they are insufficient.

“We have more fighting in Afghanistan in front of us than we have fighting behind us, full stop. This is going to be a harder fight than Iraq. Afghanistan needs [to create its own] national army of 250,000 to enable the allies to depart.”

At present the Afghan national army has about 92,000 troops, while the police force numbers 83,000. More US troops are needed to fill the gap, but first they would have to be diverted from Iraq.

Ok, I know this post is going to tweak a few people out there, because it is just ‘too crazy’ or ridiculous. How could we possibly use PMC’s or PSC’s to ‘hold’ villages?

Well, it’s easy, we first rework what PMC’s can or cannot do in the war (like give them the necessary tools and authorization to defend villages and AO’s) and we open the flood gates of contracts for such a thing. Then we insure the necessary architecture is in place to insure that the company in place is in fact doing good things and following the contract for that village. But none of this is new in the realm of how we set these things up, we just have to do it.

Here is another way to look at this. Take a good look at what the ‘holding’ troops are actually doing in these villages, and logically look at what jobs a company could conceivably perform during that holding operation. Contractors have been used in the defense on US bases, in disaster zones, and for protecting remote civilian camps in places like Iraq, the next progression to me, is using contractors to defend villages. If our goal is to protect people in Afghanistan from the Taliban, and we do not have enough troops to do that, then why not use contractors?

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Podcasts: COR Interviews Bill Roggio, Editor of The Long War Journal

Filed under: Afghanistan,Pakistan,Podcasts — Tags: Afghanistan, Bill Roggio, combat operator radio, Jake Allen, Long War Journal, Pakistan, Podcasts, Sri Lanka — Matt @ 1:44 PM

COR Interviews Bill Roggio, Editor of The Long War Journal.

I thoroughly enjoyed this interview, and Bill is just a wealth of information when it comes to this war. The Long War Journal is a highly effective ‘new media’ tool in getting the word out about this war and what we are doing right or wrong, and it was a pleasure to hear what Bill had to say. I hope Bill comes back again.

Some of the highlights for this show, was a quick down and dirty discussion about what is going on in Pakistan, and how important that conflict is to the rest of the war. Jake and Bill also discussed this latest attack on the Sri Lanken Cricket Team in Pakistan. They also discussed the latest appeasement actions of the Pakistani government in the Swat region, and how idiotic that is.

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