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.
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