01 October 2012
Camp Bastion Sanger circa 2011. Camp Bastion is a major foothold in Afghanistan.
If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. - Sun Tzu, the Art of War
Despite the past eleven years in Afghanistan, U.S. ground troops are less prepared than ever for “small wars.” We have become so dependent on gadgets and contractors that we would not know what to do without them. Contractors provide much of the security at major bases in Afghanistan, and even on many smaller bases.
We like to use contractors because they are cheaper and politically expedient. When they are killed by car bombs at the gates, they are not added to the only body count that Americans care about. Leaders do not have to deal with photographs of grieving families.
When TCN (Third Country National) contractors are maimed, we can send them home to Africa or Nepal, and wash our hands while avoiding burdensome veterans’ issues. Contractors have no political or moral clout. They are our mercenaries. Using mercenaries makes business and political sense.
Many of our security contractors are Afghans. Does this make military sense?
A source mentioned that guard towers (known as “sangers”) were frequently empty at BLS. BLS refers to the Bastion, Leatherneck, Shorbak complex.
I witnessed a similar incident last year in Zhari. Zhari was, and remains, one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.
One night in Zhari, the contracted Afghan guards left their post, which was just ten seconds away from the tents where 4-4 Cav Soldiers lived, and a few tents down from my own. The sanger appeared to be empty. I looked inside. They were gone. For obvious security reasons, I did not publish this.
Screen grab from Taliban video, allegedly made before the Bastion attack.
On 14 September 2012, a small band of Taliban breached the defenses of one of the most heavily guarded bases in the world, and effectively destroyed a Marine Corps Harrier squadron. They did this in the open desert.
Planning the Bastion attack.
Plainly, the enemy knew more about our BLS defenses vs. threat than did our commanders in Kabul, or for that matter, the ones at BLS. To plan, rehearse, and execute this attack, the enemy first had to identify a persistent weakness.
Many questions regarding the Bastion attack remain: Who was tasked to be in those sangers? Were all of the sangers manned? If so, were they fully manned? If the guards were there, were they awake? Were they under the influence of narcotics? (A persistent problem in Afghanistan.)
How did fifteen attackers get near the perimeter without being spotted and shot?
BLS defenses circa 2011.
An unguarded obstacle is just a speed bump. The greatest value of these obstructions is to slow and canalize the enemy. If defenders are not ready, the attackers are coming in.
Maxim: a wall is only as strong as the people defending it. This is as true today as it was when the Great Wall was built.
Maxim: a wall is no stronger than its weakest part. This is typically at the gates, but not always.
Knowing that a sanger is unguarded, you can quickly think of many ways to breach the fence: car bomb, motorbike bomb, suicide vest, satchel charge, ladder, shovel, pole-vault, or just crash it with a truck, sensors be dammed. On this moonless night, the audacious seized the initiative until the defenders could get their boots and body armor on, and figure out what had happened
If they were thinking a little bigger, the enemy might swarm in with a hundred motorbike bombs and engage force on force. Afghans are known for swarming, but their weakness has been to assemble too long in one area, and then our guys kill them efficiently.
And so the enemy switched to smaller units, which we touted as evidence of looming victory. It was just a change in tactics. Luckily, the Taliban have not mastered a technique of quickly massing from many directions, and launching multi-pronged attacks from the march. They are good at small-unit tactics in their home environments, but have difficulty with broad coordination.
They come like mosquitoes in the jungle. There is (apparently) no mosquito king who sounds a trumpet to arms, but where you go, the local mosquitoes rise up for blood. You whack some of them, they get some blood and give you malaria, and everyone claims victory.
Screengrab from enemy video: The barrels in the drawing are the hangars
Some may cry “OPSEC” over these images, but the enemy already has good photos, intel and target sketches. The attack and the video prove that.
(Admin note: despite accusations by members of Soldiers Angels, and stay-at-home milbloggers, I have never been accused of OPSEC violations by any military authority. The only complaints come from couch generals and basement milbloggers.)
In this screen grab, the enemy is practicing fence cutting. Notice the shoes. Villagers in southern Afghanistan do not wear athletic shoes. Normally they wear sandals, or old shoes that are too small or too large. A group of young men wearing sports shoes in southern Afghanistan is a WARNING. Though these guys are wearing American uniforms, those shoes are enemy uniform.
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Comments
George Will said the best ideas are carried in books. To really influence, do a book again!
At two guards per post you would need 21,126 guards. I assume you want them guarded 24 hours a day so you’d then need three shifts. So that’s 63,380 guards to man the perimeter for one day.
And who’s going to pay for that, all the while having our taxes lowered too?
101st ABN was controlling the Syrian border just fine in 2003/2004 until State stopped them. What's your point? It's just will to do the job and politicians not meddling.
Heavily invaded areas are full of debris, environmental destruction, death and drugs. Give us your insight, BSJ, on how to solve the problem and not include at least some fencing in the heaviest illegal trafficking areas.
BTW, what do illegals cost us in benefits, child payments, schooling, prison incarceration, theft, crime, loss of jobs which should go to Americans?
A great question is, how will Israel's strike on Iran hinder our operations in western Pakistan, to include, movement of supplies?
Too many false alarms?
And we have some really really good stuff in the inventory, but if it is not being installed, maintained, and used properly, then it is about as useful as tits on a boar
As to false alarms, there is mitigation for that, highly trained operators and maintainers is the best mitigation against false alarms and potential breaches
And the all time best advice by General Sun..
The best way win a war is by never having to fight at all, by making your enemy believe you cannot be defeated
Ever heard of "peace through strength"
There is book out called the Art of War in Business that does the correlation, do a search engine query
But if you get a copy of Art of War or do web search for same all you have to do is swap some terms and there you are, AOW in Business, swap "enemy" for "competitor", swap "spies" and intelligence" for "data mining", "troops" for "employees", that pretty much covers it, all the other details should be obvious if you already have management experience
As I stated before a moat (what we now call anti-tank ditches) and some well documented and marked (where they field is) anti-personel mines made of metal or with a hunk of metal under them would have made the attack near impossible. The moat (with razor wire in the bottom would prevent trucks and motor bike assaults and AP mines would have stopped - or at least slowed them down or given notice - of attackers on foot.
Jack E. Hammond
PS> If the Iranians do help the Taliban with weapons big time, it will probably be two items: 1> 122mm and 107mm rockets with submunitions/bo mblets and a the Bofors RBS-70. The RBS-70 is a laser beam rider and while it launch can be detected seconds before there is no known way to decoy it or jam it after launch. Di a google of "army recognition RBS-70" for an article I wrote many moon ago on it if curious.
http://www.theremnant.com/allenby.html
Obviously, they did their job, what burns me up with anger the most is that they are wearing U.S. Army uniforms prior to their suicidal assault operations.
I am sure they went on the suicidal mission 5 mintunes later then the U.S. base was attacked.
This should have not happened. Now is not the time to blame or point fingers. Now is the time to get our stuff together, stop with lax security, plant mines and punji stakes whatever it takes to beef up security etc.
The Tablian obviously did their job. That is what I meant by taking some time to count what the enemy can or can not do and we need to respect the dangers of what the Tablian is capable of.
I am an American citizen at home and to see the homemade map of the Tablian planning the attacks on our troops is the same way the Tablian planned the Sept 11th airplane murders of American civilians makes me angry and sad.
This is a glimpse into the black banner of al Qaeda and Tablian and the embassy attacks They waved the black banner of death. There should be no illusions what these very bad men are up to.
The American People need to go to church and form praying & fasting circles for the U.S. Troops and it is time the U.S Military as a whole, both generals to enlisted needs to stick together and stop the in-fighting. Look at what needs to be done to stop the al Qaeda & Tablian from doing their jobs.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015944/Soldiers-ordered-shoot-Taliban-planters---WAKES-UP-locals.html
" Farmers are to collect harvests during daytime only. Be in your houses at nighttime. Anyone who is found roaming the countryside at night will be shot ! No apologies or payments will be asked nor given. "
Post this to trees & farms and everywhere. There will be no excuses.
I would have loved to have you come visit us in far flung Farah and capture our story. I think you would have been surprised to find the progress we have made here with our Afghan partners. Maybe it is because we are a Navy based unit. We have had our setbacks like everyone else, I won’t deny that. However, I wish even half the people here would go to the DVIDS website and see what we have been accomplishing, but too many people rely on mainstream media to tell them what is happening in the world and they believe they are getting the full story. If it bleeds, it leads, right?
I left California 15 months ago and I’m ready as hell to get back but I will be leaving here preparing for the day when the Navy will send me back here (the home of the Great Game) for Number three.
Prosit nobis similibusque... damnabiliter paucibus
“I would be the one. The one to go back and speak. A pain beyond all previous now seized me. Sweet life itself, even the desperately sought chance to tell the tale, suddenly seemed unendurable alongside the pain of having to take leave of these whom I had come so to love.” Steven Pressfield - Gates of Fire
Indeed, here's to you and thanks from the very bottom of our hearts for your genuine patriotism and service of freedom. May God watch over you and yours, keep you and all our guys/gals safe, and bring all of y'all home well and whole.
http://www.dvidshub.net/
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