No Fire Support; No Glasses; More 'Chai'; No Warrior Friendly Change!

For those who held out hope that the ROE was going to undergo a 'positive transformation' under General Petraeus, you will be disappointed. This is the point where I am suppose to say; 'I told you so'.

The truth is that there is very little satisfaction in a comment like that because in almost every case; the moment has passed. The salient points, the truths, the opportunities for change have usually passed; subtly, unnoticed and the great harm those points might have stopped, will, in this case, most certainly lead to the death of someone's loved one; a cost of arrogance.

When the initial story broke 3 days ago, it went almost entirely unnoticed and even for those who read it, the most egregious element of the story seemed to be missed entirely and that is the highlighting of General Petraeus's unchallenged ego. In a war that has seen a growing number of well-informed, well-educated and experienced individuals challenging the strategy and it's ROE, there is also this relentless effort to push forward even in light of a growing body of evidence that it is a losing strategy. Even the entire spectrum of the media seems incapacitated or unwilling to accept the possibility that there seems to be a problem.

The Gulf Oil Spill, the Boy Scouts, Charlie Rangel's broken compass, Lindsay Lohan, the cost of Mastiffs, Reality TV, Obama's Maine vacation all seem to bear greater significance in the American psyche than does the plight of young Men and Women who have, in the taking of their oaths, pledged to lay down their lives at the whim of madmen. It just isn't 'sexy' enough.

This morning I got a note from Andy Bostom, a good friend with a passion for the welfare of our troops, with what is now the official release of the good General's assessment of the ROE and his intent. From the story: "Going several steps better, General Petraeus has reportedly expanded the ban on air strikes and artillery fire to all types of buildings, tree-lined areas and hillsides where it is difficult to distinguish who is on the ground." The fact is, not only has he deemed the ROE as proper, he has deemed it not tight enough.

This is a precisely correct assessment in a COIN environment. If it is going to succeed and if the leadership on the ground deems it to be succeeding, each iteration and review of the ROE will be necessarily tighter than it's preceding version. This highlights a problem in the way the media and most of those studying and following this issue view it and assess changes to it. The assumption that a new leader might be willing to 'loosen' the ROE means the person making the assumption, does not understand the doctrine and that is what we have been trying to change; the lack of understanding of COIN.

He has even determined that the wearing of Oakley, polycarbonate safety glasses by our American Warriors to be detrimental to the apparent security of the Afghan population. He has directed that all, 'in-country', make great efforts to meet and greet the locals, without the glasses. For those of you who don't know, those glasses use ballistic lenses that protect against the micro-sand famous in desert terrain, shrapnel, flying debris and, oh yeah; intense sunlight. This is not only a safety device but a 'health and comfort' item. Many parents were upset when McChrystal ordered the removal of fast food restaurants in Afghanistan. I have made it clear it was of little consequence to the average Marine Corps Infantryman who rarely if ever saw one while there. But these glasses represent one of the few 'amenities' available in that extreme duty and they are in fact necessary for their protection.

Diana West's latest piece in discussing the folly of COIN in this environment details the complete lack of understanding of the culture in Afghanistan which is defined by it's adherence to Sharia. Trying to impose our delicate western sensibilities on the battlefield is foolish enough, doing it on a battlefield within a Sharia compliant country is suicide.

So the main question remains; what will it take to wake up the American citizenry, the unresponsive political servants in DC and the money-minded media?

As Christians we understand that the way we live our lives in the presence of others is a testimony to our faith and of the transformation that has taken place within us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The resilient determination of our Warriors in the face of a violent culture in Afghanistan and a relentlessly defiant ISAF and his immoral ROE, is the testimony of a remnant of this generation's sense of personal honor and their understanding of selfless service.

The good General should be advised not to seek the limits of that resilience or the ignorance of the general American population.

1972 is not that long ago....

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Tea With Terrorists or 'Leaking' Tea?

The latest rating lifting hope of the media is the Wiki Leaks of the now infamous 'Afghan Diaries'. Stories are already making their way to the airways, written by ideologues drooling over the prospect of finding 'the smoking gun' that will bring down one political party or the other. How predictable. Equally predictable are the lead-ins opening their new stories. At the top of the list; the possibility of 'war crimes'. The great hope of the left and the confused conservative to find yet one more American Warrior to charge with some crime (whether trumped up or not) and then throw into the bowels of the penitentiary system.

Of course, the secondary concern is for evidence that may actually tie the Pakistani government with the Taliban. Herschel Smith covered the legal/ideological motivations for leaking these diaries today. Again; I can't disagree with any particular point he has made. He is right that Wiki owners have their own political agenda and American sovereignty or safety be damned. Those papers would never have been leaked during WW II or at least the culprits would have found themselves dangling from the end of the hangman's noose.

The question I have for the media in this country in general is: Can anyone in this country truly say; 'I am an American' and actually begin to know what that means? I wonder why or even when Nationalism became an evil concept or is it just being loyal to the United States that is so disdainful? And even if you hate the United States (as apparently your Australian counterpart does) - your country, why do you hold our Warriors in such low regard? Why are you so prepared to hang our Warriors on the first suggestion of 'wrong-doing' without even the slightest desire to give them what the Constitution guarantees; the benefit of the doubt? And since when does treachery by an 'ally' take second seat to the far-fetched possibility of a war crime possibly committed by our Warriors.

Let me help you with this; If the Pakistani government or any of its agencies are guilty of collusion with the Taliban, that has and is costing Americas Sons and Daughters their lives. Would you like to look an American parent in the eye and tell them that is a 'secondary concern' in your estimation? Second; if an American Warrior were in fact guilty of a 'war crime' it would absolutely be a singular act - not a conspiracy rising to the level of an Ally giving aid and comfort to a 'common enemy'.

Yes; the Pakistani government, the Pakistani people, the Afghan, the Iraqi, Iranians, Syrians, Lebanese, Libyans and I am sorry to inform you; some Americans actually hate us and side with the Taliban over us. Their commonality? They are Muslim. Islam, again, requires submission to Allah. As soon as we get that straight, the hostilities will end. Are you ready, Julian Assange, to submit? Are you prepared to be the reason the world gets to enjoy yet another 1400 years of abuses and insanity by the demonically possessed?

How about opening with the now released official details of the travesty of the operation gone wrong in Ganjgal which cost four good men their lives? As it turns out, what we already knew to be true is now official fact. The very Tribal Elders that the unit was there to protect colluded with the Taliban and told them when the unit was to return. When the unit got there they stepped right into the middle of a heavily armed ambush. What? The story is not as wonderful as the one with the far-fetched likelihood of war crimes evidence nestled in the pages of your ill-gotten diaries? (By the way; for those of you who do not have an account with Marine Corps Times, you will have to wait until Monday for the hyperlink to work).

Or how about the story with possible evidence of sedition in Investors.com? Doesn't quite rise to your level of excellence, huh? No American Warriors to take down here, just the possibility of a sitting President being at least embarrassed if not investigated. For those of you who have not seen this, you need to read it. By the way, the connection in this story leads to the very door of The Muslim Brotherhood; the preferred advisory team of the White House and apparently, the Pentagon.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Interview Segment on FOX News Sunday, 25 July 2010 at 1345 (1:45 PM EST)

I have been invited for an interview on the segment; 'America's News HQ' with Shannon Bream. We will be discussing the Rules of Engagement as they exist, alternatives, the present cost of these ROE and their relationship to COIN.

I invite everyone to watch and to call in or leave an e-mail message with FOX. In addition; this is the opportunity many of you have asked for; the chance to help and to voice an opinion with your elected officials. Tagging them with a call/e-mail/letter on the 'slip-stream' of this infrequent opportunity is exactly the thing to do.

In the meantime; pray that the questions and my answers carry as much power as 4 minutes of national air time can muster.

CONTACT FOX at: fns@foxnews.com Or Telephone: 1-888-369-4762

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

R.O.E. Responsible for All U.S. Deaths in Afghanistan!

There are few things in life worth saying if they are not completely truthful. It came to me as a harsh reality when in the past few days I came to grips with this truth and that our combined efforts to force Congress to pay attention to the strategy/non-strategy in Afghanistan was off the mark. We have been fighting for a simple review of COIN and to question whether or not it is viable in this kind of environment and relaying specific evidence of the effect of it's ROE on our Warriors. The problem is that the ROE is affecting every Warrior on the plains of Afghanistan and is specifically responsible for EVERY U.S. AND NATO DEATH there.

Every Army assembled for combat must do several things if it is going to win:

1. Take the Commander's Intent statement and assemble a Strategy and Force component to complete a mission consistent with that Intent

2. Define the Battle Space

3. Control the Battle Space

4. Determine and Exploit the weaknesses of the enemy

5. Continue to pressure the enemy

6. Deftly employ every means and capability it possesses to Locate, Close with and Destroy the Enemy.

7. Be relentless and unforgiving in it's determination to force the enemy to do it's will

As of June of 2009, at the latest, CentCom and ISAF made a deliberate decision, under the leadership of this sitting President, to not win. It even went as far as to redefine the war effort and to expunge words like 'win', 'success', 'terrorism' and 'Islamic Extremists' from the lexicon. It further determined that the new 'goal' was to protect Afghan civilians at all cost. It included a vigorous plan to 're-build' Afghanistan as a nation from the very foundations of its government. It instituted a theater-wide, controversial doctrine known as Counter Insurgency which has a historical record of failure in all except one engagement and fielded an ROE (rules of engagement) that all but eliminate the use of Air Support and Field Artillery Support for US and NATO forces except in the 'safest' possible applications (no civilians around...problematic when you consider the Taliban are civilians).

It has been said there has been a 'resurgence' on the field of battle by the Taliban; that they essentially re-constituted/regrouped and have re-emerged refreshed and emboldened in the past year. That is a deception. This suggests that, all other things remaining constant, this group of murderous thugs conjured new found courage and purpose. This is patently untrue! The reality is that the Taliban are the same as they were. What changed was our desire to prosecute this war as though we intended to win. What changed was our focus. The original Commander's Intent was to go into Afghanistan and destroy/scatter/remove Al Qaida from Afghanistan and to hold those who aided them accountable for their actions, ie the Taliban. That mission took a dramatic turn in 2009 when we chose to seek the good graces of the Afghan people instead of seeking justice for the assault on our land by Islamic Hordes.

POINTS:

1. By refusing to doggedly follow the steps outlined above, we effectively turned over control of the battle space to the Taliban. Because of this they are free to set more IED's than they would have been and free to establish yet more ambush sites thus placing our Warriors in a far more dangerous environment (See Step 3).

2. Intentionally publishing the ROE and our intent to no longer kill but protect, we have allowed the Taliban to reassert themselves and given them the opportunity to exploit our well-published weaknesses (See Step 4).

3. By diverting attention from Pursuit of the Enemy to Security Patrols in hamlets, towns and villages, we have opened lanes of effort for the Taliban to pursue us and given them freedom to set even more IED's and to pressure the locals into participating (See Step 5).

4. By removing our most valuable supporting fires from the equation, in the most desperate of situations, we have allowed more Taliban to survive engagements (See Step 6).

What we have done in the past year is to allow the enemy the opportunity to re-consider it's capability, given them maneuver space, garner support from foreign sources and increase their potential with more advanced weapons (see stories about Taliban sniper capability in British held areas of Khandahar). In addition; the number of aircraft now harassed by Taliban fire has increased making even medivacs difficult. Add to that, the Red Cross's insistence on aiding the enemy and NATO field medical facilities being forced to include Taliban in Triage decisions and even the staunchest supporter of anti-american sentiment in this country has to question the sanity of the plan.

Given all of the above, it is clear that all US and NATO deaths in Afghanistan are directly and indirectly due to the institution of the current ROE and our having intentionally given control of the battle space to the Taliban. And it is intentional because there is no way a clear thinking military mind could not fully understand the ramifications of not continuing to pressure the enemy, keeping him off balance, with every weapon in his arsenal.

The hard truth is that America's Sons and Daughters will continue to pay the ultimate price for high-minded thinkers, politicians and inept leadership until the true 'King' of the country, the Citizens decide they have had enough. And that is unlikely to happen until Islam is once again successful in attacking our homeland.

Far too many Americans have far too short a memory. God protect our Warriors.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

The Cancer is Spreading; Anti-'Infidel' Hatred Manifested

In the past two weeks we have read more stories about ANA turning their weapons on their NATO and American 'counterparts'. These are not the first incidences in this 9 year conflict to be sure but it is the first time two incidences of this kind have occurred so closely together. They also happened on opposite sides of the country, one from the other.

I wrote about the first of these most recent incidences in Dealing with the Devil. In a follow-up story, the ANA soldier who has claimed responsibility said he had planned to do so before he decided to jump ship for the Taliban; an act of revenge for civilians he says were killed by British forces.

This is being and will continue to be portrayed as a singular act of violence rather than the manifestation of a universal hatred for American Forces, NATO and western culture. It is extremely important that the 'architects' of this current iteration of COIN continue to project absolute belief in this strategy if they have any hope of stemming the growing discontent with it's premise; that Islam is ultimately peaceful and that the average Afghan wants our 'help'.

The latest incident, reported today in Stratfor and other sources, , says an ANA soldier turned his weapon on two American Contractors hired to train ANA as well as others. In the end, 4 died which included the attacker.

The question everyone would be asking if anyone was in fact listening is whether or not this is an anomaly or an undercurrent of inbred, religiously fostered hatred toward US and NATO forces. No one is asking because the people whom we have entrusted with prosecuting this action in Afghanistan refuse to accept the possibility that their originating premise is wrong. The media refuses to ask the question for a variety of reasons not the least of which is ratings. Why waste time talking about a subject that isn't going to bring home the bacon. A ten minute segment on the self-destructive life style of yet another one of the Hollywood elite is far more engrossing - and it pays better.

While the undercurrent of anger of the largely disaffected red-blooded American boils, the dead in DC continue their campaign of disinterest for the plight of our Warriors and the greedy in the media continue to dig for far more lucrative stories. When did we get here?

The fact of the matter is; we have always been here. A good friend once told me something I never forgot; fewer than 3% of the population of the colonies supported talk of separation from England - let alone a war. The remaining 97% were split between direct loyalties to Britain and loyalties to their homeland. Some have said the Tories were the majority. Even then under an increasingly oppressive government and their ever increasing levy of burdensome taxes, people were not willing to stand up and declare right what they knew to be right and to stand against tyranny.

Today, the measure of the importance of support for something is proportional to the cost of that 'something' to our wallets, our time, our entertainment or our families. Far too many times I have spoken to people about this subject and observed the glazed look of the uninterested and uneducated staring back at me. On occasion, I have witnessed a transformation but only when one of their sons or daughters have declared their interest in joining the service. Maybe that's what it will take. Maybe it requires everyone being faced with the potential of forced service to make them realize that the wanton killing, at the hands of our politicians in DC, is really at their door.

As for the media; maybe we need to use TARP funds or create another bailout/incentive fund - taxpayer funded, available only to those news agencies ready to start paying attention to the ongoing debacle in Afghanistan... Maybe we need to take their pads and cameras away and replace them with rifles they can't shoot, in places they can't get fire support, led by men prepared to bury them for the sake of the enemy.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Afghanistan; Are Local Defense Forces the Real Answer?

The drive to establish 'local defense forces' (LDF) is already 2 years old and it has taken nearly all of that time to get Kabul to agree to it in some form or another. Karzai has now apparently drawn up a rough draft that agrees to recruit upwards of 10,000 new recruits for the program. His past resistance to the implementation of such a force has to do with these things:

1. Kabul doesn't know who they can trust - anywhere in the country.

2. The Government in Kabul is as corrupt as anywhere else in the country.

3. Overcoming the practical issues of getting villages and tribes to agree with Kabul on what those 'security' operatives would look like.

4. Lack of well trained ANA or ANP to distribute (further complicated by the tribal issues) to those remote areas in the country.

5. The vast majority of the country don't see the Taliban as anymore a problem for them than any of us see our own federal government; it's a nuisance and corrupt, but necessary (In this case they see the Taliban as the 'True Soldiers of Allah').

Whatever else Centcom and ISAF may be guilty of, they surely understand this and have been trying to mediate (arm-twisting) in order to speed the process. Needless to say there is a delicate balancing act at play for if they implement an LDF program that is either lackluster, lacking well trained and disciplined forces or not welcomed by the regions in which it is implemented, it will only further complicate an untenable situation.

There appear to be other factors at work, however that hinge on the artificially established date for withdrawal of troops. President Obama made it clear during his election campaign in 2008 and reiterated in 2009 his intent to begin withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in early 2011. I have always found those kinds of remarks made by politicians laughable and even insulting.

To establish a 'timetable' for the withdrawal of troops from a fluid battlefield smacks of political maneuvering. To do so without the publicly announced advice and support of the very Generals assigned to prosecute the war, is insulting to the them and their Warriors. It is at the least ludicrous for anyone to treat a war as just another business deal with a definable beginning and end with a well knitted contract.

Wars are living organisms. They ebb and flow as the combatants leverage their forces in an effort to exploit what they have learned about the enemy. Once the enemy has declared his desire to end the hostilities, terms are drawn up and agreed to. The 'mop-up' effort then begins and that could take months to years as it did in both theaters of operation during WW II.

At what point in even 2009 did President Obama learn that he would be at the point of ending the mop-up phase of the war in Afghanistan by 2011? The answer; he didn't. What he did know was that he would want a good, clean, year to dispense with the fallout from the war and to answer any derisive commentary about his handling of the war. Part of that plan includes placing the Afghan government back in control of their country and their destiny - a plan I have no argument with; on the surface.

The problem is with those 5 troublesome points mentioned earlier. It has been crystal clear that the training program for ANA has been an abysmal failure. Not so much because it was ill-conceived but because the Afghan recruits aren't serious about what truly needs to be done if our combined effort to neutralize the Taliban is going to be effective. Again, there is exponentially mounting evidence that the ANA, ANP, Kabul and the citizenry support the Taliban effort - at least far more than they support us.

Each and every country should take care of it's own troubles and certainly it's own internal struggles. If there is one shred of evidence that the Kabul government truly wants the Taliban eradicated or at least neutralized, it should seek ways which probably include some form of LDF in remote areas.

I firmly believe that we, as Americans, have a right to expect our leadership to take our national security seriously and if they are going to project force, it should be to that end. It should not include carrying someone else's 'water' and certainly not using the tax payers money to try to re-build someone else's country - especially one that is hostile to our very existence.

I find it extraordinarily arrogant for a sitting President to establish an artificial date to end a war exclusively to benefit his personal chances for aggrandizement - especially when it further imperils the very country he has sworn to protect. No; the LDF push has a lot less to do with Afghan security or getting our guys out of harm's way than it has to do with paving the road for the 2012 election cycle.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard

Dealing with the Devil; Why do we Trust Karzai?

I have been making the case for a year with the help of a cadre of experts in the field of Islamic study, American Politics and Military History, that establishing combat strategy to assuage the Afghan people is a losing proposition. The examples of civil and moral corruption emanating from Kabul trumps even the most egregious examples from DC.

Stories have been coming out of Afghanistan and through the mainstream media sources painting a picture of impending disaster for the past year and there has yet to be any discussion as to whether or not the current strategy is viable. Our Warriors are effecting arrests, captures and the killing of Taliban in spite of Washington's best efforts to deny them victory. Unless you have been asleep for the past 9 years, you are well aware we are in fact fighting the Taliban and, I believe, Islamic forces in general. This makes the entirety of Afghan society suspect so getting as many Taliban off the battlefield as possible is critical.

So imagine my 'surprise' when I read one of today's intel reports from Stratfor, that stated Harmid Karzai was releasing 28 Taliban back to Afghan society with another 45 due to be released sometime this week. Let's remember that this is the guy our government selected as their choice to lead Afghanistan's fledgling, Theocratic government while we sent our Warriors to do the heavy lifting; removing the Taliban from their society.

The problem isn't just that Karzai seems to have a soft spot for the Taliban (another shocker), but there was yet another story about yet another ANA soldier gunning down NATO troops while on Patrol with them. The story makes mention of other incidences in which 'rogue' ANA soldiers have done the same thing. Frankly, I find the term 'rogue' intellectually offensive! These are not the unique acts of individual Afghan's, they are the manifestation of the inner hatred of a people whose all encompassing religious ideology requires acts of murder on behalf of their deity. And we have placed sovereign US forces in the middle of this dark-age madness to 'perform' within the construct of a strategic doctrine that is nothing more than the machinations of madmen.

General Petraeus might have served his country well in his early career but his sense of service to this country has been tainted beyond recognition by the political ideology he clings to here that has led him to resurrect COIN and use it in an environment it can never be successful in. Frankly I don't care what he does with his life, his 'legacy', this sitting CIC's Commanders Intent statement or the steady stream of Chai he is sipping with his buddy Harmid. I do care that others are being required to pay the price for his arrogance, lack of significant knowledge of Islam and his undaunted loyalty to his 'king' and his 'king's' vision for the world. I also care that our Representatives and our Senators in DC are far more concerned with the upcoming election than they are the very lives of our Warriors.

I invite all of you to take a moment and read Herschel Smith's new piece on this latest Jirga, the abysmal failure of Karzai to make any responsible progress with the Taliban and his insistence in returning the Taliban back to normal life in his country. Even a modestly insightful person would be asking; 'just how long are we to show Karzai patience or give any in Afghanistan the benefit of the doubt?'. How long before reasonable men deduce that there isn't anything of value to be achieved - in the long term or the short from our insistence on placing our Warriors at unreasonable risk on the far-flung hope that we can change the hearts and minds of a people imprisoned by the hatred of their own religion?

How many Memorial services for the sacrificed has President Obama attended? How many has General Petraeus attended? Or Gates, Jones, Biden, McMullen? How do they continue to justify their actions which are obviously leading to the unnecessary deaths of our Warriors without any foreseeable, positive (victory for America), end in sight?

Until we have an answer to all of these questions and until the American people, at large, wake from their sleep and hold their elected representatives accountable, we are unlikely to hear any reliable answers or see any positive change. And our Warriors will continue to fight with what they have been given.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard