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July 20, 2009 The Twentieth Century contained the most destructive wars in history, in which, firepower and industrial capability were the decisive factors. Ironically, it also was the period in which massive scale asymmetrical warfare was developed by weaker military forces relied on cunning rather than firepower to achieve decisive victory. After fighting its longest war in history, the U.S. suffered defeats in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly forty years later, paying a lot of lip service to lessons learned, the U.S. is repeating old mistakes in “The Graveyard of Empires.” Once again the Marines have landed. The circumstances are similar to 1966 when a complete Marine Division landed in Danang with a lot of hoopla. Then, like today, resistance was negligible and optimism reigned. The Marines would end the war quickly. By 1968 the situation had changed and the Marines fought one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history—Hue Citadel. The Marines won the gruesome battle, but the U.S. lost the war anyway. This time, the Marines landed in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. They did not land alone. Now they were going to do things right. Counter insurgency warfare is not about killing the enemy, but the conquest of the hearts and minds of the local population. The 4,000 Marines arrived with two, yes two, this is not a misprint, two civilians to engage in such activities as economic development, improving infrastructure and in general make better the local population’s lives. Apparently these two civilians are State Department officials or contract employees. The State Department has an excellent school of languages, so I imagine that these two brave souls speak Dario and Pashto. I wonder if any of the Marines speaks any of these languages or has much of an idea of social structure, customs and culture of the local population. Like on any job, warfare must be conducted with the proper tools or the job doesn’t get done. In war, you lose. Period. It makes one wonder what has the Pentagon brass done to prepare the Marine Expeditionary Force to give them at least some sort of chance of winning. Well, we do have the two civilians to win the hearts and minds. So far, after two weeks, the Taliban who controlled the area prior to the Marine invasion, melted away in classic Guerilla style. The next stage is to watch the new Ferangs, learn their routine and plan how to fight them. It didn’t take them very long to show that they are not pleased with the American presence. Two American vehicles got blown up by bombs. Three Marines were killed and a number wounded. This was just the opening round, a classic move to show the population that the resistance is in place and is active. I am sure that in the family compounds throughout the province, people gather, drink tea and recite poetry about heroic deeds against the foreign invaders who had earlier massacred large numbers of Pashtuns attending weddings and other social events. Also in these gatherings, Taliban reps will discuss measures they take to combat the Ferangs. They have already demonstrated that they are capable of killing a few. As the Americans settle down in their fortified positions they already alienate the locals just by their presence. When the Marines start doing patrols, look for weapons, more and more tribesmen will join the guerilla cells, bomb making groups and combat units. With each vehicle destroyed and helicopter shot down, enthusiasm to join the resistance will increase.
Meanwhile, in the terrifying quiet of the night, when Marines hunker in their bunker, they will ask themselves: What are we doing here?
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