Hammer, Meet Anvil
It’s 3/4 Marines* and 3rd Recon, working on both ends of Helmand’s Now Zad valley with a Taliban concentration, communication and supply lines in the middle. It’s the first large unit combat use of Ospreys, used to drop Marines behind the Taliban at the north end of the valley while other Marines push north from their base in the town of Now Zad at the southern end. AP via Washington Times includes this encouraging news:
Maj. Pelletier said insurgents were caught off guard by the early morning air assault.
“Right now, the enemy is confused and disorganized,” Maj. Pelletier said by telephone from Camp Leatherneck, the main U.S. Marine base in Helmand. “They’re fighting, but not too effectively.”
It’s the first operation post-surge announcement, though obviously planning preceded that. You’ll note that this operation is called “Cobra’s Anger,” not “Make Friends And Influence People.” While making friends with the Afghans is an important part of counterinsurgency, influencing them has to include convincingly reducing the Taliban’s ability to make their lives difficult, while also influencing the softer elements of the Taliban to consider a friendlier course. Look for more squeeze plays coming on quick, as McChrystal and the soldiers and Marines under him work their way down their clear-and-hold list.
No embedded reports as yet. Reuters has a little more background on Now Zad and ongoing Helmand operations.
My old Kuwait dinner companion Tony Perry at the LA Times, at Camp Leatherneck, talks about follow on. Apparently Now Zad is the soup course for a place called Marja.
“Marja is that last major sanctuary in Helmand province, the last place where the enemy has freedom of movement,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. “We’re going to take that away from him.”
Nicholson compared the prospective battle in Marja to the fight in late 2004 to clear barricaded insurgents from the Iraqi city of Fallouja.
More from Roggio at the Long War Journal on other targets in Helmand.
“There is a Salafist community in Sangin,” the official said, referring to the group of Islamists who advocate waging violent jihad. The Taliban’s leadership in northern Helmand is in what the official referred to as the “Sangin pocket.”
Washir and Baghran are considered less problematic, as the tribal leaders there largely sided with the Taliban out of weakness. “These are largely ‘small t’ Taliban,” the official said. “Absent government protection, they had little choice but to side with the Taliban.”
The tribes in Washir and Baghran are taxed by the Taliban and provide recruits, but do not conduct attacks. “If we can take down the Sangin pocket, then support for the Taliban in these districts will dry up.”
Small Wars Journal weighs in with “Needed: An Exorcism in Kandahar.”
Meanwhile, this Washington Post article picks apart the lengthy deliberations, how Obama pushed to deploy the fewer troops faster, with a deadline to put heat on the Afghans and Paks … not eliminating the Taliban, rather making sure they don’t threaten the government. I hope it works. I bet it would work better with another 10,000 troops. There have been references to cost and footprint concerns over the past couple of months, but no clear explanation of how cutting the optimal request by one-quarter offers any benefits in those areas that isn’t offset not only by improved chances for success but by the political benefit of not entirely owning anything short of success.
(It’s a problem Obama has set up for himself. While the cheering squad in the event of failure will be sure to insist that Afghanistan was not only inherited from George Bush, but harder than what Bush faced in Iraq, Obama’s tinkering makes this Obama’s in total. But political considerations at this point are irrelevant. How its a matter of execution, and we can all just hope that Obama gets to walk away with a big win. Not for his sake, but for ours, and for the sake of the Marines and soldiers now fighting and dying under his strategy.)
UPDATE: More on the numbers game, and the failure of the national press to address it while playing to the O admin’s deliberative JFK-like image push … 30,000.
J.D. Johannes: Hammer + Anvil = Failure. He thinks, based on his Iraq experience, it’s a waste of time. I dunno, I have to wonder why the guys who did Iraq would waste time with it in Afghanistan if that were the case. I suspect they have follow-on plans in line with Johannes’ headcount idea. He also thinks the project is going to take a lot of time. Could be right about that. Too bad the boss says 18 months or bust.
Also, a Harvard-trained combat-embedded historian who happens to have written the book on battle speeches executes a withering takedown on Obama’s. Words And Deeds.
In other Afghan-related business, Herschel Smith at Captain’s Journal with another in his running series on the Rules of Engagement, also some weekend reading.
* 3/4 Marines, BTW, is the unit that led the Marines’ push into East Baghdad in 2003. Crazy brave former Boston Herald photog Kuni Takahashi had disembedded from an uncooperative Marine armor unit, hitched a ride with a uilateral media column and glommed on to the accommodating LTC McCoy’s 3/4 Marine infantry. Takahashi took this award-winning photo of McCoy’s boys crossing the Diyala bridge into Baghdad under fire. Some of those same grunts may well be in Helmand now as senior NCOs.
While Takahashi had wrangled his way to the front of the Marines eastern pincer, I was attached to an armor company of the Army’s 3rd ID, 2nd Brigade, which led the push into western Baghdad. We had been there for two days when Kuni and the Marines arrived, and Kuni shot the Marines pulling down that statue later the same day. Kuni and I finally linked up a couple of days later on the Jumhuriyah Bridge over the Tigris, where my tanker pals in Assassins Company, 4/64 Armor, were maintaining a barricade. Takahashi went on to the Chicago Trib, but is now freelancing in South Asia which hopefully will mean more photographic combat intensity. Anything else would be like Michelangelo painting the Sistine closet. Also watch for more from the LA Times’ Tony Perry. Back in Kuwait in 2003, in his mid-50s and overweight, he stated unabashedly he was sticking with HQ and had no intention of going anywhere near any combat. But he fell in love with the Marines and ended up becoming a great combat correspondent in Fallujah and elsewhere. Speaking of great combat correspondents, dunno where Dexter Filkins is at present, but I hope it’s in the vicinity of 3/4 Marines. OK, enough of old home week.
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Topics: Afghanistan,Obama,military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 2:14 pm Comments (5) on Saturday, December 5, 2009
5 Responses to “Hammer, Meet Anvil”
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December 5th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
God protect our warriors.
In other, looking-for-the-light news, perhaps Obama’s decision to send more troops also had the effect of unleashing the troops that are already there.
December 5th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
You’ll note that this operation is called “Cobra’s Anger,” not “Make Friends And Influence People.”
Lines like that are why we love ya, Jules.
I too want to see Obama succeed in Afghanistan, for the sake of the soldiers who are doing the fighting, and also to show the bad actors of the world that America is a force to be reckoned with no matter who is sitting behind the desk in the oval office.
December 6th, 2009 at 3:18 am
Can’t help but think that the deliberate “short-sheeting” was due to an inherent need for Obama to tell McChrystal, and anybody and everybody else, that he “won” and is in charge, rather than anything strategic. Sad, but true.
Nevertheless, Godspeed to our warriors.
December 6th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
[...] Crittenden – Hammer, Meet Anvil (Hat Tip: Larwyn) Sphere It Share and [...]
December 6th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
[...] is population-centric counterinsurgency run amuck. Jules Crittenden has a good synopsis of reactions across the web, including from J.D. Johannes who doubts the value [...]