Shocking News! Snipers Can Slow Our Troops

The MSM including the Los Angeles Times and the old, reliable NYT have been hyperventilating. The cause has been the increased use of snipers by Taliban as the troops advance into Marja.

While it is true that Taliban trigger pullers have not and are not noted for their marksmanship over the past several years, the tradition of accurate shooting has never been completely lost by the Afghans. Nor did the American and British troops anticipate that they would be facing only a hail of relatively inaccurate light automatic weapons fire.

Snipers have been a feature of all wars--including the many which have been fought by foreigners in Afghanistan over the past century and a half. British soldiers were repeatedly taken under heavy and effective sniper fire during their various punitive expeditions during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. So also were the Russian troops in the long years of agony in the 1980s.

American offensive operations in South Vietnam repeatedly encountered sniper fire from designated "stay behind" operators whose function in life was that of delaying the American advances. Quite often a large US operation was stalled, even stopped, by a very small number of snipers firing from carefully chosen and well concealed positions. It was not unusual for an entire battalion to come to a halt after taking a few incoming rounds from a Charley in a tree.

At that time the answer, indeed, "the school solution" was for all hands to squat down and wait until an airstrike or two leveled the offensive piece of real estate. Then the grunts could get a wiggle on. Until the next Chuck in the bush pulled the trigger a couple of times.

As a result the planned operation slowed to a glacial pace. The unacceptability of friendly losses coupled with the ready availability of heavy air and indirect ground fire dictated the stop-wait-bomb-go approach. The assorted journalists viewing the little bit of war did not seem ready to declare an impending American defeat as a consequence of this cautious way of war fighting.

In Afghanistan the US has wisely chosen not to use its overwhelming air and indirect firepower given the presence of civilian non-combatants in the area of operations. Thus we cannot follow the Vietnam era style of calling in the fast movers and gunships or the far off artillery to abate the sniper nuisance.

Since risking American (or British or Afghan) lives is not desirable and the use of heavy weapons unacceptable the result is ground movement will be very, very slow. This result in no way implies either that the US and other troops are "imperiled" (to use the NYT phrase) or that the Marja offensive is failing.

Perhaps the reporters and editors of the various MSM find success by the American side to be boring, lacking news value, or otherwise unimportant. Or, possibly the writers and their supervisors stateside are simply unaware of the realities of ground combat. In any event the slanting of the coverage is both inaccurate and unnecessary.

The real deal is that snipers and mines (a category which includes those of the IED sort) encourage slow, cautious movement by the guys on the sharp end of things. Both snipers and mines require a strong sense of individual and group resolve and a very great commitment to the skills of observation and patience as well as possession of rapid reflexes. Working against snipers and mines is emotionally draining, physically exhausting, and lacks the rewards of, say, a breathless assault powered by adrenaline and testosterone in equal measure.

To be successful an infantry offensive operation requires only that you keep on advancing--and the other side keeps on dying or retreating. There is no requirement that speed records be shattered in the process. High speed, protracted movement is appropriate, even necessary for armored units operating in an open, civilian-free venue, but not in an infantry attack in an urban area where women, children, and other non-combatants are conspicuous by their presence.

To date all the meaningful indicators from Marja and environs point to the methodical combined actions of the US Marines, British Army, and Afghan National Forces being successful. Ground is being occupied. Taliban are being killed, captured, or forced to flee. Civilians are not being caught in the crossfire--despite the best efforts of Taliban to compel that consequence.

Marja is demonstrating once again that steady, disciplined, highly trained, and well motivated troops can effectively execute even the most demanding of operations against even an enemy who is not limited by concerns for his life or those of civilians. The British Army and American Marines are noted among the military forces of the world for the excellence of their discipline and steadiness, the level of their training and leadership--and their ability to get on with the mission no matter the nature or degree of difficulty.

It is unfortunate in the extreme that the established media of the world, particularly in the US and UK, have not gotten a firm grip on the fundamental realities of the war in Helmand. It is regrettable to say the least that so many in the MSM wring their hands over threats that do not exist and seem so willing to predict a defeat which cannot occur.