The Political Conundrum!

The NEFA Foundation has obtained a newly-released video recording of a November 20, 2008 suicide truck bombing attack on a joint-U.S.-Afghan military base in the southeastern Afghan province of Khost. The video shows footage of the bomber—identified as "Qari Abu Omar", a "patient man with experience in jihad" -as he assists in the preparation of nearly 3,000kg of explosives, his farewell to the camera, and the subsequent blast itself.

Excerpts from the video can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.

I don’t care what you say, the Afghan soldier may be able to place more accurate shots with an M16, but at what cost? The M16  is more accurate because it is a tighter weapon with tighter parts and very little play. It is unforgiving when not cleaned and maintained.

I have frequently called the Afghan Army nothing more than 3rd graders with guns and trucks and the Afghan Police nothing more than 1st graders with sirens and shotguns. I use those analogies for a lot of reasons, one is for their lack of maturity. Just like a little kid looking up to his big brother and wanting to copy everything he says and does, the Afghan soldiers are the same way. They want to act, look and imitate the US soldiers as possible. They are soldiers  that wrap their AK-47s in glitter tape and put flowers in their truck bumpers becuase they think it looks cool. We call it “jingling” it up with the term coming from the very tacky looking jingle trucks that carry supplies, people, whatever all over the country.

So these soldiers may “want” M16s becuase they look cool, but they won’t want them when they start jamming and not operating at all. I mean look at the very disciplined US soldier who conducts mag changes every 2 weeks, and cleans his weapon every day. In a heavy firefight it still jams on that soldier and there are many documented incidents of this happening. What is going to happen when that Afghan soldier does not clean it, wraps the M16 in colored tape, or attempts to pimp his weapon in some fashion. When that M16 does not work in the first firefight, that soldier will be looking to toss it and grab his old trust Ak-47. The AK may not be the most accurate weapon in the inventory, but for the Afghan soldier that usually “sprays and prays” and does not even aim the weapon, does accuracy even count?

I am really hoping that someone pulls their head out of their fourth point of contact soon and stops this fielding before we hear a report of an entire ANA company being wiped out by a handful of enemy fighters.

-Bouhammer

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/14-Jan-2009/Afghan-soldiers-pick-up-US-weapons

Having already fought against the Taliban in his two years in the Afghan army, Gul Mohammad has little trouble picking up the tricks of his new American-issue automatic weapon. What concerns the young soldier is whether he will be able to rely on the weapon when it counts, as he has done so often before with its Russian equivalent, a Kalashnikov AK-47, favoured in central Asia for decades. “The worst thing for a soldier would be if his gun were to fail in the middle of a battle,” says Mohammad, speaking during a break in weapons training at the base of his 205 Atal (Hero) army corps in southern Kandahar province.

The corps numbers about 20,000 soldiers drawn from across the country to fight the fierce Taliban in their heartland — the four provinces of the rugged south, one of the most intense battlefields of the extremist insurgency. In a hangar at Camp Hero, 50-60 troops have been split into small groups, each with a former US Marine or army soldier introducing them to M-16 rifles and M-249 light machine guns, standard-issue weapons in most NATO countries. With mainly US funding and training it now numbers roughly 80,000 men with plans for its expansion to 134,000 by 2012 — a priority in efforts to beat the Taliban insurgency that last year was at its most intense yet. The US military has regularly praised the progress of the new Afghan army, although critics question the loyalty of the troops, a significant AWOL rate and the lack of quality leadership.

The army started leading some anti-insurgent military operations early last year, but US and NATO troops still control most of the action. “Leading independent operations indicate that we have improved,” says the commander of 205 Atal, General Sher Mohammad Zazai.
“Our enemies are no longer able to confront us face-to-face. When we go into an area, the enemy leaves that area. If he chooses to fight us, they suffer casualties.” A programme launched in late 2007 aims to replace the AK-47s with US-made rifles and machine guns, and supply the Afghan forces with Humvees, the main vehicle used by the US military. This means the Afghan army will get around 104,000 M-16 rifles, 4,300 machine guns, 2,250 grenade launchers, 4,000 armoured Humvees and 660 Humvee ambulances, says Lieutenant Colonel Christian Kubik, spokesman for the US military training programme. Most of the M-16s are refurbished Marine Corps weapons and about 2,200 were donated by the Canadian government, he says. The total cost for these weapons alone is about 60 million dollars, with the Humvees costing about 760 million dollars, he says. The Afghan government had requested the M-16s, which are considered more accurate and reliable than the AK-47s, Kubik says. The M-16 “provides a well-trained Afghan soldier a distinct advantage over an insurgent with an AK-47 of dubious origination,” he says.

This news should reassure Mohammad, the soldier getting the hang of his new weapon, who says he takes pride in being part of the developing army. “I have fought countless battles with Taliban,” says the ethnic Hazara at Camp Hero, which is in a Pashtun area. “They are good fighters, but we are even better,” he says. “I think I’m doing the right thing, defending my people and my country.”

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BOUHAMMER NOTE - HOT OFF THE WIRE

DoD Announces Afghanistan Force Deployment

Pursuant to President Obama’s decision today, Secretary Gates ordered the deployment of two additional combat units, totaling more than 12,000 troops, to Afghanistan. The 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), from Camp LeJune, N.C., with approximately 8,000 Marines will deploy to Afghanistan in late Spring 2009.

The 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Ft. Lewis, Wash., will deploy approximately 4,000 soldiers to Afghanistan in mid-summer 2009. This Stryker Brigade and the MEB will deploy to increase the capabilities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Approximately 5,000 additional troops to support these combat forces will receive deployment orders at a later date.

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President Obama approved adding 17,000 U.S. troops for the war in Afghanistan, his first significant move to change the course of a conflict that his military advisers have warned the United States is not winning. About 8,000 Marines are expected to go first, followed by about 9,000 Army troops.

News agencies are now reporting that Saudi national Mohammed al-Harbi (a.k.a. Abul Hareth Mohammed al-Awfi)--a former Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of participating in jihadi conflicts in Chechnya and Afghanistan, who was later released and rejoined Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia--has surrendered without a fight to authorities in Yemen. I recently profiled al-Harbi in my report published by the NEFA Foundation, "The Eleven: Saudi Guantanamo Veterans Returning to the Fight."

An excerpt from that report:

Mohammed al-Harbi, born on July 13, 1973, is a Saudi Arabian national and former Guantanamo Bay detainee no. 333. A resident of the Saudi capital Riyadh, al-Harbi claimed to be a small business owner selling fruits and vegetables. Later, before an ARB panel in Guantanamo Bay, al-Harbi bristled when he sensed that a panel member was teasing him about the scale of his business dealings. “Don’t think I’m a merchant,” he shot back. “Don't think the Mercedes I bought [in Kuwait] was a $40,000 model. The Mercedes I bought was an ‘87 model and very old. Don’t look at me like I'm a big merchant or something.” When confronted with a charge sheet in his hearing that suggested al-Harbi had “traveled extensively with little or no means of support throughout the Middle East and former Soviet Union during the period between 1999-2000”, he replied: “I have traveled, but not extensively. This is shown in my passport and other documents. I went to Turkey on vacation once and I took a short trip to Georgia, in the former Soviet Republic, and I made a trip to Kuwait to buy a Mercedes Benz. I do not understand how that constitutes extensive travel throughout the Middle East… The dates mentioned 1999-2000, were long before the United States was involved with Afghanistan, militarily… Concerning my means of support, I have three businesses in Saudi Arabia, which provide plenty of money for a vacation of several months to Turkey and the former Soviet Union.” However, contrary to his account before the ARB panel, the U.S. military learned from its own sources that al-Harbi had allegedly been “in Chechnya for approximately nine months in 1999… A source reported that the detainee underwent basic training and physical training in Chechnya"... In the late fall of 2001, Mohammed al-Harbi traveled on a religious pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca for the holy month of Ramadan. It was “at this time he decided to travel to Pakistan and provide assistance to the Afghani refugees that were residing at camps on Pakistani soil”...

For more, read the whole profile on the NEFA Foundation website.

A U.S. soldier went on trial in a military court Tuesday on charges of murder for his alleged involvement in killing four Iraqi prisoners who were bound, blindfolded, shot in the head and dumped in a Baghdad canal in 2007.

NATO warned Tuesday that Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in the former tourist haven of Swat.

Air Force Academy Master Sgt. Greg Meinert will return to Vietnam for the third time this week on a mission to bring some of his fellow airmen home.

The death of a U.S. Coast Guard commander from Frisco, N.C., is under investigation, according to the Coast Guard. Cmdr. Keith Willis, 44, was found dead Sunday morning in his cabin aboard the cutter Tahoma, which was in its Kittery, Maine, homeport, a news release said.

Quietly but surely, rural communities on the edges of Hampton Roads are gearing up for what could be a fateful fight. They are trying to build a case against the Navy's plan to construct a jet landing strip in the midst of a rural community.