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US finds Iraq tactics don't work in Afghan war
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-13 11:14 In Iraq , a half-hour firefight was considered a long engagement; here, Marines have fought battles that have lasted as long as eight hours against an enemy whose attacking forces have grown from platoon-size to company-size. US military leaders recognize that they need to make adjustments. During a Christmas Eve visit here, Marine Commandant Gen. James T. Conway told the troops that the Defense Department is studying how to reconfigure the bottom of its MRAPs to handle Afghanistan's rougher terrain. And Col. Duffy White , the commander of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force , said he anticipates that Marines will be wearing less armor by spring, when fighting season begins again. The next Marine battalion arriving here will need more troops and more helicopters. And because of terrain, patrols will change. "Hopefully we have not become wedded to the vehicles," White said, a reference to the MRAPs, which currently are required for every patrol. "We have to set the standard operation procedure for how to do this. This not Iraq ." Just how quickly the US military can shift its weapons, tactics and mindset to Afghanistan after nearly seven years of training almost exclusively for Iraq is a major question as President-elect Barack Obama takes office promising to transfer combat units out of Iraq and into Afghanistan . Students of the Iraq war know that change came slowly and only after years of casualties made worse by inadequate equipment. As in Iraq , where the US didn't increase the number of troops, despite the growing insurgency and violence until 2007, US forces Afghanistan fear they are undermanned, despite the Pentagon's plan to double the US troops in Afghanistan to 60,000. The 3,000 troops here are in charge of an area with few city centers that is roughly the size of Vermont . In Washir, the neighboring district, the Taliban operates freely because there are not enough troops. "They tell me that Afghanistan is Iraq on steroids," said Gilreath, who is on his first deployment and hasn't served in Iraq . But 40 percent of the ] has served previously in Iraq's Anbar province. Indeed, the ] was originally scheduled to deploy to the Iraqi/Syrian border and learned just two months before it shipped out that it was headed to Afghanistan instead. By then they had finished most of their training, all of it geared toward Iraq . So they are learning on the ground. At times, Afghanistan can feel deceptively like Iraq , they say. During a patrol that found the Marines surrounded by poppy fields, they spotted two men on a motorcycle trailing them. It was the only other vehicle on an otherwise unused paved road. "You see that. They're watching us," Gilreath radioed to his fellow Marines. In Iraq , such trailing often meant an attack was imminent. But not here. Marines said it could be months before the Taliban turns that information into an attack. "The lack of attacks has me asking: Are we doing something right or wrong?" asked company commander Capt. Sven Gosnell , 36, of Torrance, Calif. , an Iraqi veteran. |
