Did any of you catch this on FrontLine the otherday. It's actually pretty good. It's about what's going on in A-Stan. The first half is all about Marines in Helmand Province.
This is a huge test for us and knowing the russians left makes it that more trivial. Sure makes u watch that movie with tom hanks charlies war. Politics are not my thing even though I had many tell me maybe it should be but at the time was not my calling. All I know is they better think it out and real fast because when people put my brothers in harms way they better have a damn good explanation of how were gonna win it and get out! If u cant win u shouldnt be there and I know we can win but the plan seems very sketchy to me.
Are you serious?! I saw that clip! The Marines in the video are freaking nasty!! Our mission is not to be ****ing friends with the village! It's to kill bad guys! and that vid makes us look like a bunch of *******! Dead bad guys=problem solved... not holding hands with the drug farmers!
I completely disagree with you and I know that people like Gen Mattis and Petreaus would disagree with you as well. You stated "Our mission is not to be ****ing frineds with the village! You are dead wrong. That is our mission is to win the hearts and minds. Without local support the insurgency will die. An insurgency needs the support of the people. You don't win support by ****ing the locals off and blowing up their village.
The mission there is counter-insurgency. So they are conducting COIN ops. While you are entitled to your opinion it is also completely wrong. You CAN'T win unless you are friends with the farmers and villagers.
I'm not going to try and teach you counter-insurgency since it takes multiple classes and entire FM to do that. Your profile says that you are a retired E-5. With all due respect as a squad leader COIN ops is something that you should already know. To win is simple. You must first CLEAR the area of bad guys. Then you must HOLD the are and keep it secure from the bad guys. Then you must BUILD the area so there is an infrustructure so people have a purpose in life and have jobs other than shooting at us.
The more friends you make over there the less enemies you have to shoot at you.
Yeah, if you don't have a good rapport with the locals, they won't help you at all. You have to build good relationships with them if you expect Mr Haji to tell you any good intel.
