HOW NOT TO FIGHT A WAR- MISSILE DEFENSE, IEDS, LOSING AFGHANISTAN WAR IN WASHINGTON DC AGHA H AMIN

Agha.H.Amin In the Iraq War contrary to US claims none of the 80 primitive and bulky Iraqi Scud Missiles fired by Iraq on Saudi Occupied Arabia or Israel were stopped by the much propagated PATRIOT missiles. A missile is something much higher in level than an IED ? Even in combating IEDs conventional armies have failed in Afghanistan and Pakistan ?

The bottom line is that one small nuclear missile launched on Japan , a US base anywhere in Afghanistan,Iraq or South Korea can destabilise the whole world. Anti missile defense is an area with few probabilities and imnnumerable enigmas and improbables. In 2006 I was asked by a state client to do an IED study in Afghanistan.The picture that emerged was that the NATO was like a sitting duck when confronted with IEDs. IEDs or fear of IEDs severely limited NATOs ability to patrol and dominate ground and the trend became marked after 2006.Despite tall claims and much bravado IEDs were the weakest link in NATO operations in Afghanistan and the same happened in Pakistans FATA region between 2004 and 2013. In Afghanistan as a contractor I personally saw the mincemeat that insurgent IEDs made of US troops who rarely left their bases ? In Pakistans FATA region again I personally witnessed how Pakistan Army was turned into mincemeat by the TTP insurgents ? Technology came to grief in Helmand and Waziristan and the IEDs have made so called big and powerful armies act and behave like mice at the tactical level. Mind you the only wars that are really being fought are Low Intensity Conflicts , which we know as terrorism and guerrilla warfare. At the strategic and at the operational level down to the tactical level stability hangs only by the skin of its teeth. It appears that NATO and the US forces in Afghanistan were all along there on a catwalk and did not give serious thought to real tactical and operational issues . The prime stress was to avoid casualties and NATO and US troops , thanks to over cautious , hole punching,take no risks, careerist commanders looking for the next strike, lacked that burning desire to destroy the enemy ! Serious tactical discussion seemed to be lacking and there was empty and irrelevant talk of winning hearts and minds and friendly militias.Both were nonsensical concepts in a land of professional and cold blooded assasins , who enjoyed sniping and acted with full initiative propelled by that killer blood lust to kill and maim , which was sadly lacking in the sitting duicks that the NATO commanders had turned their troops into ?

The result ? Billions of US tax payers and NATO states tax payers money was spent on Afghanistan and nothing was achieved in the tactical realm ? At the strategic level the whole NATO and US Quixotic exercise called Operation Enduring Freedom and its other Quixotic continuations were an undoubted failure as the Talibans strategic centre of gravity in Pakistan and secondary centres of gravity in Iran and CARs were not destroyed at all ? THE PAKISTAN FACTOR IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND PAKISTAN THE HISTORY OF THE RACES THAT INHABIT PAKISTAN HAVE TO BE UNDERSTOOD ! BARRING TRIBAL PASHTUNS THE PAKISTANIS HAVE BEEN HISTORICALLY A HOPELESS LOT. EVEN PAKISTANS FOUNDER MR JINNAH HAD STATED ABOUT PAKISTANS CORE PROVINCE PUNJAB . " I WILL NEVER GO TO THE PUNJAB AGAIN , ITS A HOPELESS PLACE ! WITH A LITTLE MORE KICKING THE HOPELESS PAKISTANI GENERALS AND POLITICIANS WOULD HAVE BEEN SQUEALING AND SQUEAKING AND MUCH COULD HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED . AS MACHIAVELLI SAYS ITS THE BOLD AND AUDACIOUS YOUNG MAN WHO WITH HIS RUTHLESS VIOLENCE SEDUCES DAME VICTORY ? OR WORDS TO THAT AFFECT ? WITH A LITTLE MORE KICKING PAKISTANI GENERALS WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER HANDLED ? BUT THE QUESTION IS THAT DID MR BUSH OR OBAMA HAVE THAT UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY ? But who cares ? What is statesmanship ? That a social mobiliser must win the next elections or that his party or henchmen must win the next elections by wooing as many illegal Hispanic immigrants that they can ? What is the idea of stability and security ? To rob a once prowd race of the second ammendment right to bear weapons ?

To Sum up strategic stability merely exists because so called rogue states like North Korea are incompetent and stability has nothing to do with US competence ! As a soldier I have great sympathy with the could have been devastating US troops in Afghanistan whose greatest enemies were their hole punching military commanders and their myopic political leaders whose only aim was to win the next elections ? As in Vietnam the US Army lost the war in Afghanistan because of ineptitude in Washington and not in Vietnam !

Similarly in case of IEDs also NATO lost the tactical battle in Afghanistan after 2009 and Pakistan Army does not seem to be winning the tactical battle in FATA ! TAILPIECE HOW NATO DEALS WITH CRITICISM OR ANYTHING THAT CAUSES DISSONANCE WITH ITS OPERATIONAL AND TACTICALLY SPINSTER COMMANDERS WHO HAVE NEVER SET A SQUADRON IN THE FIELD NOR KNOW THE DIVISION OF BATTLE MORE THAN A SPINSTER ?
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Let the pictures speak as the first part of this summing up of a sad chapter of history ! When I started preparing for my first major bid in Afghanistan " Naghlu-Kabul" Electric transmission line I went for pre bid survey on Kabul Lataband...
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Geoff Shaw Great to see this one up and happening! The faith and fighting power of the Pashtuns has made them a thorn in the

side of every foreign interloper who has attempted to bully them. There has to be a reason the British wanted them in their armies and, given their profound ability to actually enjoy a gunbattle, I think modern Western armies should be considering the same. I knew they would outlast NATO (and I told a high-level NATO meeting that back in 2006 and was subsequently declared persona non grata at all meetings since) but I had no idea that their out-lasting power/victory would be as substantial as it appears to be (i.e., NATO will be abandoning massive amounts of heavy equipment in Afghanistan as they fear a turkey-shoot if they have to transport too much gear down to Karachi).
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THE NEXT MORNING

A second roadblock established to pre-empt possible attack on NATO pil tankersMorning 30 January 2011

OLD RUSSIAN LARGE SCALE MAP OF THE GREAT BEND ON KABUL ROAD THAT WE USED IN CASA 1000 TAJIKISTAN AFGHANISTAN PAKISTAN ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION LINE SURVEY IN MAY 2008

US and NATO military vehicles rarely patrol dirt roads where planting/deploying an IED is easy and most effective