Indirect clown fire

Think the abilities a team needs to use a mortar or large field artillery piece for indirect fire.

Well, the ANA doesn't have those abilities, even though the have the equipment.

An allied Afghan platoon opened up with their .50-caliber machine gun, spraying bullets all over the valley, and their mortar team went into action. Within seconds, the team of three had run down to their position, yanked the cover off the mouth of the heaviest weapon on the post, unwrapped an 82-mm round and dropped it down the tube. There was a strong metallic clink, followed by a blast as the bomb went zooming out from the mortar. Seconds later a boom reverberated over the surrounding mountains, and the Afghan crew stood on tiptoe, trying to see where it had landed.

And that is the point. Over the course of 10 days in October 2011, the Afghan National Army (ANA) mortar crew never actually aimed their tube. They never took a bearing, never read out elevations, never set up their aiming sticks — though they did continuously clean and oil the weapon.

Applying Vietnam to Afghanistan

“Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes. There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us.”

Senator George McGovern

35 missions as a B-24 pilot in WWII, Europe.

The Greens are right

Afghanistan will fold. Yet, Smith wrongly believes a pullout now increases risk.

Don't see how. Getting out of Operation:USELESS DIRT now rather than later is the only sensible (and on target) policy I have seen from the Greens.

This is how we won WWII... not...

This Operation:USELESS DIRT update is just more utter stupidity.

Look at all the wasted manpower and time better used to...oh, I don't know, try and win a war that certain fools think is so important.

As Rawley points out; garrison mentality.

Indeed.

Lyndon Baines Gillard

Lyndon Baines Gillard's response to the latest loss of a brave Australian soldier in Operation: USELESS Dirt (OUD) is nothing less than despicable.

Ms Gillard says Australia remains committed to continuing the mission in the war-torn country despite the latest death.

"For many Australians when they hear this news, they will ask themselves again: why are we in Afghanistan, why do we continue to fight there, why do we continue to see these losses in Afghanistan?"

"We went there to make sure that Afghanistan would not continue to be a safe haven for terrorists.

"That continues to be our mission which has a defined purpose and a defined timeline.

"So we will continue our mission in Afghanistan even as we grieve this loss," Ms Gillard said.

OUD provides no valid defensive value to Australia. Afghanistan is a tribal culture that cannot be changed. It is not our business to attempt such a thing.

A culture that thinks this is normal behaviour. A culture that has no ability to operate in a military fashion lusted after by the chicken hawks that got us in there and keep us there.

What is more of a security threat to Australia? Afghanistan, or letting half-a-dozen boats land in Australia...per week?

Absurd.

2014? Now is just as good a time as any. Waiting until 2014 will not change a thing. What is just as bad is that the opposition party has no practical words about Afghanistan either.

The only strategic sense on OUD comes from (wait for it)...

The Greens.

Nation-building

Sad state of affairs:

In April, a local utility shut off power to a small cemetery in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands of veterans of wars ranging from the Revolutionary War to World War II are buried after the facility fell behind on its bills. Power was eventually restored to Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery, home to soldiers from the Civil War.

Yet we have to send billions of tax-dollars to useless shit-holes like Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places.

What is needed is much more nation-building at home. Much more.

The next chicken-hawk that suggests another useless foreign war and/or foreign-aid mission needs to be given a pack and rifle and told to go fight it themselves.

Combat leader's dereliction of duty

Out of uniform (no helmet in a combat-zone) and thus also unsafe, a silly scarf (also out of uniform) to appease idiots. So what happens if an IED hits or a mortar round or whatever, and this person gets injured or killed in a situation where wearing a helmet would have helped?

Also, someone who is injured because they were not wearing a helmet is unsafe to their squad-mates as they are unable to help others in combat and or now take two or three other people to recover their dumb-ass.

I have nothing but contempt for senior leadership that allows something like this to happen.

Caption for linked photo: "U.S. Army Pfc. Kristina Batty dons a headscarf to meet with female Afghan villagers in Afghanistan's southern Ghazni province, May 5, 2012. Batty, a medic for a female engagement team, is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod"

UPDATE: Operation: USELESS DIRT de-motivational report

In the latest waste and stupidity that is Operation: USELESS DIRT 1, the insurgent Afghan government has detained a U.S. soldier who was accused of a mass shooting of civilians. Reports say wounded but no dead.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. service member was detained Sunday after he shot Afghan civilians in Kandahar province, the NATO-led coalition said.
Capt. Justin Brockhoff with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the incident took place off base and wounded "multiple" civilians.

UPDATE: From AP via Stars and Stripes--(some killed)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A U.S. service member walked out of his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and started shooting Afghan civilians, the provincial governor said.

People were both killed and wounded in the early morning shooting spree in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said, though he did not provide numbers.

"The incident happened. There are some people killed, some wounded. But I don't have the details," Wesa said in a phone interview. He said a group of officials had gone to the base to determine exactly what happened.

Also, first reports being inaccurate etc...etc...

The service member was being held at a NATO base and U.S. forces are investigating the shooting in cooperation with Afghan authorities, Brockhoff said. He said it was not clear if the alleged shooter knew the victims.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that the Afghan air force (such as it is) was using aircraft to move drug product and other contraband.

At a cost of nearly $2 billion for two years’ worth of building the Afghan Air Force, the U.S. inadvertently purchased a more convenient mechanism for trafficking opium and weapons than Afghanistan’s drug lords were previously using. But it actually gets worse than that. The aerial trade in guns and drugs through the Afghan Air Force appears to be financing the rearmament of private militias hedging against the country’s implosion after the U.S. leaves.

Your tax dollars at work.

For no useful gain.

The sooner Operation: USELESS DIRT stops the better

Now that Gillard, Obama, and others, officially own participation in Bushs' Operation: USELESS DIRT, maybe they can explain (again) why we should subsidize a sick tribal culture that thinks sexually abusing kids and dog fighting are normal and acceptable human behavior.


H/T- Lex

OUD1 comic update

An amusing, and wasteful sideshow. Operation: USELESS DIRT 1 endures.

Commander of Afghan troops--Australia can leave now

New news. Australia can leave Operation: USELESS DIRT behind.

The commander of Afghan troops being trained by Australians has urged the Australian government to withdraw its troops immediately - provided they leave behind millions of dollars' worth of sophisticated war-fighting equipment.

Brigadier-General Mohammed Zafar Khan said his Afghan National Army soldiers were capable of providing security in Oruzgan province, despite the fact that Australia has said it could take another three years to train them adequately.

He said he had repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked Australian and coalition officials, including the Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, to give the Afghans equipment for night vision and counter-improvised explosive device capability, artillery and access to medical evacuation helicopters.

''Three years is too much time for the Australians to stay here,'' General Zafar told the Herald through an interpreter at his Tarin Kowt headquarters.

I wouldn't bother leaving any equipment behind. The Afghan security forces will be worthless with, or without it.

In any event, the Afghanistan mission provides no valid security value to Australia.

Worried about the special security relationship with the U.S.? Don't be. Canada, the U.K. and others have pulled the plug and their "special relationship" with the U.S. won't change.

Snapshot of the security future of Afghanistan

Gillard and Smith keep telling us fairy tales about Afghan security forces.

It is time people start questioning the competence of these two senior leaders any time they mention "Afghanistan."

Here is a look at the reality facing Afghan security forces.

Deprived of U.S. logistics support, the base began to run low on supplies. The troops bought rice, flour and other food on credit from local merchants. Ammunition was diverted to those on the guard towers or going on food runs to the market.

The Afghan troops trashed much of the base, stripping wiring, plumbing and air-conditioning units. Well pumps stopped working, according to a U.S. officer. One generator turned up at Torkham Gate, the border crossing into Pakistan, but was nabbed by customs agents, according to an Afghan officer. Several rooms were littered with feces, say U.S. soldiers who saw the base later.

The Afghan soldiers explained they had been told by the battalion's executive officer they would be leaving along with the Americans, so they destroyed what they could to prevent the base falling into Taliban hands.

That wasn't the first odd command from the executive officer, or XO, Maj. Zul Faqar, and some started to assume he was in league with the enemy. Sgt. Rafiqullah recalls going into town one day to see a doctor and spotting a truck carrying Taliban fighters. He reported it to the XO, who replied, "It's none of your business," Sgt. Rafiqullah says.

Soon, Maj. Faqar ordered soldiers not to fire on insurgents at all, according to Sgt. Rafiqullah and U.S. and Afghan officers. One time the sergeant's men disobeyed orders and fired from a guard tower at a passing Taliban vehicle. The XO confined the men in a dark room as punishment, the sergeant says.

The sense of impotence sapped morale. Of the 130 soldiers in the sergeant's company, Sgt. Rafiqullah says three were killed, six were wounded and about 100 deserted, leaving just 20 to fight.

Over to you Gillard and Smith.

3 Australian troops killed in Afghanistan

Smith, Gillard and other chicken hawks are always fast off the draw to tell us fibs about progress made with the Afghan security forces.

Operation: USELESS DIRT continues with no strategic worth toward the defence of Australia.

The killings follow a similar incident in June when Lance-Corporal Andrew Jones was gunned down by a local soldier while on guard duty.

The murder follows the death of dozens of Coalition troops at the hands of Afghan soldiers during the 10-year conflict, including eight US troops killed in Kabul in April.

Some Afghanistan National Army troops remain fiercely loyal to their tribal leaders. They have questionable backgrounds and are answerable only to Afghan authorities.

Aussie troops have long-held concerns about rogue Afghan soldiers.

Their fears stem from numerous incidents where the Afghans have been high on opium.

Next up; I can hear the platitudes off in the distance from our cowards in political office.

Operation: USELESS DIRT 4

So the U.S. wants to deploy a force to Uganda to get the Lords Resistance Army.

It should be an interesting trick since 4th generation warriors don't understand borders. They can just melt into the woodwork. Better to use Executive Outcomes. Oh, that's right; can't have someone doing a job way better than the morons in the U.N.

There are countless hell-holes around the world to send the Army.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, why does the Federal Government hate America? Certainly the funds wasted on a Uganda op could be put into our polices forces, border protection or any number of real nation-building-at-home efforts.

It would be nice if we had people elected as the President of the United States instead of the President of Team America: WORLD POLICE.

Operation: USELESS DIRT 4 is calling.

.

Dumb career diplomat thinks Afghanistan can be "stable"

These are the kinds of idiots we have in important positions. They think that a tribal culture; a sick tribal culture; can be saved.

He described building a stable Afghanistan as "the ultimate guarantee that there will not be another 9/11."

Mission; ridiculous.

That, and 9/11 was caused by poor airline and airport security along with poor visa control of people that had over-stayed their visit.

But yeah, let us keep going with this fool's errand.

Australian leadership's weak claims about Operation: USELESS DIRT

Here is an example of the brave Afghan police.

We hear so much about their improvement.

The Australian Defence Minister Mr. Smith, the PM and others claim keeping Australian troops in Afghanistan is important. However, they can state nothing more than platitudes.

Don't mention the war

"The community needs to realise it is the height of insensitivity to a grieving family to claim or infer a digger has died in vain,'' MrJames said.

Or the height of insensitivity when the Prime Minister and Defence leadership stand up and do a sales job (no platitude spared) on a war that has no practical defensive value for Australia.

Empty words from the leadership about Afghanistan

"We have defined time frame for our strategy"

-Prime Minister Gillard-

"Why would you pull out when you are making the best progress you have ever made? Why, why would you do it? We need to stay the course."

-Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston-

Good reading here to get them up to speed. While not perfect (it has less mistakes than the current strategy) the Lind work on 4-gen warfare has some good points.

By telling the enemy a date that we will get out, you have already guaranteed defeat. In the end, let us just get out.

"I see light at the end of the tunnel."

-Walt W. Rostow, U.S. National Security Adviser, Dec. 1967-

--

Bombing range practices have more strategy than Libya operation

It is possible that "European air power" is at a turning point; and not a good one. NATO as a whole has no sound strategy for Libya.

Keep dropping those expensive precision guided munitions into useless dirt with no threat of a land invasion to back it up.

Either one wants regime change or they do not.

It seems Libya will continue to be an amusing sideshow simply because no one is interested in the correct application of air power.

Australia and Operation: USELESS DIRT...all for nought

....."but the greatest insult to the lives of the soldiers sacrificed to date would be to tell them that it was all for nought...."

It was all for nought not because of the soldiers. It was all for nought because of a poorly advised and deluded senior leadership that could not learn anything from places like Vietnam. The same kind of leadership that could not understand what is and what is not a valid reason to go to war.

For a war to be important to a society, most of the public (that funds it) has to believe it is a valid effort to the security of the nation. I don't think that it has been proven that Afghanistan is a valid security effort for the protection of the Australian public. It is possible that most Australians don't even think it is.

How many useless dirt piles are we to overturn for no gain; and why?