Why We’re Not Winning The “War Against Terror”
Few folk understand why it is unavoidable the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end in victory for the U. S. Of America and Britain. I am not a correspondent, but I kind of did fight as an infantryman in one war against insurgents, and in another civil war my business suffered devastating losses when caught-up between the 2 factions.
In both these wars, I witnessed the suffering of neutral civilians. Because I was closely and personally involved in these 2 wars not just as an observer I suspect I am particularly qualified to elucidate in down-to-earth terms what’s going incorrect with the Afghanistan and Iraq wars today. Both these past wars were lost to the ‘terrorists’, and I see chilling likenesses in what occurred back then to what has happened in Afghanistan and Iraq today.
Casting my mind back, and comparing what happened then to what’s happening today, why it’s all going incorrect becomes clear. AFGHANISTAN across the war on fear I fought in more than 30 years back we squaddies never lost a fight against the insurgents. It was especially a rustic war, like the one in Afghanistan, we infantrymen patrolled the country, visiting towns and little cities. We looked to provide the country-folk with protection from terrorists, frequently sharing food and drink whilst we chatted with the town elders.
Hearts and minds work, occasionally providing rural recommendation and medical help.
But after these friendly exchanges, our patrols had to move on we were unable to be everywhere, all the time. We based up nearby for the night, or returned by copter or lorry to our secure main camp. When our tour of duty in the operational area stopped, we’d journey home for ‘RR’, rest, recreation and retraining.
We knew we had the measure of them, and thought we were winning But the residents we’d exchanged those greetings with, suggested and helped when we were visiting, were left alone to face the implications of their friendliness towards us the enemy of the insurgents.
Hamlet elders would be charged and convicted of being sellouts ( I’m not sure what the term is in Afghanistan ). They’d be tortured and / or rubbed out, infrequently in the presence of the town population. How do we expect to grip the hearts and minds of these people? We arrive, we are friendly and useful and then we are going back to the protection of our camps or bases whilst they are left to suffer the fallout. It did not work back then in Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe ) and it is not working now in Afghanistan.
IRAQ I witnessed another this time urban battle for hearts and minds. As it appears to me that it’s principally an urban fight, the Iraq war makes me think about this other ’struggle’ that happened over 20 years back. It was lost relatively quickly merely a matter of some years and the authorities, squaddies, officers and baby-kissers never got correctly to grips with it they could not face the media and the political implications of a no holds barred battle with the insurgents and their followers.
The insurgents quickly took command of the urbanized areas where their fans lived reducing the police and soldiers who were loyal to the bonafide govt to token armed patrols thru the streets, infrequently never even leaving the security of their armoured automobiles, apart from raids on suspected terrorist bases.
The terrorists shortly established themselves as the ‘authority’ and the bonafide detectives became, in the eyes of the populace, the insurgents! For instance, terrorists wiped out all prior road signs and replaced them with their own temporary ones. The new ‘authorities’ established their own tax systems.
Shopkeepers who were seen to once have been trustworthy to the old authorities or system had their companies wrecked and were frequently roughed up or rubbed out by the new ‘authorities’ after being attempted by a ‘people’s court’. The bonafide authorities were rendered worthless after they were not able to guard the folk in their houses. They patrolled the streets and then returned to the safety of their bases and houses away from the population they were intended to protect. I repeat.