From today’s Washington Post Magazine, a portrait of 2d Battalion, 7th Marines– “2/7″.
The problem was, Karell didn’t know what to expect. He was from Arlington. He’d traveled the world. This place, though, was like nowhere he’d ever been. The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment had deployed to Afghanistan last spring to train Afghan police. But when Karell’s platoon arrived in Now Zad, the largest town in a remote northern district of Helmand province, they’d rolled into a ghost town.
The Afghans who used to live here, more than 10,000, had been gone for several years, their abandoned mud-brick homes slowly melting into the dusty valley. Insurgents were using the place for R&R. At night, all you heard were the jackals, ululating like veiled, grieving women. The fact that Now Zad had no civilian residents, much less any police, had somehow escaped the notice of the coalition planners who had given the Marines their mission.
A true “What now, Lieutenant?” moment. Good article, go read. The author’ll also be online tomorrow for a Q&A.
And yes, as you know I like to skewer Ivy Leaguers who, in my opinion, don’t pull their collective weight in national service. Looks like 1stLt Karell pulled his weight a good bit more.
Man can only befree through mastery of himself.
I’m a former soldier (Italian Army), and the article bothered me a lot. I forwarded it to a friend, a serving officer in the US military, with over twenty years of field experience. This included getting shot at, by the way. What follows are his comments.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
The article is odd, in several respects.
The Lieutentant is pretty old at 29, while his platoon sergeant is younger. That’s a
very unusual combination.
Nobody had ever been across the wall from the Coalition before, but
we’d repeatedly bombed the central bunker and had standing jokes about
it.
We have tight controls over what weapons to use to get the results we
want while minimizing collateral damage, yet we’re bombing a hill just
because.
We don’t know about the missing population of the town, and naively
expect to find police there. Nobody bothers to check and see if the
Afghan government is paying police there, has sent officers from that
city to various schools and returned them, etc.
Beleaguered encampment?
How to accomplish the mission wasn’t spelled out? Good. Doctrinally
it shouldn’t be. Give maximum flexibility to your subordinates since
they are closer to the problem and can better figure out the details.
We’re going into new areas, and going to fix them well enough to let
the Afghan Army take over, when we’re still holding their hands in
more secure parts of the country?
I’ve never heard of air cover being denied in Afghanistan unless there
was a higher priority fight going on and simply weren’t any birds in
the air because they were still launching the next package. I’ve
never heard of medevac being denied for other than weather. I’ve
heard of plenty of routine flights denied, so they could concentrate
that minimal helo capacity on priorities. I’m entertained by the fact
that it takes longer to get support in Afghanistan than in Iraq, might
have something to do with the fewer soldiers spread over the terrain,
and maybe even by the harsher terrain that means you can’t just point
your truck in the right direction and move.
Two platoons in combat, a force of perhaps 70 men at most, suffered 26
casualties, some losing limbs, an event which is remarkable for how
seldom it has occurred in the war so far.
EOD trying to defuse an IED, rather than blowing it in place.
Insurgents, who have no reason to expect any coalition forces nearby,
still dash across open spaces with heavy weapons.
WTF is a seven ton truck? I’ve seen 5 tons, 10 tens, 2.5 tons, but
never a 7 ton.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - -
My friend quit on the article at this point.
I’ve been following the Long War for a long time. This debacle, had it ever occured, would’ve been dissected by the MSM in real time, woth the USMC dragged over hot coals. I’ve found nothing about this at all.
And then I noticed the Administration-friendly plugin at the end of the article.
I’m a mere bystander in this war, more’s the pity, and salute the proud heirs of the G.I.s that freed my homeland over sixty years ago. I’m now very, very curious to hear what the author has to say.
I’m a retired Naval Officer, but my father and brother were Marines.
The expanded account I read yesterday made me so violently angry I made myself wait 24 hours to respond. Not because of the actions of Lt. Karell, but because of the apparent total failure of his superiors to provide the minimal intelligence, air support, and support services that the situation as described so obviously required.
If the initial situation and follow-up tasking and support were as described, some senior officers should be facing courts-martial for dereliction of duty. No way was this acceptable.
I’m now taking a deep breath, stepping back and reminding myself that I do NOT in fact have access to all the facts or the overall picture. Otherwise I’ll just walk around cursing.