Change in Direction needed

October 17, 2008 By Troy
Posted in Life in the Military

Recently CJCS Mullen made the very accurate statement that the wrong direction was taken for the last two years in Afghanistan and now he and the military is trying to correct for it. I have to say I totally agree with him. I saw it first hand when I was there, especially when there were O-6 Colonels calling ETTs “non-combatant, combatants” and telling us that there was no reason for ETTs to get out of the truck or for us to go into a kulat (house). These same Colonels and Colonels like them were telling new inbound ETTs that they would never fire a round, that they would only pass out candy and pat kids on the head.

BTW, if anyone would care to tell me what the hell a non-combatant, combatant is I would love to know. I am sure all of the ETTs that died in 2006 and 2007 would love to know that means too. As stupid as that sounds, that is what we had in charge of many parts of the Task Force when I was there. As the “thank you on behalf of a desperate and grateful nation” tour has progressed, I can only imagine there are as many if not more leaders at all levels that are more worried about having a good evaluation report than taking the fight to the enemy.

This is a great video http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/oct/13/afghanistan-taliban-us-army for many reasons. One is it gives the viewer a real inside view of what it is like to be downrange, clearing villages, talking with “innocent” villagers and the frustration of not finding bad guys. It also shows an act that at one time was considered taboo. See part of the reason that the wrong direction being followed for the last two years was that leaders were afraid to “fight” the enemy. My good bud Rog-O got called on the carpet one time in front of a One-Star General becuase he and his ETT partner knocked down a kulat door with their humvee, as seen in this video. Now you can see that the 101st has no problem in taking down doors, but back when we were there, it was almost a crime to do such a thing. When you are knocking on a door and you hear the distinctive sound of AK-47s being charged on he other side, taking out the door with a humvee is the right thing to do. Luckily for my man Rog-O, after he explained his side of the story all was forgiven and forgotten. The Task Force leadership saw the justification for doing such a thing and in fact Rog-O was used as an example of how to motivate the ANA.

I didn’t mean for this blog to be so long, but after watching this video I realized it was a good example of how the attitude has changed from the coddling, safety above all else attitude of 2006-2007 to the lets kick ass and finish the fight attitude that we have today.

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