The President’s draw down from Afghanistan may mark the beginning of the end of our almost ten year involvement in that country.
The thousands of American and allied Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who have served in that “graveyard of empires” have helped make our world more secure by disrupting the havens of al Qaeda terrorists and taking down the regime of their Taliban hosts. Although these successes may be temporary, they were achieved in a very inhospitable environment.
Afghanistan has seen foreign armies before. You may recall that Soviet tanks rumbled across the Soviet –Afghan border in December 1979. That invasion was a brazen attempt by the Soviet Union to take over Afghanistan and shore up a regime friendly to them.
The Soviets occupied the country for nine years. On average, over 100,000 of their troops were stationed there at any given time. That figure is remarkably close to the approximately 100,000 troops we currently have in the country. That’s about where the similarity ends.
The Soviets stayed in the bigger towns and cities during their deployments. When the Soviets did venture out, they were seen as invaders and were constantly harassed by the Taliban and other groups. They lost 14,453 soldiers in Afghanistan. Their engagement with the local population was negligible and counter-productive.
We appear to have learned from both the Soviet Union’s and our own mistakes. Our efforts are not just kinetic, “bombs on target” operations. We finally realized that it was important to engage the population in the areas in which they live. Every province, every district, no matter how inaccessible, is an operational area for our forces.
This engagement has begun to show results. It is one of the reasons our casualty rate is so much lower than that of the Soviets. So far, 1,520 of our Servicemen have died there.
Each of these deaths is tragic and we mourn every one of these heroes because of their supreme sacrifices for us. Yet, the casualty figures would be much worse if we did not train our military to some of the most exacting standards in the world.
A great deal of this training takes place in exercises that test the skills of units to accomplish their assigned missions. It just so happens that this week Marines at Quantico and along the entire Eastern Seaboard are participating in Exercise “Mailed Fist”.
It is the largest exercise of its kind ever on the East Coast, with most of the activity taking place in the Carolinas. It will involve units from the Navy and Air Force, as well as Marine Corps. While not billed as a counter-insurgency exercise, it may very well be preparing us for future amphibious engagements that we hope will never come.
But, if it does, our troops will be ready because of what they are doing in our backyard. So, if you see an F/A-18 Hornet or an MV-22 Osprey along the coast, you’ll know those crews are taking part in some of the best military training in the world…just in case its ever needed.
Cedric Leighton is the Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a Washington area strategic risk and management consultancy.
