The last eight years in Afghanistan has produced some success, but the year 2010 will be different because the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) leadership has learned from previous mistakes and now understands how to defeat the insurgents. The United States and its NATO allies, have a vested interest in ensuring the Afghan people are safe from harm so they can rebuild their country’s infrastructure, government, and economy. However, after years of turmoil in their nation from terrorist attacks and the fear of ISAF departing prior to defeating the insurgents, the Afghan people are hesitant about supporting either side. For ISAF, earning their trust will be a challenge, but it can and will be done. However, some things must change. As ISAF develops new operational approaches for Afghanistan in the ISAF Commander’s Counterinsurgency Guidance (ICCG), the most relevant contextual factors that apply are doctrine, conflict resolution, and civil-military relations. In regard to developing strategies in Afghanistan, Sun Tzu and David Galula’s theories are the most applicable. First of all, doctrine is guidelines commanders use for employing forces to achieve national objectives. In reference to the war in Afghanistan, the doctrine has been primarily focusing on capturing and/or defeating the insurgents. ISAF forces have been chasing insurgents throughout numerous villages around the region in hopes of dismantling the terrorist networks. This is not working and it is time to take a different approach which means drastically changing the doctrine. The new guidance redefines the mission. Protecting the Afghan people is the new mission priority, while fighting and capturing the insurgents is secondary. T... ... middle of paper ... ...people and its government. Last Galula item focuses on “testing the new authorities and organizing self defense units.” McChrystal’s strategy most related to the last item is, “hold all officials accountable and help Afghan people secure their areas.” By holding them accountable the system is determining if they are worthy of the positions. As far as Galula’s idea to organize self defense units, McChrystal was right on target with the same concept just a different participant. The year 2010 will be the beginning for the Afghan people to establish their government, economy, and way of life. The doctrine, conflict resolution, and civil-military resolution contextual factors are the most relevant for applying the strategies in Afghanistan. General McChrystal’s ideas outlined in the ICCG are most closely related to the two theorists Sun Tzu and David Galula.
The Battle of Kamdesh was fought in Afghanistan during the Afghan War. It is an occurrence in the ongoing NATO campaign of the Operation Enduring Freedom since the year 2001. It was one of the bloodiest battles the USA forces engaged in during this campaign against the Taliban insurgents. The Taliban insurgents, assisted by local Nuristan militias, attacked Kamdesh, which is an American combat outpost, located deep in the Nuristan tribal Areas. They carried out a well-coordinated attack on the outpost, leading to a breach and an overrun of the post. This paper, seeks to analyze why, when, how, and what were the resulting impact of the battle.
“Over the past century, Canadian attitudes towards the use of force and the exercise of military power in support of national aims have fundamentally shifted”. This is a quote written by Major Todd Strickland in his article, titled, “From the Boers to the Taliban: How Canadians Attitudes towards War Have Changed”. This article reviews Canada’s history within the wars and also Canadian’s thoughts on war. The Afghan war began in 2001 and is still ongoing today. The war began due to the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11th, 2001, also known as 9/11. The purpose of this war was to invade Afghanistan and to disassemble an organization, known as the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Another objective was to dismantle the Taliban government. The Taliban government was simply to blame for the deaths of so many Americans on 9/11. The leader, brains and financial support behind this organization was one by the name of Osama bin Laden. Because his country did not surrender him, the United States made the decision to declare war on Afghanistan and fight for those who lost their lives in 9/11. Canada became involved in the Afghan War very quickly after the attacks of 9/11. Because the Afghanistan war is a war that is constantly covered by the media, it makes the information overwhelming. To narrow the topic down, this paper will focus mainly on the Canadian’s involvement in the Afghanistan war. Violent political wars have been reoccurring for as long as anyone can remember, and the intensity of this violence continues to rise. The magnitude of political violence involved, the main interpretations on the causes of political violence, and the prospects for conflict resolution are all topics that will be covered...
During the course of the Soviet-Afghan war between 1979 and 1989, 1986 was the turning point for the Soviet Union. Soviet Union General Secretary Gorbachev was convinced that the Soviet effort at rebuilding Afghanistan was failing: the Afghanistan government, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), made little progress in reaching out to the population, economic aid did not reach its destination, and the majority population supported Mujahideen (Matthews 2011). The Soviet Union felt the DRA should take a leading combat role against the Mujahideen (Graw and Jalali 2001). The DRA’s Ministry of Defense decided to destroy Zhawar, a logistic transfer base at Khost Province that was responsible for 60% of Mujahideen supply, and named Lieutenant General (LTG) Nabi Azimi as the overall commander for the Afghanistan forces (Yousaf and Adlom 1992). Through the six steps operation process, LTG Nabi Azimi’s mission command failure by his inability at visualizing solution process for the problems, directing units with achievable goals, assessing the operation environment with accurate information, and leading the unit physically from the front overwhelmed his success in understanding the operational environment and describing his intent to subordinates units.
Rich, Paul B. (2010), 'Counterinsurgency or a war on terror? The war in Afghanistan and the debate on Western strategy', Small Wars & Insurgencies, 21 (2), 16.
In this piece of writing “What We Are Fighting For,” Rex Murphy outlines the most persuasive reasons for the existence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Murphy commences with the description of annihilation of Taliban government by Canada is not only because of Canadian affiliation with the USA but also because our people got killed on 9/11. Furthermore, Afghani citizens need assistance in structuring a new type of government in order to guard against potential attacks. He continues that Canadian troops stay behind in the Afghanistan to aid in the construction of the essential elements- schools, a justice system, infrastructure, roads- that any society must have. Moreover, Murphy also considers our countries support in Afghanistan from conflicting
1. Immediately following the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, American military power sought out and aggressively attacked Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan. Within weeks, the United States removed the Taliban from governing Afghanistan and worked with the international community to establish a new democratic government led by Afghan native Hamid Karzai, who would soon be elected president. However, by 2006, the Taliban significantly increased attacks on pro-Afghan government officials, Afghan security forces, and coalition military members. The United States and partner North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members responded with a surge of military might in 2010 to make one final push to drive the Taliban out. With major ground now gained for the Afghan government in 2014, Afghanistan faces a critical crossroads in its nation’s history. After recovering areas once held by the Taliban, Afghanistan must become self-sufficient in sustaining its first democratic government. With Company Grade Officers (CGOs) in the American military key to reaching strategic objectives, a secure and democratic Afghanistan is in the national interest of the United States in order to prevent a safe-haven for international terrorist activity.
Afghanistan since its beginning has been a place of conflict, despair, and at times lost hope. It has been taken advantage of and lost its sense of identity, which has had a direct effect on its people, and there own sense of what justice truly is.
Stanley McChrystal served in the military for over 34 years with multiple leadership assignments from Platoon Leader, up to the commander of US Forces in Afghanistan, cementing a legacy of efficiency. His most renowned achievement was revolutionizing the targeting process within the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). This built a network of interagency cooperation and streamlined the Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze (F3EA) targeting cycle in order to eliminate high value targets (HVTs) in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). McChrystal accomplished this by building a network, to defeat a network. This philosophy was realized by building a coalition of intelligence and operations professionals to counter
Since the year 2001, Afghanistan’s history with the United States has been very rough and destructive due to the Afghanistan War. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, then-President George W. Bush signed a joint law resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for the 9/11 attack (“U.S. War in Afghanistan”). On October 7th, 2001, the US launched missile strikes against Taliban military starting the official “War of Afghanistan” (Afghanistan Profile - Timeline). Twelve days after the airstrikes, the first wave of conventional ground forces arrive in Afghanistan (“U.S. War in Afghanistan”). In August 2003, two years after the start of the war, there are now over 10,000 American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan (“U.S. War in Afghanistan”). A few years passed by without any major events during the war, until September of 2008 when President Bush sent an extra 4,500 troops to Afghanistan (Afghanistan Profile-
The US relationship between Afghanistan and Iraq has been a severely complicated one since its beginning. Although the U.S. and other western countries had originally supported the mujahideen movement in the 1980’s, the formation of Al-Qaeda and the search for jihads by its members eventually led to the declaration of a fatwa against the United States in 1998. After many terrorist attempts believed to be caused by Al-Qaeda, the conflict culminated with the attacks on the Twin Towers and pentagon on September 11, 2001. The attacks against the United States caused an international domino effect of support. Pr...
Smith, Gordon. “Canada in Afghanistan: Is it working?” Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, 2007.
...n Afghanistan. Ed. Jann Einfeld. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2005. Current Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden decided to “wake the sleeping giant.” The US immediately sent SOF units and CIA officers to recon the area and meet with the Northern Alliance. The primary battle leading up to this operation was Tora Bora, which was absent of conventional forces. Up until this point, the war on terror was predominantly a Special Operations fight along with Air Force for overhead support.3 SOF and the Northern Alliance had already displaced Taliban forces out of many towns and villages in northern Afghanistan to gain control of key terrain. Key towns in northern Afghanistan including Taloqan, Konduz, Herat, and Mazar-e Sharif took only three weeks to clear.4 The SOF units were making huge impacts across the country calling in air strikes. At the same time the SOF units were diligently...
There are many sociological key concepts that would relate to the war in Afghanistan. The three that I have chosen are structural social mobility, modernization theory, and gender stratification.
Recently Afghanistan has grown significantly in terms of its ability to care for itself. A national army and a developing police force are becomi...