The bloodiest month of the war in Afghanistan

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 1:08 PM Share

June was the bloodiest month of the war in Afghanistan, reports John McCreary, the former DIA analyst who follows the fighting there closely. This seems to be shifting to a war of roadside bombs, very different from the war of a few years ago.

The unclassified fighting data for June 2009 establish it as the most bloody month in the 8 year history of the US and Coalition presence.  According to icasualties.org, 38 ISAF and NATO soldiers died (27 US, 2 UK, 2 Canada, 1 Estonia, 3 Denmark, 3 German); 23 -- 60% -- from roadside bombs. The only months in which NATO deaths were higher were June and August 2008 during the summer offensive last year, but adding in the number of wounded, June 2009 is the worst month of the 8 year fight.

Unclassified data show that 85 men were wounded, including 28 US, 5 UK, 7 Netherlands, 3 Poland, 1 Australia, 3 Estonia, 4 Italy, 1 Denmark, 1 France, 4 Canada.  In addition, 27 other International Security Assistance Force personnel were reported wounded by reliable sources but not identified by nationality."

In this war, by the way, old soldiers do die. One of the four Americans killed in Kunduz the other day was: "2nd Lt. Derwin I. Williams, 41, of Glenwood, Ill. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 106th Cavalry Regiment, Dixon, Ill.

John Moore/Getty Images

EXPLORE:AFGHANISTAN, MILITARY
 

SIMPLESIMON

3:25 PM ET

July 9, 2009

The bloodiest month of the war in Afghanistan

US/NATO troops will continue to suffer attacks from Taliban as long as US goes after the Pakistani Taliban, led by Baitullah Mehsud, while it encourages the Pakistani intelligence to continue to shelter the entire top Afghan Taliban leadership in Baluchistan province. Mullah Muhammad Omar and other members of the Afghan Taliban's inner shura (council) have been ensconced for years in the Quetta area. Yet, US drones have targeted militants in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), but not the Afghan Taliban leadership operating with impunity from Baluchistan. US ground-commando raids also have spared the Afghan Taliban's command-and-control network in Baluchistan.

 

WALKING WOUNDED

3:56 PM ET

July 9, 2009

Mines

Mines are used to deny an enemy movement or access to territory. Command mines maximise enemy (us) casualties, while allowing friendly (opium economy) access.

US/NATO is prohibited from the Red Army resort to area mining and unrestricted antipersonnel air and art'y strikes on Taliban villages. So we try to deny enemy (them) access, by troop movement, patrolling to contact, suffering the overwhelming bulk of our casualties from...

Mines are used to deny...

 

TYRTAIOS

5:25 PM ET

July 9, 2009

Taliban attack us where we travel

Then again Walking Wounded, the enemy will attack us where they find us - on the roads. We keep coming-up with newer armored vehicles and technology that allows us to continue to travel on these roads where they will also continue to attack us.

Ancecotally, in RVN when C-rations were in vogue: one could take a frag grenade; pulling-out the safety pin and carefully slide it in the longer main meal C-ration can, which would hold the spoon down. A trip wire could then be attached. Why not put out a claymore you ask? Oh, probably someone had canibalized the C4 explosive inside over time (a pinch here and there) to heat C-rations.

I wasn't a shavetail, but I was a Mustang. : - )

 

WALKING WOUNDED

6:42 PM ET

July 9, 2009

setting the ambush

is the better side of contact. Easier in a forest, than in open farm country. The current occupying force has the prep time, and flanking a mud-walled village on a 1500 yd arc thru plowed fields is less than surprising. It'll be somewhat different next year, if the Marines invest to hold the local fort and can recognize strange faces in town. I gather that in 2007-8 Anbar, we gained briar patch ownership against intinerant wahabis.

Too bad Crock has retired from the funny papers. The bearded hordes were always so dismayed, when he opened the gate on the canon.

But if the opposition is willing to die to blow the gate, or kill anyone we deal with, and we're not willing to torch the teepees of the folks that offer pashtunwali hospitality to Omar's crowd, then we may need to find a third way.

I sometimes think about what fine service the Apache scouts offered Crooke, before they were betrayed by Miles. That's what pushed Capt. Bourke to resign. He was a mustang too, and I just learned that he received the MOH at Stone River, TN, fighting those other insurgents.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jgbourke.htm

 

TYRTAIOS

8:05 AM ET

July 10, 2009

The Corps should re-establish

The Corps should re-establish the Kit Carson Scout Program as we begin to capture Taliban, and make progress with civil affairs. I noted the Small Wars Council mentioned the program that we found success with in RVN.

In addition, as we're able to pacify areas, re-establish something along the lines of the Marine Combined Action Program (CAP) we also had above average success with in Vietnam.

Speeking of the famous scout, Kit Carson, Hampton Sides has a wonderful book titled "Blood and Thunder." An excellent account of our manifest destiny in the American Southwest.

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WALKING WOUNDED

3:37 PM ET

July 10, 2009

"The majority of early Kit Carson Scouts

...had a distrust of Vietnamese soldiers and interpreters because of the degree to which friendly forces had been infiltrated by enemy agents, so it was imperative that their handlers be Vietnamese speaking Americans."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Carson_Scouts

That resonates with the Iraq experience, re the exposure and loss of Arab assets, and our over-dependence on unreliable translators.

Carson hisself once made it out to my neck-o-woods. Semi-retired, Carson was IRR'd into Kearny's long ride to California. They were on the losing side of the Battle of San Pasqual here, and the retreat to Mule Hill, probably named for the 'last hot meal' they enjoyed, while waiting for an attack that would finish them off.

Old Carson and a young Marine LT (I think) made separate forced marches to the port of SD, to get aid from the US occupation force there. Wiki says that the War College later awarded Gen. Kearny a split decision on the action, but that's not the way the story reads.
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Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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