(1)Simulation of the Battle of Ganjgal
A "full battle event recreation" recounts the events of the Battle of Ganjgal on September 8, 2009 in Kunar province, Afghanistan. The simulation was created by the Training Brain Operations Center Systems Integration Modeling and Simulation (TBOC SIMS), a US Army organization "that transforms actual combat events into unclassified 3d visualizations and gaming products within 96 hours."
READER COMMENTS: "Simulation of the Battle of Ganjgal"
Posted by blert at February 9, 2012 7:09 PM ET:
It is apparent even from this account that days after the event the battalion and brigade commanders are unaware of the scope of the battle -- since it was much more intense than even this account portrays.
The US Army/ USMC is STILL combing the record WRT this battle.
IIRC the ranking decision makers have had their military careers tarnished beyond redemption.
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Left out of this account are the Rules of Engagement that, plainly, dominated the considerations of higher command.
Also left out of this account is just how CLOSE the Pakistani border is.
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Things change: and one of them is that America no longer sends such missions on their way without overhead coverage -- meaning at least drones.
Drones destroy most of the value of high ground -- and thus turn many opfor advantages on their heads.
Now, going to the top of a bare hill = maximum exposure. Thirty-years ago, such terrain was considered ideal.
The other 'discovery' is painful: head-bobbing acknowledgements by Pashtun locals are simply meaningless. You can't infer friendship or hostility. Ordinary contact with 'civilians' is, at that level, fruitless -- even irritating and counter-productive.
Even non-hostile Pashtun are in absolutely no position to lay their cards on the table -- if they could even speak without double translations. (!) So knock-and-talks that worked so well in al-Anbar are ineffectual.
That knocks a major prop out from under the whole COIN scheme. We can't even get to first base.
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It is much better that we recognize our limitations -- and the NEOLITHIC nature of the residents there.
When they call us 'moon-men' -- it's truer than they know.
( Time to spool-up Apollo 11 footage -- you know that they're unaware that we really HAVE gone to the Moon. )
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With such communications barriers...
America ought to go show-and-tell with Hollywood style videos of what the rest of the planet looks like.
I'd always start off with a gradual recede up into orbit...
From the very spot of this or that village.
It's a given that they've never seen an ocean -- let alone a navy.
Until they know their place in the universe -- you're not really getting through to them.