Deja vu! Checking out all the gossip from the current fighting in Afghanistan and Marineistan, it may be the Taliban is sharing thoughts like
"...We were like a man who had seized a wolf by both ears and dared not it let go..."
The reflective reflections of von Mellenthin in the essential "Panzer Battles" describes the precarious sitch that once proud panzertruppen of the nigh invincible Wehrmacht found themselves.
Facing an undying Bolshevik juggernaut way back in the last millennium when Europa still enjoyed combatting betwixt themselves, Deutschland's "...best operational mind..." von Manstein laid it out to play it out as in having two choices:
'The Backhand': Let the enemy strike - fall back with the flow, regroup and just as the Soviets were reaching the limits of their zenith - launch an amazing counterattack that nets more turf than before. Kharkov III is a good example of the 'Backhand'
'The Forehand': When it looks like the enemy is prepping for an offensive - strike first. Often called a spoiling attack - upsetting enemy timetables, plots and preps. The ill fated 'Ardennes Offensive" AKA "Battle of the Bulge" is a good example of the forehand strike.
The Battle of Khandahar is underway -- and our enemies are perhaps trying a spoiler-- yet so what?"...For those of you who have labored in the profession of arms you can recognize just how much ammunition was expended by the Taliban. Forty five minutes of constant RPK fire from multiple machineguns takes thousands of rounds. Firing multiple rockets from up to six RPG launchers is also an extravagant use of ammo given the current rates of consumption by the Taliban."
Sweet! So Taliban and their assorted assortment of allies are wasting their substance on peripheral attacks that do not blunt Great Satan's edge or significantly divert her plans for the lo down ho down about to get down in the Af part of AfPAK .
Pic "We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge." with
Hey Sienna Miller looked great in "GI Joe" but oh my gawd what a horrible movie that was. I continue to lament that directors of "comic book" movies just can't leave the narrative alone, they always have to screw with it and make it so much less than it ought to have been.
ReplyDeleteGo Joe!
Four inch GI Joes, feh.
ReplyDeleteReal GI Joes are twelve inches.
KUNG
FU
GRIP,
R
The bad guys simply cannot win a stand up fight with our guys and gals. They simply cannot fight our infantry, armor and artillery working together, not to mention the Zoomies and Rotorheads.
ReplyDeleteWe are fighting in a landlocked country with unfriendly or, at best semifriendly, countries all around and they still cannot match our logistics, either.
The only way they can win is the same way the VC and NVA "won" the Tet Offensive in '68, in the eyes of Walter Cronkite and the rest of the leftist press here in the States. I still have some ugly words for that crowd.