By Dick Field
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
These bloody bombs that the Jihadist 'virgins-in-paradise' seekers explode seem a nightmare for military and civilians alike. We see the same scenario repeated time and time again, yet all militaries, Canadian, British or american don't seem to change their behaviour too much.
Then, there are the taxis, cars or other vehicles full of innocent civilians that our military see coming towards them but because they fail to stop when warning shots are fired, wind up being killed by our forces. When that happens, our peace creating efforts take a serious hit. Hatred towards our militaries grows and cancels out our best efforts.
Our military travels in convoys on the same highways, on the same country roads, on the same busy streets in the towns and time, and time again they are rammed into by a person, car or bicycle suicide bomber. The military winds up with a death or two and the Iraqi or afghanistan civilians usually suffer dozens of deaths plus many wounded; to say nothing of our own wounded.
It is interesting that while Monday morning quarterbacks fill the ranks of our talking heads on TV and our war correspondents emphasize battles and body counts, they are almost totally silent about how our soldiers and their leaders are adjusting their behaviour to cope with these deadly traps.
Several obvious answers have been the provision of heavier bomb resistant vehicles and better personal body armour but it does seem that other answers may involve a need of better on-the-ground military or police (especially in Iraq) survival behaviour.
One of the first things a soldier learns in combat is how to survive. There are hundreds of mistakes that can be made, stupid easily avoidable mistakes. Learning the appropriate behaviour in the field makes all the difference as to whether you live or die. Every change of scene be it Somalia, afghanistan, Bosnia, or any other place requires some new and additional learning experience. Few, if any of these survival techniques can be learned in training camps.
If there is any benefit to the soldier of being in combat, it is to learn to survive and to fight with intelligence. Peacekeeping is a noble concept but no civilization was ever created except through war. It is always a fight between good intentions and evil intentions. The good may not always win but the fight must take place. So the soldier must learn his craft in the field, be he a private or a general. It is always to a country's benefit to have skilled and experienced soldiers.
So what questions may we ask of our military?
Suicide bombers prepare their bombs somewhere. People know where. Have we developed sufficient local intelligence capability? When a suicide bomber blows his vehicle, does any counter bomber team dig deep for the source of the bomber or his truck or car? Do we pay for good intelligence?
When warning shots are fired to stop incoming vehicles, has anyone ever questioned the fact that motor noise within the vehicle and other sounds often make it impossible for the driver to hear a shot. Why not fire flares or some visible markers that would make the vehicle operator realize he must stop? Even concussion rifle grenades might be less lethal than killing everyone with an RPG shaped charge or heavy caliber machine gun?
Why, when we know the enemy uses roadside IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices) on commonly traveled roads, do we not travel off road whenever possible? Why in towns or cities would we stop a convoy in the city and talk to the locals, thus exposing ourselves to attack? Where are our spy-in-the-sky spotters to monitor and inform our military of IEDs being dug in along the roadsides? Where are our patrols or combat teams to take care of these enemy IED teams, especially at night? Why do we hide in buildings or return to base at night when the enemy is active in the area?
The Canadian army recently had three soldiers killed at 12:30 aM who were "holed up in a schoolhouse on the outskirts of a town in a Taliban infested area." a fourth soldier in the room opened the door to look outside. an RPG flew past him, through the door, burning his arm as it went by, hitting the opposite wall, exploding and killing his buddies.
Who taught these guys? They broke every rule in the book by being in the house in the first place, in enemy territory. They did not dig in near the school and stay outside. They did not set up a defensive position and they had no sentries out. Did they have a light in the room when they opened the door; it wouldn't surprise one would it?
In Iraq, there have been any number of suicide bombs set off, killing dozens of policemen either lining up for their paychecks or applicants for the military or police lining up to join up. The same goes for lineups of any kind. Why, please, is no lesson learned from this?
To the average citizen it seems as if these unnecessary deaths could be avoided by simply changing the procedures. Pay inside the buildings. Spread payments over the day by alphabet. Bring in recruits at different times and days to spread the numbers into smaller groups. Recruit inside the building or compound. Why do we keep allowing these mistakes to occur?
Groups are targets, tanks are targets, and armored vehicles are targets. Knowing this, why do we not have helicopter outriders' overhead at all times when there are movements in column?
Finally, it is appropriate to ask why; when giving candy to children or supplies to civilians do we relax our guard and conduct such an operation without adequate security for our soldiers and the children? Our armies are in countries where we cannot tell friend from foe. Does that not demand security of behaviour wherever we go and at all times? again, we recently paid a terrible price for this basic error. Time and time again we let our guard down and disaster strikes. Why?
This writer has been in situations where for a day or two we might have been unsure of who the enemy was or who a friend, but in this Middle East situation we never can know for sure. It is therefore imperative that our men be trained to the maximum extent possible in combat survival behaviour on these battlefields. What are we doing to achieve this?
We are proud of our men and women serving overseas in these difficult situations but we want the minimum number of casualties and none due to unsure feet on the ground.