Ever-changing army fights the longest-ever war - how US troops are fundamentally different than 10

[pampango]

years ago.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100923/US-military-afghanistan-war-counterinsurgency

America’s armed forces are in a period of transition, which always happens in times of war. In 2001 the army was still focused on the Cold War necessity of big battalions and tank formations fighting on the plains of Europe. The Gulf War was a similar, big-battle war adopted to the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Today the shift is towards counterinsurgency, small unit operations — special-ops commando raids. It is a fundamentally different army than it was 10 years ago.

The Air Force, although it still flies about 400 sorties a day — 600 during the recent Afghan election period — has seen a tenfold shift toward pilot-less aircraft. This has produced wonders in intelligence, the ability to pin-point selected targets and let ground forces know what is over the next hill.

Although there have unfortunately been civilian casualties, precision and accuracy continue to improve dramatically. Eighty percent of civilian casualties were caused by the enemy, not by U.S. forces.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Only a 20% civilian death responsibility.

Impressive.

[old mark]

3. The other side does massive civilian casualties on purpose. We are not the bad guys here. nt

[w8liftinglady]

2. interesting deployment,if small unit operations — special-ops commando raids

are the shift

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Curious how the extreme risk areas border our ally Pakistan while

the border with our enemy Iran is mostly low and medium risk.

[ThomWV]

4. No question about it, we are blameless as are our killing machines.

[gratuitous]

5. If those Afghans didn't want to be killed for America's freedom, they should have moved

Stoopid Afghans. And so ungrateful.