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Pentagon's decision to send tanks to Afghanistan praised
President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen chat, center, as national leaders assemble for a group portrait at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Friday Nov. 19 2010. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochea de Olza)By Ashish Kumar Sen
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The Washington Times
6:20 p.m., Friday, November 19, 2010
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The Pentagon's decision to deploy heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan is being hailed as a step in the right direction by military and civilian advisers in that war.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, who recently participated in an assessment of the situation for the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, welcomed news of the deployment.
"Many of us had been scratching our heads over why [the tanks] hadn't been sent before, given the success we enjoyed with them during the counterinsurgency in Iraq," Gen. Keane said at a discussion at the Institute for the Study of War on Friday.
A company of 14 M1A1 Abrams tanks along with 115 Marines to crew them will be deployed to southwest Afghanistan in December.
Gen. Keane said the tanks had been effective in Iraqi cities, especially when coupled with ground troops.
"I think the commanders recognized that a tank accompanied by infantry is a formidable weapons system," Gen. Keane said, adding, "You can compel other people's will just by its presence. ... And it also provides protection for our troops."
The Washington Post first reported the Pentagon's decision to deploy the tanks on Friday.
Gen. Keane said the Afghan Taliban does not as yet have adequate firepower to defeat the heavily armored tanks.
Max Boot, an adviser to U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the decision by Gen. Petraeus to send tanks to Afghanistan "blows a big hole in one of the myths of population-centric counterinsurgency."
"Successful counterinsurgency combines attempts to reach out to the population with very hard-headed kinetic action to capture and kill insurgents," Mr. Boot said, adding this is precisely the strategy being deployed by Gen. Petraeus.
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President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen chat, center, as national leaders assemble for a group portrait at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Friday Nov. 19 2010. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochea de Olza)By Ashish Kumar Sen-
The Washington Times
6:20 p.m., Friday, November 19, 2010
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The Pentagon's decision to deploy heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan is being hailed as a step in the right direction by military and civilian advisers in that war.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, who recently participated in an assessment of the situation for the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, welcomed news of the deployment.
"Many of us had been scratching our heads over why [the tanks] hadn't been sent before, given the success we enjoyed with them during the counterinsurgency in Iraq," Gen. Keane said at a discussion at the Institute for the Study of War on Friday.
A company of 14 M1A1 Abrams tanks along with 115 Marines to crew them will be deployed to southwest Afghanistan in December.
Gen. Keane said the tanks had been effective in Iraqi cities, especially when coupled with ground troops.
"I think the commanders recognized that a tank accompanied by infantry is a formidable weapons system," Gen. Keane said, adding, "You can compel other people's will just by its presence. ... And it also provides protection for our troops."
The Washington Post first reported the Pentagon's decision to deploy the tanks on Friday.
Gen. Keane said the Afghan Taliban does not as yet have adequate firepower to defeat the heavily armored tanks.
Max Boot, an adviser to U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the decision by Gen. Petraeus to send tanks to Afghanistan "blows a big hole in one of the myths of population-centric counterinsurgency."
"Successful counterinsurgency combines attempts to reach out to the population with very hard-headed kinetic action to capture and kill insurgents," Mr. Boot said, adding this is precisely the strategy being deployed by Gen. Petraeus.
Story Continues →
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