The Army's investigation of the Brigade that contained the "Kill Team" losers has another disturbing element regarding the BDE Commander. An Army investigation into the brigade commander of five soldiers accused of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians last year has concluded that he should have been relieved of duty for poor performance, but pins virtually all the blame on junior officers for failing to prevent the killings. That makes sense because it was never remotely likely that someone at that level would authorize extra-judicial killings. But then there is this. In particular, the report found, Tunnell mocked the doctrine of counterinsurgency, under which U.S. and NATO forces attempted to win the loyalty of Afghans by protecting civilians from the Taliban. Instead, Tunnell advocated for an old-fashioned “counterguerrilla” strategy, in which he instructed his soldiers to concentrate on engaging and destroying the enemy. When did Brigade CDRs get the freedom to freelance their own ideas about our strategy? And it is not like he hid this. The report also found that Tunnell’s disdain for counterinsurgency was apparent well before the Stryker brigade went to Afghanistan. Commanders at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., nearly failed to certify Tunnell’s brigade as ready to deploy because of his resistance to the counterinsurgency doctrine. “The unit leadership was unable to adjust its mindset,” Brig. Gen. Randy Dragon, who was the operations group commander at the National Training Center, said in a statement for the report. That is a failure right there. If they were unable to adjust their mindset, then their leader should have been fired for that. No one wants to blow up another's career, but when that person shows that they simply are not on board with the mission you have an obligation to do so. Instead he deployed with the brigade and apparently ran his own little shooting war. We have plenty of disagreements and discussions about COIN and ROE and our strategy for Afghanistan. But in the end, we expect our military leaders to salute and move out smartly to accomplish their mission. That doesn't seem to have been the case and that is worth exploring more than a couple of low-grade, dirtbag murderers.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/BMVUjBiSTNo/brigade-commander-unclear-on-the-concept.html
Posted
Apr 05 2011, 03:02 AM
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BLACKFIVE