Airpower scatters Taliban fighters

Air Force Times:

Afghan insurgents have learned to attack U.S. troops and scatter before they can be hit by airstrikes, a change in tactics that creates new pressure on coalition ground forces, defense officials and military experts say.

Insurgents “have a pretty good idea of how long it takes for close-air support to arrive,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. ”We’ve seen some indications that they will fight for as long as they believe they have until close-air support will likely arrive on the scene.”

Military records show U.S. aircraft conducted a record number of aerial raids over Afghanistan in 2008 but dropped fewer bombs and missiles than they did in 2007.

The changing insurgent tactics have the potential to limit the effectiveness of air power and put more pressure on U.S. and coalition ground troops, said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute.

“The war in Afghanistan is not the kind of conflict where air power can be used to maximum advantage,” he said. Finding insurgents “has proven devilishly difficult, and in Afghanistan, that often requires sending ground troops to flush them out.”

There are now about 32,000 U.S. and 28,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan. Military leaders, including Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, say the U.S. presence will grow to about 60,000 troops and could stay that size for four years.

Intercepted insurgent communications confirm they fear the airstrikes, which hit a record number in 2008, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Holmes, commander of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing here.

In one instance, he said, militants retreated from an ambush, saying, “ ‘No, stop. The birds are back.’ ”

McKiernan said insurgents realize the propaganda value of civilian deaths, so they often attack coalition troops from areas crowded with civilians.

“When the insurgency creates those casualties, they do it on purpose to create fear and intimidation to support their ambition,” McKiernan said.

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The Taliban are like Hamas in that they try to create noncombatant casualties. Both are committing war crimes in doing so, but the media seldom reports it even though it is responsible for many more civilian deaths than white phosphorus which has sent many in the media into a tizzy during the Israeli war with Hamas.

That the Taliban is just now catching on to air power that has been kicking their but for over seven years tells you something about their level of intelligence. While it might be disappointing to not have them in a tight groups for an air strike, it still limits their effectiveness in a fire fight or an ambush. They simply can not sustain an attack, which means they are limiting their own war effort.

While they are finely learning the benefit of dispersal they are also giving up the benefit of mass which is necessary for an effective attack. I have the feeling that if the troops carried a recorder to mimic the sound of approaching aircraft they could probably get the Taliban to take off even earlier.