COIN Foot Patrols In Afghanistan Bear Fruit – More American Limbs And Genitals Blown Off By IEDs

Jihad's Best Friend - David Petraeus

CIA Director General David Petraeus’ Counter-Insurgency (COIN) strategy has added a new dimension to the war in Afghanistan.  Where troops initially rode on patrols in armored vehicles, they are now sent out on foot patrols among the local inhabitants.  Petraeus’ COIN idea was that this would enable them to more easily mingle and make friends with the natives, win their hearts and minds, get to know them.  Diana West has written extensively about COIN.  You know – eat the goat and drink the tea.

But, let’s move on to the object lesson in today’s post:  The COIN-mandated foot patrols have also had the effect of making the troops much more vulnerable to having their arms, legs and genitals blown off by the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that are employed by an enemy who is impossible to distinguish from the neighbors.  Somehow, this brings back memories of our hearts and minds experience in Viet Nam.  According to an AP report (via Drudge) published by Pauline Jelinek, the resulting “dramatic increase” in the numbers of such catastrophic injuries has begun to bust the troops’ morale and give rise to secret agreements among them not to save each others’ lives in case they incur such injuries.  Jelinek writes:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The counterinsurgency tactic that is sending U.S. soldiers out on foot patrols among the Afghan people, rather than riding in armored vehicles, has contributed to a dramatic increase in arm and leg amputations, genital injuries and the loss of multiple limbs following blast injuries.

These devastating injuries affected unit morale. And they gave rise to talk on the battlefield that some troops had made secret pacts not to help each other survive if they were so severely injured, a new report said Tuesday.

In life, there are worse things than death.

The number of U.S. troops who had amputations rose sharply from 86 in 2009, to 187 in 2010 and 147 so far this year, military officials said Tuesday, releasing the report on catastrophic wounds.

Of those, the number of troops who lost two or three limbs rose from 23 in 2009 to 72 last year to 77 so far this year. Only a dozen or so of all amputations came from Iraq and the rest were from Afghanistan, where militants are pressing the insurgency with roadside bombs, handmade land mines and other explosives.

You can do the math as well as I can.  The question is, what are we accomplishing by our best and bravest losing their arms, legs and genitals in Petraeus’ COIN madness?

Officials said genital injuries also have risen significantly, but they did not give specific figures.

Might be demoralizing if that number got out for national consumption?

The sharp rise in severe injuries came as a buildup of foreign forces expanded the counterinsurgency strategy that seeks to protect civilians, win their support away from insurgents and help build an Afghan government the population will embrace instead. The soldier on foot is at greater risk for severe injuries, Tuesday’s report noted, “and the injury severity (in Afghanistan) confirms this.”

In fact, I have it on good word that our troops have often been told by their commanders that their own lives are secondary in importance to those of the Muslim civilian population of Afghanistan.  Think that doesn’t affect morale?  Read the entire report, if you can bear it.

The task force was looking into what the doctors called “dismounted complex blast injuries” – dismounted meaning those suffered by troops on foot and complex in that they produce a pattern of wounds. It involves amputation of at least one leg, severe injury or loss of a second extremity and wounding of the pelvis, abdomen or urinary tract and genitals. The report said that these devastating types of injuries “took their toll on unit morale.

“To some, the resultant burden on their family and loved ones seemed too much to accept, and, anecdotally, some actually developed `do not resuscitate’ pacts with their battle buddies in the event of this type of injury,” it said.

Two military doctors this year have said publicly that they had heard talk among young Marines that some didn’t want to go on living – and had made such agreements – for cases in which they might sustain loss of their genitals. The agreement reportedly was that if they were so injured on the battlefield, their buddy would not apply a tourniquet. One doctor later said he knew of no instance where this actually took place and the other never offered any specifics on the talk that went around in the field.

For what his suicidal COIN strategy has unnecessarily and pointlessly done to our troops’ bodies, hearts and minds, David Petraeus should sit in Leavenworth Prison for the rest of his life.