Friday, September 30, 2011

Texas is at War!

Texas has out a new "war report." Apparently Texas is preparing for 1836 again. Hopefully the Cherokee won't get stuck in the middle of it this time.

Borderland Beat, 29 September 2011

TDA Commissioner Todd Staples said the report offers a military perspective on incorporating the three levels of warfare — strategic, operational and tactical — to secure the border along the Rio Grande.“It also provides sobering evidence of cartel criminals gaining ground on Texas soil,” Staples.

From the report:


The Texas Rangers have been the lead coordinating force behind the Texas border security effort. This remarkably small group has assumed leadership in Texas for stopping the encroachment of the cartels into the state. The tactical manifestation of this effort is the Ranger Reconnaissance Teams (RRTs).
The Rangers are the mission lead for a cooperative program that brings together a coordinated ground, air and marine assault capability. Each participating federal, state and local agency voluntarily adds its unique capabilities to the tactical battle. The THP acts as an outer perimeter for the Rangers by funneling traffic toward Ranger border positions. The tactical contact teams deploy along the Rio Grande in small, concealed positions and are able to quickly respond to intelligence from APS platforms, DPS and National Guard surveillance helicopters, as well as calls to UCs from local police or citizens. DPS Dive Teams conduct SONAR scans of the Rio Grande and assist in recovery of vehicles and contraband in splashdown areas. “Spiking” teams from the Border Patrol add their manpower and sophisticated surveillance equipment to assist in containing and apprehending traffickers. Texas military forces install ASP cameras on trafficking routes, provide aerial support for surveillance and support communications to all team participants.
It is a long report, maybe I will be able to look at it more in the future, when I have more time.
Obviously the situation south of the Mexican-American border is serious. But I am not sure which I am finding more alarming, the militaristic tone of the report, or the idea that they are going to copy the fatally flawed strategies used by our military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And for the record, yes I do believe our military brass are stupid enough to lose the home field advantage by blowing up innocents with predator drones and busting in peoples doors. If the Mexican cartels avoid cutting off civilians heads, they might actually be more popular.
Remember, our military in the middle of the Iraq counter insurgency (not Operation Cobra, the opening military campaign) blew up a Iraqi railroad station using Airforce fighter bombers. That’s right, we bombed a railroad station with airplanes as part of the “recovery” phase. We were also using artillery support as well, but I don’t have any colorful (a.k.a. stupid) enough specific examples to site.
As William S. Lind noted in 2007:
Nothing could testify more powerfully to the failure of U.S. efforts on the ground in Iraq than a ramp-up in airstrikes. Calling in air is the last, desperate, and usually futile action of an army that is losing.
Note that Lind goes on to speak disparagingly of the “surge.”  He would have been unaware at the time that some of the Sunni, for their own reasons, would switch sides.  With of course our brave military bureaucrats giving credit to their military strategy, rather than the shifting fortunes of tribal-alliance warfare.  The tone deafness to the nature of this type of fighting is one of the primary reasons (along with life and liberty) reasons we don’t want to militarize our police.

2 comments:

PioneerPreppy said...

I hadn't given much thought to the unpopular side effects of drone and air assets being used inside the U.S. proper. In todays political atmosphere casualties to soldiers equate into such bad political points that we seem overly dependent on such weapons.

And the thought of the iron boot LEO's using them? I hope it never gets to that.

russell1200 said...

The LEO's have already been moving to aquire their own. One of the big limitations of drone usage has been available bandwith to remotely control them. I suspect that is less of an issue within the United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012204111.html