With the French Foreign Legion base at Torah

[tocqueville]

August 24, 2009, from their peak of Torah (70 km east of Kabul), overlooking the strategic road Kabul-Jalalabad, French troops have succeeded in establishing a high level of security in the region where ten "Marsouins" were killed in a ambush a year ago.

For his first visit to the French Foreign Legion who is holding, among others, the famous valley Ouzbin, MP Thierry Mariani was lucky. Under a blue clear sky , the new Special Representative of France to Afghanistan and Pakistan noticed first the high level of security that the French managed to establish in this valley, where a year ago took place the ambush that killed 10 Marsouins of the 8th Rima. At the elections of August 20, the participation rate was above 70%.



Frustrated by the success of this "impious"election and eager to show they were still present in the area, a handful of Taliban in the night from Saturday to Sunday, harassed the outpost of the Foreign Legion in the valley, held by the 2nd Company of the 2nd REI (Foreign Infantry Regiment, Nimes). Response (coordinated with a digital information of the battlespace by Lieutenant-Colonel Yushchenko, head of operations at Fort Torah) was not long to come : firing illumination rounds and mortars and immediate delivery on the sensitive point of the valley from where the hostile fire originated, sending two Tiger attack helicopters,the latest French state of the art equipment, which can fly and fire at night. The insurgents retreated immediately. The French now have such firepower and such a knowledge of the terrain, that an ambush like the one of August 2008 is now clearly impossible.

Surrounded by a wall of gabions, the French military fort of Torah, overlooking the town of Surobi and the strategic road Kabul-Jalalabad, is the heart of the "Task Force Dragon NATO, named in memory of the Annam dragon red badge that adorned the 2nd REI until the end of the war in Indochina. The 420 French soldiers serving there (now principally the legionaires of the 2nd REI for a rotation of six months, who replaced, July 4, the alpine hunters - 27th BCA Annecy), are living in a spartan comfort, sleeping in tents on picot beds, and waiting for the engineering troops to complete air conditioned brick barracks. But in terms of firepower, Torah is at the forefront of modern warfare. Two 155-mm guns mounted on trucks with shells guided by radar, have a range of 40 km and provide a strike force capable of deterring any hostile gathering of Talibans. The UAV drone "Snowy" (the name of an owl that can see both at day and night) can be catapulted at any time to verify local intelligence reports, to detect hostile troop movements or to ensure high vision of the battlefield for progressing patrols.



Sunday at dawn, behind General Druart (leader of the French expeditionary corps in Afghanistan) wearing his mountain-hunter"pie" beret, we climbed the rocky outcrop overlooking the fort of Torah, which by its form reminds of the Legionnaires Sainte-Victoire mount in Aix-en-Provence. Not having taken the precaution of holding this peak, forty soldiers of the Red Army based in Torah in the late 1980s they were all massacred : they were one morning under fire from a heavy douchka machine gun that had been mounted during the night, and they could not prevent the parallel progression of two hundred Mujahideen along the ravin surrounding Fort Torah.

The panorama is breathtaking in this circus of purple mountains : to the north, one can see the shape of the TAGEBI Valley (not yet fully secured by the Americans) and the parallel Ouzbin Valley. South-east is the valley of Djegdaleg, once famous for its ruby mines.



Highly successful practitioner of asymmetric warfare, the commander of the Dragon Task Force, Colonel Durieux, commanding officer of the 2nd REI, explains its strategy, articulated in three phases:

Capitalize on areas already stable;
gradually create new islands of stability;
provide three areas of security : assistance, development, and governance.

Security ? "We must show our strength, in order of not having to use it."
Development ? "Limited promises, but still tightly held."
Governance ? "Supporting local state institutions, while preserving the traditional consultation structures : Malik (chiefs) and Shura (council of elders).

It's beautiful and simple like Lyautey, but it works.

Renaud Girard, special envoy to the military fort of Torah (70 km east of Kabul)

In 1873 Lyautey entered the French military academy of Saint-Cyr, since 1876 attended the army training school and in December 1877 was made a lieutenant. He made his career serving in the colonies and not in the more prestigious metropolitan France. The first years after graduating, Lyautey served as a cavalry officer in Algeria and from 1894 to 1897 in Indochina, under Joseph Galliéni. Lyautey adopted and emulated Galliéni's policy of methodical expansion of pacified areas followed by social and economical development to ensure obedience of the natives. This strategy became known as "tache d'huile" (as it resembles oil spots spreading to cover the whole surface).

translated from :

http://18alexterieurafghanistan.blogspot.com/2009/08/avec-les-legionnaires-francais-en.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. And the Taliban will wait them out, spread them thin and pick them off one by one.

[MellowDem]

2. The Taliban...

will stay far away from any coalition forces and spend their time harrassing and terrorising the local populace and make share they follow the Sharia law. And maybe they'll start a child prostitution ring in the meantime.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Tell that to all the body bags.

[MellowDem]

10. Tell that to all the Afghans...

The casulties of the war so far are almost always from roadside bombs. Very few Taliban forces are willing to engage in a firefight or a siege. They don't directly confront coalition forces because that is not their objective.

[Arctic Dave]

11. That's why it's called asymetrical warfare.

Fight when it's convinient for you, not your enemy.

[tocqueville]

5. At the elections of August 20, the participation rate was above 70%.

explain that

[Arctic Dave]

6. In what way are you refering?

You post is a cheery snap shot of afgahnistan but long range I would be a little more pessimistic. As for the elections I'm not sure they even changed things in the slightest way. Corruption will still rule the land no matter if 99% of the people voted.

[tocqueville]

7. 9 of 10 counterinsurgencies are victorious, history shows

if you deal with them the right way without alienating the population, except for defaitists of course. And regarding election results, the point is not there. The point is that people go and vote (with a turnout superior to peaceful US) because they feel secure. Which means that the mission is working. And that's the whole idea.

[Arctic Dave]

9. Voting means nothing if nothing changes.

Counterinsergancies usually only work once both side agree that neither one side will "win". From that point it's only a matter of how the spoils will be divided.

[deaniac21]

4. Torah, torah, torah.

[Selatius]

8. The terrain helps. If the entire area were covered with jungle canopy, it'd be a different story.

During the Viet Nam War, the US found it difficult for infrared sensors to pierce the jungle canopy. They would pick up the temperature of the leaves and branches, but they blocked the jungle floor below where the Viet Cong were routinely operating.

They invented agent orange to defoliate entire jungles. The legacy of that act still haunts my people to this day in the form of horrible birth defects and illness.

The French were taught bitter lessons in Indochina as well as in Algeria.