Boots on the Ground
The next step in Afghanistan.

By Charles W. Miller, a retired Air Force colonel.
October 10, 2001 9:35 a.m.

eportedly, a second 1,000 troops from the US 10th Mountain Division will join the 1,000 soldiers from that unit already in Uzbekistan. The media is reporting possible formation of a task force of troops from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment — a powerful force of modern attack helicopters, vehicles, and very well-trained soldiers — all designed for aggressive action. And, there is talk of pulling soldiers from Bosnia and Kosovo for redeployment to Afghanistan.

Since the Gulf War there has been a heated debate between the airmen and the grunts (soldiers and many Marines) about what you can and cannot do with air power. The air-power advocates talk about strategic and operational disintegration of the enemy, and about coercion (bomb them until they leave). The land-power advocates talk about occupying territory (boots on the ground) and conducting decisive operations (closing with and killing the enemy). These are serious debates about how to fight and win wars.

In Afghanistan, boots are needed on the ground. Along with all the airpower they can get. By boots on the ground, I mean conventional ground forces, not special-operations forces — they are different, as I will discuss below. There are a host of jobs for the conventional ground forces to do, here are a few:

The Air Force bases in Uzbekistan, and where ever else they end up, need more protection than the Air Force Security Police force can provide. This is especially important given the reported movement of Taliban troops toward the Uzbek/Afghan border. Modest attacks on poorly defended air bases can wreck havoc.

They could help organize up the provision of humanitarian aid — feeding stations, housing programs (tent cities), medical care, police, and security. They could help rebuild simple infrastructure needs (wells, houses with roofs come to mind). This could help in the hearts and minds column as well providing assistance to desperate people.

Conventional ground forces will be needed for operations in Afghanistan. They are seize, hold, and exploit an airfield, town, or important geographic point. They can block or other wise channel the Taliban forces as assistance to the Northern Alliance forces. They can protect an area while it is being searched. They can do the searching. They can attack.

We need to demonstrate to our coalition partners that we really are in this for the long haul and a good way of doing this is to send in the troops. Ships come and go and are over the horizon (out of sight) in any case. Airplanes these days mostly seem to engage in drive-by shootings. Neither of these arguments is exactly accurate or fair, but it is the expectations of the coalition partners that count. They equate the deployment of conventional ground forces with commitment and staying power.

Their expectations are not necessarily wrong either. Conventional ground forces come in pretty hefty packages — hundreds and hundreds of combat soldiers and support troops, more hundreds of vehicles, tons and tons of food, ammo, medical, and petroleum products, hundreds of airlift sorties to get there and more to sustain the effort. Plus additional air power to provide support. And a program to rotate replacements in and out on some scheduled basis. That's thousands of people, and their equipment and supplies, at risk of death and destruction. Sending in conventional ground forces is a big deal.

The U.S. already has ground forces in Afghanistan, special-operations forces. Numbers are unknown, but likely not massive. They are a powerful force, greatly respected and feared by the knowledgeable. But they are not conventional ground forces. They want to operate in the shadows. They don't want to be a visible presence. They are not there to reassure allies in the ways we have been talking. They are here today and gone tomorrow, or at least want to create that impression. They are, as an aside, a very hi-tech force. They often get many of the gizmos (GPS and satellite communications for example) well before the conventional ground forces. They travel in extremely sophisticated aircraft and "boats." But, they are not conventional ground forces.