It is shocking to see the US army using the
10,000 kg behemoth, costing $16 million apiece, to kill 100 guys holed-up in
caves in distant Afghanistan
POLITICS | 6-minute read | 18-04-2017
COLONEL
R HARIHARAN @colhari2
A jubilant President Donald
Trump was all praise for the U.S. army for successfully dropping the Massive
Ordinance Air Blast, better known as “Mother of All Bombs’ (MOAB), the largest
non-nuclear bomb ever used in a conventional U.S. operation, on the Islamic
State terrorist base in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan.
Afghan
authorities estimate 100 jihadi terrorists were killed when the GPS guided bomb,
officially named GBU-43, hit the IS’ hive of tunnels and caves, from which they
used to launch attacks on the U.S. and Afghan forces.
The US’ choice of IS target in
Afghanistan to drop the huge bomb, is rather strange. The IS is fighting its
last ditch battles in its home ground in Syria and Iraq, and Afghanistan is probably
not on its radar right now.
Despite its long sounding name in
Afghanistan - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant: Khorasan Province
(ISIL-KP) – its cadres total less than 1000 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, just
one third of the Taliban and its affiliated terrorist groups’ strength.
The ISIL-KP’s two founder
leaders - Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant Hafiz Saeed Khan of Pakistan
and Afghan Taliban commander Abdul Rauf Aliza - were killed within first two
years after it was formed in 2015.
IS terrorists are suspected to
have carried out about 20 attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, mostly against
soft sectarian targets like Shia mosques and hospitals.
However, it is the resurgent
Taliban that is posing an existential threat to the Afghan government, after it
made huge inroads last year in Kunduz province.
As a soldier I was taught
‘economy of effort’ as a basic principle of war, scrupulously observed in
Indian army. So it is shocking to see
the U.S. army using the 10,000 kilogram-behemoth, costing $16 million apiece,
to kill about 100 guys holed-up in caves in distant Afghanistan at the rate of
$16, 000 per person!
Why did the U.S. use “the
Mother” against IS and not the Taliban in Afghanistan?
Can “the Mother” give birth to
peace in Afghanistan?
These questions probably never
figured when the US army planned to use the device in Afghanistan.
At best, it was used as an
exercise to test the device in battle field conditions.
So, it is not surprising that
the bombing had created a backlash in Afghanistan. Former president Hamid
Karzai questioned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani permitting Americans to use
a device “equal to an atom bomb” in the country.
He said if the government had
permitted them to do this, “it has committed a national treason.”
Even though President Trump is
unpredictable, there are some clear strands emerging in his convoluted and
contrarian actions.
The
President’s national security advisor is Lieutenant General HR McMaster, a
veteran of Afghan and Gulf wars; so is the secretary of defence James Norman
Mattis, another retired Marine Corps general, who has fought in the Middle
East.
Obviously,
President Trump has given the freedom of action on matters military to the two
generals occupying security appointments.
President
Trump’s statement after the bombing makes it clear: “Everybody
knows exactly what happened, what I do is I authorise our military. We
have the greatest military in the world, they've done a job, as usual, so we
have given them total authorisation and that's what they're doing, and frankly,
that’s why they’ve been so successful lately.”
Apparently,
dropping the MOAB on the eve of McMaster’s visit to Afghanistan and South Asia
is clearly not in pursuit of peace.
It is to make a strong
statement that the US under President Trump means business, not only in
Afghanistan, but in other trouble spots as well.
The bombing in Afghanistan had
followed the launching of 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian
air base that is alleged to have carried out gas attacks on civilian
population, killing 89 people.
The missile attack has
virtually derailed the Russian-initiated Syrian peace process that was in the
making.
The dispatch of US
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its group towards the
Korean Peninsula, close on the heels of
reports that US was considering a preemptive strike on North Korea to wipe out
the nuclear arsenal of the rogue state, is yet another act of US muscle
flexing.
Collectively, these actions
indicate a new belligerence in US actions, not seen in recent times.
These actions have both a local
context in the US and a global context of Washington’s rapidly deteriorating
relations with Moscow, increasing the possibility of revival of Cold War.
Will the MOAB intimidate Moscow
or for that matter Syria?
The answer is simple: Russia
had developed and tested in 20o7 “Father
of All Bombs” (FOAB), officially known as “Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of
Increased Power (ATBIP).” With a yield of 44 tons of TNT, the bomb is reported
to have four times the destructive power of the US’ MOAB.
Using the “Father” and
“Mother,” the two powers are capable of killing thousands of hapless civilians,
if the Cold War erupts all over again.
To sum up, the dropping of the
MOAB in Afghanistan has nothing to do with peace.
It is all about Trump administration’s
posturing from Moscow to Damascus to Kabul to Pyongyang.
Peace in Afghanistan has a
chance if only Pakistan ponders over the US NSA Lt General McMaster’s comments
made during his maiden visit to Kabul.
He said in a television
interview: “As all of us have hope for many, many years – we have hoped that Pakistani
leaders will understand that it is in their interest to go after these groups
less selectively than they have in the past.”
If this is the indication of
the US following a “tougher line” on Islamabad, few would believe it in India. In
the past, the US had shown a singular inability to walk its talk on Pakistan.
Can the US under Trump with the
slogan “America first” make a difference?
I doubt; in the near term the
chances for peace in Afghanistan appear bleak.
But there is no harm in hoping
for it, particularly on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first ever official
visit to, after President Trump came to power.
Pak-inspired terrorism would surely
be a topic on top of their agenda.
Col R Hariharan, a retired
Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, has rich experience in terrorism
and insurgency operations.
Courtesy:
India Today opinion portal DailyO
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