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On Afghan Marksmanship
I saw this Wall Street Journal article on a Taliban sniper is the most-viewed article on WSJ.com. It's worth pointing out, then, that the myth of the great Afghan marksman is just that: a myth. Marine-turned-journalist C.J. Chivers* wrote a great blog post last spring for the New York Times in which he explained, in great detail, why Afghan marksmen -- Taliban and allied -- are actually quite awful. Worth keeping in mind if you hear people talk about wily Pathan snipers.
*Chivers is a real aficionado of firearms and marksmanship. I just filed a review of his new book on the AK-47, and though I don't want to spoil what I wrote (the review will be published when the book comes out, in the fall), I thought it was fascinating.
Yeah, the British Redcoats
Yeah, the British Redcoats said the same Re: the American colonists. Look who and how the war was won then. Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self, Andrew!
Good point, but marksmanship
Good point, but marksmanship is not necessarily decisive. Hizballah expelled Israel from southern Lebanon in the 1990s with IEDs, anti-tank missiles, and propaganda.Will definitely pre-order
Will definitely pre-order and look forward to reading your review Ex.
S/F
Snake
This is the most
This is the most touchy-feelie (or pure kiss ass?) post I'll ever make and ever had made - or is it? - but how can you not like a blog that has "Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self" and "Real Deal Holyfield?" in it along with, say, Stathis Kalyvas?
ADTS
Not all the Taliban shooters
Not all the Taliban shooters are Pashtuns. From the Daily Mail:
Four deadly foreign mercenary snipers hired by the Taliban have been killed after being tracked down by British Special Forces in Afghanistan.
They were among at least three pairs of crackshots recruited by the Taliban from Pakistan, Egypt and Chechnya.
The mercenaries – who can kill troops at a range of up to 650 yards – are understood to have shot dead up to ten British soldiers in recent weeks.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305099/Taliban-sniper...
The "foreign mercenary"
The "foreign mercenary" angle regular features in stories about snipers. Its surfaced in insurgencies in Ireland, Palestine and Iraq I believe. We had a discussion about it here a couple of years ago.
I'd need a bit more evidence to believe the daily mail on this.
The AK book could be interesting. There was one written by british journalist Michael Hodges a couple of years back called "The Peoples gun". It was a bit weak-ass to be honest. However one of the more interesting facts was that Mr Mikhail Kalishnikov was at one stage a criminal fugitive- a counter revolutionary and enemy of the soviet union before being rehabilitated.
I think there was a "Social
I think there was a "Social History of the Machine Gun," by John Ellis, cited by none other in John Nagl in none other than "Eating Soup with a Knife."
ADTS
At times, it seemed like the
At times, it seemed like the Taliban or HiG fighters we encountered were just trying to make a statement, not to actually hit anything. It was not uncommon to have a 25 minute fight in which not a single vehicle was hit, nevermind a person.
Then, after this had gone on for weeks, there was word of division among a couple of sub-commanders. One had arranged for "foreigners" to assist. This actually sparked a fight between the two groups in which both sub-commanders lost their brothers. Shortly thereafter, vehicles began taking turret shots and personnel began to take head shots. 8 turret hits with RPG's and three head shots with small arms in two weeks. FOB Kutschbach gained its name from one of the turret shots with an RPG.
But the mere mention of the concept of Chechens brought immediate and vehement disagreement from field grade officers. It was all dismissed as the vagaries of war. Luck. No one would admit that there had been a change on the battlefield.
I know this; it wasn't your typical Afghan insurgents firing those weapons.
Other than the factors noted in Chivers' article, there is one other key; a lack of sight adjustment tools. The AK makes all sight adjustments at the front post. Elevation tools are easy to come by. The front sight screws up and down like an M-16/M-4 sight. Left and right adjustments are made by moving a drift pin on which the sight sits. This requires a special tool that is very rare in Afghanistan. Afghans typically made drift adjustments with a spent cartridge and a rock. Even when they could put up a tight group, it was several inches off at 25 meters. Not good for accuracy.
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