April 17, 2017
Afghanistan is at risk of becoming the new Vietnam
Thursday’s detonation in Afghanistan of the massive GBU 43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) could be for this war what the Tet Offensive was for Vietnam: a tactical military success that became the iconic symbol of a war gone hopelessly wrong.
Famed CBS correspondent Walter Cronkite’s poignant post-Tet commentary woke up Americans to that war’s strategic bankruptcy. The MOAB should do the same for Afghanistan. Fortunately, there is still time to win this one.
To be sure, the exceptionally-talented commander Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson was correct in stating that the bomb was the right munition for the right target. Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K, the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan) was using deep tunnel complexes in the Achin district to hide from American surveillance, amass logistics, and plan and coordinate their operations. The intelligence needed to find and strike the bunker was extensive. Experts in targeting and the law of armed conflict analyzed the problem in detail. The MOAB was probably the only alternative to a bloody ground assault. Destroying this complex will be a major setback for ISIS. There is even a chance it will not recover.
Read the full article at The Hill.
More from CNAS
-
Munitions Procurement and the Fiscal Year 2027 Defense Budget
Reports
Executive Summary The war with Iran has taken a tremendous toll on the American military’s munitions stockpile. Over half its inventory of high-end missile interceptors has be...
By Carlton Haelig
-
How to Avoid Disaster in the Next Iran War
Commentary
Should full-scale fighting resume against a reconstituted Iran in the near term, coalition forces will run out of Patriot, THAAD, and Standard Missile interceptors in days, no...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Philip Sheers
-
Sea Drones a Taiwan Game Changer
Commentary
This article was originally published in the Taipei Times. China prefers to win without firing a shot in its bid to strangle Taiwan’s strategic autonomy. Chinese military str...
By Trey Meeks
-
We Go High, We Go Low
Podcast
Missiles and drones (slow missiles) put the bang in airpower. But given how many we used in Iran, what would U.S. magazines have to look like to, say, defend Taiwan from the C...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Philip Sheers
