Analysis of the Battle of Wanat

Analysis of the Battle of Wanat

Thesis Statement

The Battle of Wanat took place due to a number of tactical mistakes by the U.S. forces, but resulted in the successful defense of COP Kahler due to the spirited efforts of the battalion.

Introduction

The U.S. soldiers had a remote outpost in north-east Afghanistan named Combat Outpost (COP) Kahler. This outpost was situated adjacent to the village called Wanat in the province of Nuristan. 48 U.S. soldiers and 24 Afghanistan National Army soldiers were monitoring the post along with 3 Marine Corps advisors of the U.S. (Steeb et. al., 2011). On 13th of July, 2008, a large number of Taliban forces attacked the outpost with the use of stealth and disciplined communication and covered the area with extremely quick movement over highly rough mountainous region. The attackers used various kinds of arms and ammunitions that include; small arms, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to destroy the base and to claim higher number of casualties.

The attack resulted in the killing of nine U.S. soldiers and wounding of 27 U.S. along with four ANA soldiers (Sellin, 2010). This act abandoned the COP. This figure of deaths is the greatest number of deaths that had occurred in a single battle since the U.S. started his operations in 2001. The event led to several investigations, and in June 2010, the U.S. army confirmed that the event did not involve any negligence from the U.S. soldiers and that they fought skillfully to defend themselves.

Discussion

The Battle of Wanat

The Taliban recognized that the U.S. outpost at Wanat is located at a very critical location. Therefore, they made a well coordinated attack against the COP. The attack came with no significant warning or signal through RPGs and heavy machine guns. This attack resulted in the destruction of vehicles, weapons and long range sensors within few minutes. The battle continued for approximately nine hours and it had to be stopped through air strikes from the U.S. forces. An AH-64 Apache helicopter made the initial strikes followed by a B-1B Lancer bomber, A-10, and F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft. They dropped bombs and missiles in order to stop any further reinforcement from the Taliban.

The review after the battle indicated that the U.S. and ANA forces had less protection and defense to deal with a significant attack. This resulted due to poor relations with the locals, flawed intelligence, inadequate supplies of arms, poor weather conditions, and the difficult geographical location of the base (Bernton & Phillips, 2009). In addition, the COP was not properly operational due to lack of security assets because it was challenging to provide supply to such a remote place either by ground or through helicopter. Moreover, there was a presence of Taliban in the areas of approach to the COP.

There was a clear advantage that the Taliban had over the COP. There were either on the higher sides of the ground or in the buildings that were exactly adjacent to the ...