Buried in a couple of recent news stories were these interesting nuggets. The first was the expulsion of two Brits from Afghanistan. 'Mervyn Patterson, a British political adviser to the United Nations mission in Kabul, and Michael Semple, the Irish-born acting head of the European Union mission, left the country this morning, according to reports.' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/27/wafg327.xml
Look at Mervyn. He doesn't look like a desk-jockey does he?
Now read this. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/04/wafg104.xml
'Britain's troubled relations with Afghanistan's government has hit new turbulence as it emerged that London secretly planned to build training camps for ex-Taliban fighters.' Great counter-insurgency ideas never die, they are just recycled.
By far the most effective unit in the Rhodesian army was the Selous Scouts. They took captured terrorists, broke them psychologically and 'turned' them. They then took them straight out into the bush to mix in with real terrorists and reveal their location. The Selous Scouts would then call in the copters and the RLI would shoot them. It was a staggeringly efficient tactic. I'm pretty sure by the look of him that Mervyn may well be ex-Selous Scout, or at the least knows some.
It warms the cockles of my heart to know that the British still know how to do some things.
2 comments:
I doubt very much that Mervyn Patterson was a member of the Selous Scouts. The war ended 27 years ago and he is way too young to have served with the Scouts.
The concept of 'turning' terrs in Rhodesia could not be adapted the same way in Afghanistan. Without going into a huge discussion on this, here are some main points.
1) The Rhodesians were fighting for their own country and knew their enemy better than most will ever know theirs.
2) The Selous Scouts basically had 'special' authority from none other than Lt.Gen. Peter Walls, the boss of COMOPS. Afghanistan involves various countries from NATO, the Americans, the Canadians, the Australians etc and the Government. Try and find an agreement regarding this subject with that lot.
3) You say "They took captured terrorists, broke them psychologically and 'turned' them." This is a simplistic outlook of what the Selous Scouts did. They did not "break them psychologically". In some cases they put terrs back into contacts or missions within half a day, you couldn't do that if you "broke someone psychologically". All captured terrorists, if found guilty before a court, and depending on what the charges were, faced either death by hanging or jail. A lot chose to fight on the Rhodesian side than face court.
4) Undoubtedly some of the most important work by some members of the Selous Scouts was pseudo operations in guerrilla counter-insurgency warfare. Part of this work involved infiltrating terrorist groups. Don't forget that the Selous Scouts who for many years infiltrated these groups were regular Rhodesian soldiers from regiments like the Rhodesian African Rifles, NOT 'turned' terrs.
5) Despite a number of shortfalls, the Rhodesian military was extremely inovative and adaptible in a lot of circumstances. More so than the military forces of today.
Thanks for the response. You're right of course- he's too young to have been involved at the sharp end. You make lots of good points. I was just a schoolboy during the Rhodesian civil war. One of my schoolfriends joined the Grey Scouts (cavalry scouts) and one was an SAS jumpmaster. I heard lots of stories at school, and we were totally fascinated. I've read Pamwe Chete and a few other things since, but would not pretend to be an expert on the Selous Scouts. But it does seem that there is at least some of the same tactics being used in Afghanistan as in Rhodesia. Any place you have locals fighting alongside NATO forces, there is the possibility of turning OTHER locals to join up if the inducements/threats are sufficient. I think thats what Mr Patterson and Mr Semple were doing- making sure the Taliban groups know what inducements are on offer.
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