Afghan Insurgent Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures Field Guide: With several new MCIA-developed vignettes from recent U.S. operations in Afghanistan

by Marine Corps Intelligence Activity

ForewordIf you want to make a difference, ask the USMC! I spent 26 great years inthe U.S. Army infantry. I fought in Vietnam and became a Cold Warrior.Along the way I met Ali Jalali. Ali was a Colonel in the AfghanistanArmy, a former Mujahideen commander. In 1992, I was visiting Moscowand received a copy of a Soviet military lessons-learned book fromAfghanistan. I translated it and added commentary to produce The BearWent Over the Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan. It wasonly through the good graces of the Special Forces in Fort Bragg andthe USMC in Quantico that I got the money to publish it. They saw thevalue of studying tactics in a counterinsurgency.The Bear Went Over the Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistanaddressed the conflict from the Russian point of view, and Ali and Iwanted to explore the insurgent side. I approached the U.S. Army aboutwriting a book on Mujahideen tactics. They had no interest since it wasabout Afghanistan (“we’ll never go there”) and insurgency (“we’ll neverdo that”). The USMC had vision. It recognized the project was abouttactics, something that the Corps does very well. The Corps funded theresearch. In 1996, we headed off to Pakistan and Afghanistan to interviewover 100 Mujahideen commanders. We met with guerrilla commanders,guerrilla warriors, and some bearded newcomers called the Taliban. Aliknew everyone, and it was the only way the project could succeed. Wecame back and produced The Other Side of the Mountain.Since 9/11, The Other Side of the Mountain has been very popular withsoldiers and Marines in Afghanistan. Over 100,000 copies have beenprinted. But there is a problem with The Other Side of the Mountain. It isover 400 pages long! If you are preparing for deployment, you don’t havea lot of time to put your nose in a book. MCIA has prepared this cut-downversion that gives you examples of various types of guerrilla tactics andeven adds three examples that were not in the original book. Ali went onto become the Interior Minister of Afghanistan. I am still trying to stay onthe right side of the wall at Fort Leavenworth. We both wish you everysuccess and thank you for what you are doing for the United States andAfghanistan. Semper Fidelis.Les GrauFort Leavenworth, Kansas

Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2015

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in part because there is no topic I know less about, and partly out of interest in Afghanistan, uniquely immune to conquest throughout history, where Canadian forces have been deployed recently. Men died in the battles described here, its not a video game, and I got a granular feel for the struggles from a close reading and review of the helpful maps. One thing I noticed is that though technology changed between the Soviet and American wars, so too did it change for the insurgents, and the edge of the superpowers was always dulled by this.