This is not a land combat blog but, sometimes, I’ve just
gotta dip my toe into that world.
We’ve repeatedly seen the US get attacked (with very little
success) in the Strait of Hormuz by a drone or a speedboat and then we
retaliate by striking combat related facilities. The blindingly obvious question is why aren’t
we striking these targets before they can be used against us since, clearly,
we know where they are? What kind of
idiot commander allows known enemy combat facilities to exist during a war?
Now, here’s the land combat portion. Why haven’t we put a brigade ashore to sweep,
say, a 5-10 mile deep swath along the length of the strait? As best I can tell, that would eliminate
every remaining speedboat and most of the relevant combat facilities (weapons
warehoused, radars, command and control facilities, troop housing/hideouts,
etc.
Oh, but what if Iranian troops confront us? Oh no!
What will we do? Well, how about we
thank them for revealing themselves and gathering together in one place so that
we can more easily and efficiently kill them?
A sweep would remove most of the remaining ability of Iran
to harass shipping in the strait.
Are we so afraid of casualties that we won’t risk
soldiers? If so, then this war isn’t
very important. If it is important, then
ground troops are justified. This would be a training exercise for a WWII battalion.
We started the war with a good approach but it’s devolved
into a decidedly half-assed affair the last couple of weeks.
Their coastline is mountainous, fortified with an army of one million troops. "Sweeping it" would take the entire mobilized US Army over a year to deploy and stage supplies, and another year to clear it. Then what about the rest of Iran?
ReplyDeleteThere are not a million troops in the mountains!
DeleteExamining a topographical map of Iran, we see a swath around the strait of 10-30 miles flat inland in front of the more mountainous area. The speedboats are on the coast, not miles inland so that's not a problem. Simple drones and coastal missiles are almost certainly on that 10-30 mile swath as trying to transport and operate missiles and drones in mountains would be exceedingly difficult. The mountains include no cities so there are no troops. The troops are in the major population and manufacturing areas.
A brigade could sweep the relevant area in a week or two.
If Iran were stupid enough to suddenly flood the mountains with troops, then they'd have done us a favor by isolating them from resupply and concentrating them for easy destruction.
The latest ventures of the US ground forces (Army, Marine) in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Irak were initial successes followed by inglorious retreats. The last time it worked was in Europe WWII - where US troops were welcomed by the population.
ReplyDeleteYou need to clearly understand why forces have failed. It is not because forces are incapable of succeeding. It is because we repeatedly allow them to complete the job. The last time we allowed the military to complete the job was WWII and it was a 100% success, both war and post-war.
DeleteThe vast majority of Iran's citizenry would welcome US troops - as long as it was clear that we weren't planning to stay. Eliminate the current regime and leave.