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Failures are an inevitable part of the human experience, which has to be acknowledged and accounted for as such. Miscalculations and misconceptions will occur no matter how immaculate the initial pan might be, which is why it is essential to focus on deriving essential lessons from unfortunate experiences. Operation Anaconda and the endeavors at fighting terrorism in Afghanistan is, perhaps, one of the best-known examples of the U.S. military failures. Looking back at the failure of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, one will realize that the poor organizational planning, which defined the misalignment of the Staffing, Direction, and Control processes, affected the combat strategy and defined the notorious outcome of the operation Anaconda, thus making it one of the U.S.’s most notorious failures.
In retrospect, the inability to perform decent preliminary research and ensure that the U.S. government is completely aware of the key factors that would allow implementing the operation flawlessly was one of the main causes of failure. Although the U.S. Army commander did have a plan in his mind, namely, the decision not to repeat the disaster that occurred during the siege of Tora Bora, the general lack of direction was evident in the management of Operation Anaconda. As Robinson (2018) worded it, “Strongmen’s militias can be more useful for immediate military exigencies than a new, weak army” (p. 12). Due to the inconsistencies in the planning process and the miscalculations made by the intelligence, the U.S. Army was not prepared properly for the challenges that it would face in Afghanistan, which led to the excruciating defeat. Even though the al-Qaeda forces suffered a nonetheless devastating loss in regard to their soldiers, resources, and positions in the fight, in general, the outcomes for the U.S. Army were truly devastating, causing it to retreat. Considering the staffing issues, the U.S. Army has been suffering from a significant lack of discipline and the arrangement of the troops. Moreover, the fact that the communication between the troops and the medical staff was mishandled deserves a mentioning as one of the major staffing failures (Welmer, 2019). As a result, of miscommunication, a range of soldiers were seriously wounded, and the U.S. lost a significant number of people to the Afghanistan conflict (Lansford, 2017). Therefore, the staffing issue as the direct result of the inability of the commanders o plan basic operations in Afghanistan led to the ultimate failure and defeat.
Similarly, the American Army obviously lacked direction in its actions in Afghanistan. Although the general sense of what had to be accomplished was present, the actual strategies for attaining the said goals were mostly underdeveloped. On the one hand, the use of video teleconferences as a practice that was considered innovative at the time was quite praiseworthy for its unique approach (McPherson, 2005). If it had been used properly, the specified device for maintaining control would have provided the U.S. Army with a substantial advantage over the Afghanistan troops, causing the American soldiers to communicate and collaborate better, thus aligning their actions more successfully (Robinson, 2018). However, even with the application of videoconferencing as the tool for keeping telecommunications consistent, the commanders failed to control the troops, causing the latter to find themselves in complete disarray within a certain amount of time after the U.S. Army was introduced to the Afghanistan environment (Robinson, 2018). Therefore, Operation Anaconda had huge planning failures that ultimately led to the collapse of the entire venture and the crushing defeat of the U.S. Army.
As a result, the control phase of the operation was largely botched, with the time constraints being the most difficult issue to address. Poo communication and the resulting inability to transfer clear directions to soldiers led to the inaccurate and often incorrect implementation of the initial plan. Moreover, the planning, control, and staffing concerns were doomed to fail due to the inconsistency between the newly developed Neo-Liberal philosophy of American society and the centralized views that the U.S. Army held (Kolenda, 2019). As a result, the planning process was disjoint, and the lack of staff members who could support the specified view was rather scarce.
The inability to perform operational planning accordingly and, thus, failing to build the basis for the Staffing, Direction, and Control processes defined the failure of the U.S. in Afghanistan due to the following complications in the combat situation. Therefore, the significance of consistency in planning, as well as the failure of intelligence to perform the assigned tasks, led to the mismanagement of key goals and the ultimate defeat. Therefore, Operation Anaconda has provided important, albeit bitter, lessons for the U.S. government to learn. Specifically, the importance of preliminary research and the following meticulous planning with the focus on every detail that may affect the implementation of the set goals, have to be at the forefront of operations and the process of joint planning. The described experience represented a very harsh lesson for the U.S. commandership since it pointed to the glaring problems with the execution of control over the actions of the troops, as well as the issues with communication and the staggering number of errors made during the planning process.
Reference List
- Kolenda, C. D. (2019). Slow failure: Understanding America’s quagmire in Afghanistan. Journal of Strategic Studies, 42(7), 992-1014.
- Lansford, T. (2017). A bitter harvest: US Foreign Policy and Afghanistan. New York, NY: Routledge.
- McPherson, J. A. (2005). Operation Anaconda: Command and control through VTC. Washington, DC: Joint Military Operations Dept.
- Robinson, C. D. (2018). What explains the failure of US army reconstruction in Afghanistan? Defense & Security Analysis, 34(3), 249-266.
- Weimer, D. (2019). “It’s that difficult of a terrain”: Opium, development, and territoriality in US-Afghan Relations, 1940s–1970s. The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 33(1), 113-144.
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