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During the course of the Soviet-Afghan war between 1979 and 1989, 1986 was the turning point for the Soviet Union. Soviet Union General Secretary Gorbachev was convinced that the Soviet effort at rebuilding Afghanistan was failing: the Afghanistan government, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), made little progress in reaching out to the population, economic aid did not reach its destination, and the majority population supported Mujahideen (Matthews 2011). The Soviet Union felt the DRA should take a leading combat role against the Mujahideen (Graw and Jalali 2001). The DRA’s Ministry of Defense decided to destroy Zhawar, a logistic transfer base at Khost Province that was responsible for 60% of Mujahideen supply, and named Lieutenant General (LTG) Nabi Azimi as the overall commander for the Afghanistan forces (Yousaf and Adlom 1992). Through the six steps operation process, LTG Nabi Azimi’s mission command failure by his inability at visualizing solution process for the problems, directing units with achievable goals, assessing the operation environment with accurate information, and leading the unit physically from the front overwhelmed his success in understanding the operational environment and describing his intent to subordinates units.
According to Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 6-0 Mission Command, mission command philosophy is “the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations” (Department of Army 2012a). The commander employs mission command in all stages of the operation process. Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP) 5-0 The Operations...
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—. ADRP 5-0 The Operations Process. Washington, DC: Army Publishing Directorate, 2012b.
Graw, Lester W, and Ali Ahmad Jalali. "The Campaign for the Caves: The Battles for Zhawar in the Soviet-Afghan War." The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 14 (September 2001): 69-92.
Jalali, Ali Ahmad, and Lester W. Grau. Afghan Guerrilla Warfare - In the Words of the Mujahideen Fighters. St. Paul: MBI Publishing Company, 2001.
Matthews, Matt M. "We Have Not Learned How to Wage War There" The Soviet Approach in Afghanistan 1979-1989 Occasional Paper 36. Lexington: Combat Studies Institute, 2011.
Westermann, Edward B. The Limits of Soviet Airpower: The Bear versus the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, 1979-1989. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University, 1997.
Yousaf, Mohammad, and Mark Adlom. Afghanistan - The Bear Trap The Defeat of a Superpower. Havertown: Casemate, 1992.
The mission command philosophy helps commanders counter the uncertainty of operations by reducing the amount of certainty needed to act. Commanders can build teams and achieve their final goals through adapting the six principles of mission command to warfighting situation. I analyzed and compared the performance of General Sherman and General Hampton in four of six mission command principles.
Mission Command as defined by the United States Army consists six distinct and critical principles. During World War II there were many examples of exemplary mission command that led to stunning victories for the Allies but also many examples of failure. The Battle for Arnhem or Operation Market-Garden was such a failure. Major General Robert Elliot Urquhart, the Commander of the 1st Airborne Division failed in not only in tactics but the ability to lead his division to victory. He did not completely misunderstand the principles of mission command, but four main areas in which he made critical mistakes were; Build a Cohesive Team Through Mutual Trust, Create a Shared Understanding, Accept Prudent Risk, and Exercise Disciplined Initiative.
Smith, Gordon. “Canada in Afghanistan: Is it working?” Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, 2007.
Mission command is the commander's use of authority and direction to empower adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations. It helps subordinates exercise disciplined initiative when operating within their commander’s intent. To facilitate effective mission command, commanders must accomplish four consecutive stages of the operations process. They must thoroughly understand the problem, visualize a solution that achieves a desired end state, and then accurately describe this visualization in order to direct the organization. Commanders continually lead and assess their organizations and provide input and influence to their subordinates and staff.
SUBJECT: Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP) 6-22 Army Leadership – August 2012. 1. What is the difference between a. and a. Purpose. The. To provide Special Forces Warrant Officer Advance Course (SFWOAC) Class 002-16 a concise overview of ADRP 6-22 Army Leadership.
Commanders must be able to describe their operation visualization to staffs and subordinates. It fosters a working relationship and a shared understanding of the situation, mission and intent. Without description of mission command from the commander, a unit may not be able to accomplish their task or mission.
September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden decided to “wake the sleeping giant.” The US immediately sent SOF units and CIA officers to recon the area and meet with the Northern Alliance. The primary battle leading up to this operation was Tora Bora, which was absent of conventional forces. Up until this point, the war on terror was predominantly a Special Operations fight along with Air Force for overhead support.3 SOF and the Northern Alliance had already displaced Taliban forces out of many towns and villages in northern Afghanistan to gain control of key terrain. Key towns in northern Afghanistan including Taloqan, Konduz, Herat, and Mazar-e Sharif took only three weeks to clear.4 The SOF units were making huge impacts across the country calling in air strikes. At the same time the SOF units were diligently...
Unified Land Operations defines the army operational design methodology (ADM) as “a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe unfamiliar problems and approaches to solving them. The operational design methodology incorporated into army doctrine serves as a method to compliment the military decision making process (MDMP). Although the ADM it is often confused with replacing MDMP, its purpose is to address complex problems from a nonlinear approach. ADM helps the commander to answer questions to problems. However, only a collaborative effort of an operation planning team (OPT) will achieve the approach to answering complex problems. Doctrine alone does not provide the answer to complex problems, but rather offers a guide to solve them. To conceptualize the MDMP, planners must incorporate ADM to provide a better understanding, visualization, and description of the problem. The purpose of this paper is to provide the framework to support why ADM is required in the MDMP.
New Article. 11th March 2014 -. SoRelle, Larry, Madaras and James. Unit 3: The Cold War and Beyond. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
“Over the past century, Canadian attitudes towards the use of force and the exercise of military power in support of national aims have fundamentally shifted”. This is a quote written by Major Todd Strickland in his article, titled, “From the Boers to the Taliban: How Canadians Attitudes towards War Have Changed”. This article reviews Canada’s history within the wars and also Canadian’s thoughts on war. The Afghan war began in 2001 and is still ongoing today. The war began due to the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11th, 2001, also known as 9/11. The purpose of this war was to invade Afghanistan and to disassemble an organization, known as the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Another objective was to dismantle the Taliban government. The Taliban government was simply to blame for the deaths of so many Americans on 9/11. The leader, brains and financial support behind this organization was one by the name of Osama bin Laden. Because his country did not surrender him, the United States made the decision to declare war on Afghanistan and fight for those who lost their lives in 9/11. Canada became involved in the Afghan War very quickly after the attacks of 9/11. Because the Afghanistan war is a war that is constantly covered by the media, it makes the information overwhelming. To narrow the topic down, this paper will focus mainly on the Canadian’s involvement in the Afghanistan war. Violent political wars have been reoccurring for as long as anyone can remember, and the intensity of this violence continues to rise. The magnitude of political violence involved, the main interpretations on the causes of political violence, and the prospects for conflict resolution are all topics that will be covered...
According to Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 6-0, mission command philosophy is, “the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable discipline initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations.” Commanders execute mission command throughout all phases of the operations process. ADP 5-0 states that, “Commanders drive the operations process.” The six steps that allow Commanders to drive the operations process are: understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess. I will discuss four of these steps used by COL Freeman’s analyze his ability to properly execute mission command in this Battle.
The War in Afghanistan was a part of the Cold War, which was fought between Soviet-led Afghan forces and Mujahedeen, which were composed of two alliances– the Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight. The United States, along with the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and other countries supported the Peshawar Seven insurgents by training them and giving them weapon and money. The eight alliances were supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Afghanistan and the Soviets signed an alliance treaty in 5th, December, 1978. To respond to the treaty, United States President Jimmy Carter signed the first order for secret financial aid to the rivals of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. The primary Soviet positioning of the Army in Afghanistan began on the 24th of December, 1979, under Soviet general Leonid Brezhnev and the last troop removal started on the 15th of May, 1988, and was completed by February 15 of the following year, 1989, under Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the perpetual nature of the War, the War in Afghanistan has been known to as the Russia’s Vietnam War or the Bear Trap. The death of the U.S. Ambassador led to a major deprivation in Afghanistan–United States relations.
Although overthrowing Hafizullah Amin was a big reason why the Soviet government invaded Afghanistan, there were many other reasons. The Soviet Union was looking to free the communists in Afghanistan by fighting Islamic fundamentalism. The Soviet Union thought that an ex...
The most effective commanders through their leadership build cohesive teams. Mutual trust, shared understanding, and accepting prudent risk serve as just a few principles for mission command. Mutual trust is the foundation of any successful professional relationship that a commander shares with his staff and subordinates. The shared understanding of an operational environment functions, as the basis for the commander to effectively accomplish the mission. While my advice for the commander on what prudent risks to take may create more opportunities rather than accepting defeat. Incorporating the principles of mission command by building cohesive teams through mutual trust, fostering an environment of shared understanding, and accepting prudent risk will make me an effective adviser to the commander, aid the staff during the operations process, and provide an example for Soldiers to emulate.
Jarvenpaa, M. (2013). Making Peace in Afghanistan: The Missing Political Strategy. United States Institute for Peace, Peace brief, 3-9.