Asessment of Lal Masjid operation by Pakistani think tank BRASSTACKS

[Officer of Engineers]

Lt Col is a minor thing in such types of operations.

You might want to rephrase that. That's at least 16 years experience you're losing.

 

[MastanKhan]

Blain2,

You are right, I should have phrased the comment about al qaeda better. Hameed Gul is showing too much pain in his tv interviews. That is what my comments were based upon. It was purely an observation that I had, watching him talk on geo tv all the time. Indeed the taliban and AQ came after the fact, but he was still very involved with them right to the end. He has too much of a personal grudge against the U S and is too arrogant and cocky. His interview on Jawab Deh and other occassions have showed a very self centered and righteous person. Nobody is right as much he wants to be. He has been insulting to other generals specially those running the pakistani defence projects at POF. We all make mistakes---what makes us different is that we admit to our maistakes and try to do better next time.

Salim, I understand what you are saying, but what I am trying to say is something different. You see it is easier to do the job of 10 people rather than train 10 people to do the job of 10 men. Designating the task to a jr and trusting the judgement and approach and observation is not easy. But then hindsight is 20/20. I maybe making a mountain out of a mole hill.

 

[Mujahid]

There were also reports that during the seige Rasheed Ghazi was held hostage by the hard core militants and now they were in command instead of Rasheed Ghazi,

can any one comment !!!!

 

[blain2]

You might want to rephrase that. That's at least 16 years experience you're losing.

I am not saying that its a minor thing to lose a Lt Col., rather its quite normal to have an officer of that rank or even higher be present to direct/oversee such highly complex and sensitive operations.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

I decided to ask for another opinion about this situation. The guy knows about what happened at LaL masjid. He is an 8 years veteran retd marine an E 5 rank----the first thing that comes out of his mouth is----it is not the job of a Col---it is the job of somebody like a platoon leader / corporal / seargent. Col's don't go out to do the recce----they are too important to do that kind of work. It is meant for the platoon level command to bring the information and paint the proper picture.

What I am saying here is that it looks like that pakistani army uses its commissioned officers to lead rather than using the non comms to be the eyes and ears and lead the strike force. Seems like there is a problem with delegating the job.

We all know that the enemy sniper is waiting for the officer to pop up his head. So, it is ok to oversee the operation, because that is what his job is and not to look at the wall where the charges are going to be placed. That should have been done by looking at the pictures of the building and other imagery and not going to the site itself.

I just wanted to get another opinion and I realize that I was not too far off.

 

[A.Rahman]

did Pakistani army used UAV's to provide real time information? couple of predators armed with hell fire would have done the job.