You remember 2010 Datta khel ambush of convoy. A Colonel leading . More than 50 Soldiers killed including the Colonel Sahab. A cobra helicopter saved the rest of the soldiers in the convoy from ambush. The video of surviving soldier, beside him injured and dead soldiers, pointing to cobra and saying It saved rest of the soldiers, was published on express Tribune website and it is on youtube somewhere
The newspaper, Wajahat S Khan, mentioned There was a strong intelligence convoy will be ambushed. Colonel strongly suggested not to move the large convoy that day. A Major General over-ruled the Colonel and ordered him to go to Point B with pre-defined route. Major General refused to entertain the intelligence reports of impending ambush
Anyways, The expected happen. The 1st decade of WoT. It is littered with extremely bad decisions from Uptop costing lives of dozen of soldiers in every damn single ambush. Youtube is littered with aftermath videos of ambush.
Then came the Ambush of our Soldiers in Tirah valley. 50 Soldiers were killed in 2015 in single ambsuh in Khyber-2 . Entire SSG company (13-15 soldiers) perished along with 50 Soldiers in 2013 in Khyber-1 . C.O was about to DFOL on its own troops. A general son Captain SAAD barely survived along with 2-3 more soldiers where the 50 other soldiers of his company died.
We know what is happening in Balochistan right? Its not 5 year or 10 years ago. It's been happening in last 2-3 years. If this is what you not call sacrificing soldiers on the whims and flimsy orders of generals then what it is?
Sir, firstly I am glad that I have to reply to a sensible person so thank you very much for giving me a chance to back up my post with useful information instead of engaging with one-liners. It doesn't take long to wait for someone to bring me on verge of writing what I really want to post. As a TT, I expected you to look at both sides of the picture, not just a single pathway to prove your point. While I know what is happening currently regarding Army/COAS, I am also aware of the blunders made from 47 up til now in all wars. The reality of wars always has two sides, not one. I would be the last one showing you a different side, but if you had portrayed both sides by yourself, I wouldn't have been here typing a response.
Generals are not "trained" to sacrifice soldiers. Lets clear up this concept first. The training is imparted to successfully carry out missions and complete the given task. This is practically conducted in exercises while its studied in courses under NDU or staff/war courses.
In Pakistan Army, there is another concept called "volunteering". Whenever the commanding officer is given a task to under take, he asks for volunteers from officers as well soldiers, why ? He knows that the task will send his troops closer to death. He is not blind to the fact that the troops he can order to send out might not make it back, so he asks for volunteers and troops do step up to the task. Its not brushing off guilt leading to a clearer conscience. The guilt will forever remain with him as such since he is following orders as Army has trained him to do but Army has "not trained" him to sacrifice his soldiers. Once the plan is laid out and the order trickles down from MO to Corps Commander to his outfit, he will conduct a meeting in Ops room and ask all his Brigade commander for the best Ops plan. The Brig can then request supporting arms for attachment while laying down own disposition. This Ops is however restrained by many factors - time, resources available including troops, weapons, fuel, equipment etc. Its not a private company CEO's meeting where action can be postponed as certain someone is on leave and the when the push comes to shove, next in line starts getting panic attacks and comes up with excuses.
1. Major General Zahid (63 FF), GOC of an Infantry Division, leading his brigades with an artificial leg, losing his leg in Bajaur before becoming GOC. He could have gained retirement by living in DHA or could have used up a position in GHQ for the rest of his career, after all according to members here, he was "trained" to sacrifice his soldiers, so why should a GOC sacrifice himself by standing in frontlines again ?
2. Gen Javed Sultan Shaheed didn‘t have to fly in bad weather and visit a company position soon after the ceasefire in Operation Tri Star. He was not "trained" to sacrifice his troops in frontlines while sitting back in his HQ sipping tea and eating samosas. His task was reaching a conclusion, life in DHA was ahead of him, the "paradise" they call DHA.
3. Brigadier Hussain Abbas Shaheed decided to lead a platoon deep inside Tirah Valley to rescue the crew of a Cobra helicopter as the challenge was too big to be left to a subaltern. A Brigadier is considered a one-Star General.
Sir, I can go back to many other examples (previous wars too) and I can even reply what happened and why it happened in 2010 Datta Khel ambush, but then I would be on the explanation end of things where as I am already considered a spokesperson of the Army which I am not, I have just seen, experienced and learnt things closely in uniform and out of uniform which mostly haven't. I have been inside GHQ more than the number of times people have gone for vacations there entire lives.
I have replied about Baluchistan in numerous threads, that I even lost count. If you can read up my posts on that topic, well and good, if you don't want to, I cant force you. I have seen a few times that a news is made as a topic and members start crapping, then PK comes along after many pages and tells what happened and why it happened, things start to slow down a bit in that thread. But then the whole cycle begins again with the posting of a new news, a new topic. I actually felt relieved that after years of banging my head against the walls, I got a breather through him explaining things and answering Qs which I had already answered before him.
There is a "Pakistan Affairs" section on PDF, where the disgruntled and biased lot of PDF can go and vomit as much as they can against Army, but does it make sense to you even, that they enter any thread related to Army (training, weapons, acquisition etc) and start off with off-topic verbal diarrhea ? If it makes sense to you or the Mods, then I can only salute you people.
If something is said wrongly and a person doesn't know about it but keeps insisting through repeatedly posting same thing over and over again - it doesn't make his statement right. Just like two wrongs can't make something right, similarly, continuous regurgitating against Army in every thread doesn't mean it holds substance.
Honorary
Bratva:
With due respect, I do not engage title holders out of respect of the title as well as decorum of the forum, if my words felt insulting or condescending to you, I apologize in advance. I will not be replying to you any further on this matter as it might lead to a point where I don't wish to go. Its a pleasure to discuss different matters with you in other threads without any confrontation. If you think my points made in this post are not up to the mark or unsatisfying, I further apologize that this is the best I can do when engaging with a title holder.
