Introduction
The war in Afghanistan that broke in2001 evoked the intervention of the United States and United Kingdom. The main aim of intervention was to topple the Taliban and ensure there is liberty in the capital invaded by the Taliban. Helmand province has been the center of concern of the British army.
British have the largest troop in Afghanistan followed by the United States. The number of British troops amounted to 9500 in 2009 and consisted of marine, sailors and even airmen. From 2001 to around March 2010, the British military forces have lost about 275 military personnel in this war and most of them died in Helmand. British have been applying conventional military forces in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations.
The war in Afghanistan started with the conflicts between the British army and the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban group as the supporters of Al-Qaeda squad. The struggle between these groups has turned out to be a complex counterinsurgency effort, which is an armed conflict carried out against an insurgency or a revolt. This is usually carried out by the armed forces allied with the government that is in power in the territory where the conflict is happening.
The insurgency group aims at controlling the authorities in the territory they target like the case of Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency seeks to eliminate these insurgents as well as protecting the authority invaded by the insurgents. This has been the mission of British army in Afghanistan. British army has been using conventional military forces in their attempt to eliminate the insurgents in Afghanistan. This approach has been conflicting with the United States approach where they use unconventional military forces.
The use of this approach by the British army has been criticized of being ineffective but British army still push for it. It could be argued that this is the only approach that the British army has and therefore they see every problem in Afghanistan as being solvable using the approach. This could be related to Abraham Maslow’s quote that “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail”
The objective of this essay is to discuss the extent to which the quote compliments the British use of conventional military forces in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.
The quote explanation applied
For purposes of this essay, the quote “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail” is taken to mean that when one has only one approach (hammer) to a problem, he sees all problems (nails) similar to the one solvable using the approach. In another case, if the approach has worked in the past for several diverse problems, it may be viewed as a universal approach.
Also where all the other methods have failed, the remaining options becomes like the hammer and all the other problems becomes the nails. This may sound vague but the British army found their use of conventional military forces in their counterinsurgency operations the only hammer compatible for the nails related to the insurgents.
According to Maslow, when an individual lacks enough knowledge or training for solving a certain problems, he proposes the same approach to all the problems. For every problem encountered, the same solution is used or proposed. The idea in this case is that it is better to use the approach that is well known rather that the attempt to use another approach whose skills one does not have though may be more effective.
The unfamiliar approach, however effective it is will not be proposed for solving a certain problem because it may prove ineffective if applied without the relevant skills.
British army in Afghanistan
The mission of British army in Afghanistan is to eliminate Taliban and Al- Qaeda groups in Afghanistan. The Taliban grouped is accused of helping the Al- Qaeda group in their terrorism acts. The experience that the British army has had in Afghanistan leaves them with the only option of using conventional military forces in their counterinsurgency operations in order to hush the insurgents.
Despite the conflicting opinions of the American and the British armies, the approach seems the best for the British army. The American army opinion is to use unconventional military forces to eliminate insurgents in Afghanistan and protect the people and the territory central authority.
The British army advocates the use of conventional armed forces where there is no use of weapons of mass destruction like nuclear weapons. This will eliminate the effects of nuclear weapons that may be suffered by non insurgents. The challenge posed to the military forces involved in Afghanistan is distinguishing the non insurgents from the insurgents. The British army argues that the only way possible in eliminating the insurgents is to use conventional armed forces in order to protect the other people not involved.
The conventional warfare involves direct confronting the opposing party using conventional weapons that are non chemicals. The weapons are aimed at hitting the opposing army and the fight b9is done in open ground. The general idea of conventional warfare was to destroy the military force of the other party and weaken them so that they do not get a chance to use conventional warfare.
The British aim in Afghanistan is to weaken Taliban and the Al-Qaeda groups and make them to surrender. This tactics if successful may be helpful because it will completely eliminate the opposing group. The approach will cause a lot of deaths because it involves direct confrontation.
In forcing capitulation, every opposing force victimized and confronted and completely forced to surrender. The Taliban and the Al-Qaeda groups have been involved in a lot of world terrorism and the tactics to use unconventional method may seem to fail or have failed in some instances. The British army feels that the tactic of forcing the two groups to surrender will eliminate terrorism. Unconventional warfare is based on the ground that victory is not achievable without compromise.
The tactic used is to win the support of one part of the opposing side and weaken the other thus eventually subdue the enemy. Non conventional warfare as opposed to conventional warfare involves the use of hidden tactics in fighting the enemy. These may be referred to as guerilla tactics where the two opposing forces are not aware of what the other group is planning. Conventional fare adopted by the British army believes in no compromise and aims at eliminating the opposing group or force them to completely surrender.
The tactics and the outcomes of the conflicting groups are known and well defined. This approach is criticized of being non tactical and lack of fighting skills. It has resulted in many deaths and the Afghanistan government is calling for an alternative approach of fighting Taliban and the Al-Qaeda without causing loss of civilian lives.
According to BBC News, in 2008, about 829 afghan civilians were killed in the attempt by NATO to fight Taliban insurgents. The adoption of conventional warfare by the British army adoption of the conventional warfare in fighting insurgents in Afghanistan shows that the British army lacked fighting skills in fighting the Taliban and that is why they use the non-tactical method.
The Quote In Relation To British Conventional Military Forces in Afghanistan
The quotes is true in the context of British involvement in Afghanistan fight against the Taliban in that we will always experience problems that could be solvable by the tools that we have. The experience of British conventional military forces in conventional warfare is the only tool they had for countering the problem that they experience like the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda group.
In a higher sense, the use of conventional military forces to confront the Taliban and the Al Qaeda group was an indication of lack of tactics. The conventional warfare is related to lack of fighting tactics and adopting direct confrontation that exposes your tactics to the enemy.
This shows that the British Army is applying one solution to every problem that is caused by the conflicting group. Taking in to consideration that the Taliban and the Al Qaeda groups cause many terrorism acts that may require different approaches to solve, it would indicate that British army proposes one solution to all the terrorism cases or other problems caused by these groups.
That is conventional approach based on the notion that direct confrontation of the two groups will solve all the problems they cause. The conventional approach is the only tool (hammer) that the British army uses to solve the problems (nails) caused by the Taliban group.
The approach is applied in solving all the problems caused by the Taliban but this may not be effective since different problems require different solutions. According to Maslow, the quote could mean lack of diverse skills or solution to a problem such that one applies the same solution to many problems. Every problem caused by the Taliban in Afghanistan is taken as a nail solvable by the conventional approach, the hammer.
The other explanation of the quote is that if all the other methods have failed, the only remaining solution will be attempted in all problems. The British army has been in Afghanistan for a long time and may be the only way out is conventional armed forces deployment.
This will mean that the British army will take every problem as being solvable using the only available way out. The conventional warfare will be applied in all situations. The war in Afghanistan has been more intense until the British majority of the public thought that it was un-winnable.
Conclusion
The quote “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail” affords a clear description of the British conventional armed forces involvement in the counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan. They apply conventional warfare which may not suit the diverse tactics of the Taliban group. Conventional armed forces may not be effective inn Afghanistan and is facing much criticism.
Reference List
BBC, ‘Shift needed’ in Afghan combat. London: BBC News, 2009. Web.
Maslow, A, Father of modern management: Maslow’s Maxim / Maslow’s Hammer. California: abraham-maslow. 2009. Web.
Tristan, P, About.com: NATO and US Troop Deployments & Casualties In Afghanistan. New York: The New York Times Company, 2009. Web.