This is one is as fascinating as it is…well, unusual. WELL off the beaten track, let’s say.
As a young Green Beret, I learned to watch the moon. The Apaches and Comanches and the other able fighters always knew the moon. As do the Taliban. I reckon Pashtun fighters are like modern Apaches but with AK-47s.
There is much to learn from Afghan fighters. Old school. Adhering to principles. Such as patience.
They wait for the right conditions. Including the moon. Six months, a year, or more.
Tracking, being tracked. Shadows confer much advantage in tracking. Fighting from the shadows. Avoiding the tremendous winds and sun of daylight fighting that favor those with longer rifles.
Often they attack in broad daylight but they usually consider the continuum of the light-dark cycle. Pashtun may attack by night and literally go straight to field to harvest without so much as going home to change shoes.
When eclipse of Moon or Sun, Afghans will rush outside to fire rifles into the sky to save the Sun or Moon from Satan. This idea is common the world ‘round. Europeans of past did similar. Ringing church bells, clanging pots and pans, blasting fireworks.
When Taliban attacked our massive base, Camp Bastion, destroying Harrier jets and killing our Marine Commander on the ground, I was away from Afghanistan. But I knew immediately there was no Moon. Taliban make such attacks under what we call “Red Air.”
As for Afghanistan, the Moonless attack on Camp Bastion that destroyed our jets on the ground was an epic study in the incompetence of leadership tasked to guard the base.
If they had studied basic tactics, and our incredibly able if illiterate Taliban enemies — American and British Commanders would have realized they were fighting the equivalent of Apaches or Comanches. Those guys kick ass. They may be the enemy, but we must respect or they will destroy our jets on the ground and shoot the Commander dead. And they did.
A Marine intelligence officer on the base contacted me saying my dispatch was amazingly accurate other than a couple small points, which he did not clarify. Given I did that assessment off the cuff — I figured something had to be wrong — but I know how Taliban operate and knew basically how they pulled it off. I had warned many times about such Taliban tactics.
And tonight I see the moon high over Panama. I am in Panama City. The phase is Waxing Gibbous with 98% illumination. Weather tonight over the Southern border of United States is perfect. I checked for El Paso: A cool 62 Fahrenheit, and clear.
The migrants will be storming the border in high numbers during this moon.
Tomorrow the Moon will be full. If no clouds, your body will cast a shadow on the desert. Go there tomorrow, to the border by Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California — and watch during the full Moon as huge numbers of people cross into America.
Strange stuff in a lot of ways, but read it all anyway. It’s Michael Yon, who is definitely someone I’d be most hesitant to gainsay.
- Entries
“…Afghans will rush outside to fire rifles into the sky to save the Sun or Moon from Satan.”
Works, as the eclipse always goes away.
Yon’s a sharp fellow. Hard to find fault with the knowledge he presents.
“…huge numbers of people cross into America.”
invade?