Taliban has only 500 artillery rounds for coming battle

MORE than 500 Taliban suicide bombers are trained and ready to strike NATO-led coalition forces, which include about 400 Australian troops, in Afghanistan. To get that in perspective 500 suicide bombers really means 500 artillery rounds which isn’t all that much logistically as artillery regiments will carry that amount of ammo with them with more in reserve. How quick can the Taliban resupply suicide bombers? The Taliban boast also guarantees 500 less Taliban after the battle out of claimed force of some 12,000 terrorists. To counter this, NATO and US forces numbers about 40,000; so the deciding factor in any battle won’t be troop numbers nor suicide bombers. It’ll be NATO determination to win along with troop morale and that’s where the media come in. Maybe we could have some headlines about NATO and Australian successes in the battle zone rather petty tattle-tale type “Sir, sir…Aussie diggers have made a nasty video!’ articles as carried by the Australian of late. UPDATE: While writing this post I was looking for reference to Artillery in Afghanistan. I should’ve read Set Condition 1 before posting as he links to an account of recent fighting on Operation Medussa (apt name!) where artillery gets many a mention. He points to a Times piece about Canadians in the thick of things

“We are not doing f***ing peacekeeping operations here, we are doing combat operations,” Lieutenant-Colonel Omer H. Lavoie, 40, the commanding officer of the Canadian forces, told The Times, the only British paper to visit the frontline during the fiercest battle since the Taleban was overthrown five years a

This plain spoken Lieutenant-Colonial commands Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and the article goes on to quote Major Mike Wright, a company commander in the battalion.

“I don’t think a lot of my guys thought they would be in an operation of this scale,”

Readers may not be aware but a battalion of this Canadian regiment has soldiered with Australian forces previously. They were with 3RAR at the Battle of Kapyong and conducted themselves with such distinction as to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation along with our own guys. On that occassion, whilst stopping a Chinese division in their tracks, they were well aware of being in an operation of some scale. After you read the Afghanistan report you might like to read some history about the Battle of Kapyong, both from the Canadian and Australian perspective