Speaking of accountability, how about some of it for the Leatherneck attack?

By Nick
Francona

Best Defense
guest columnist

After reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran's article
about the Sept 14, 2012, attack on Camp Bastion/Leatherneck, I wanted to
respond to comments made by Maj. Gen. Gurganus. 

There is an apparent attitude that this attack
occurred because of a failure of British and Tongan troops to secure their side
of the perimeter near the Bastion airfield. It may well be true that Tongan
troops would sleep on post, however, this does not excuse Marine commanders
from inspecting and enforcing rigid standards. Force protection is the
responsibility of the commander and because Maj. Gen. Gurganus had hundreds of
troops stationed on the Bastion side of the base, he is responsible for
overseeing a solid plan to protect his Marines and his aircraft. It is
unacceptable and beneath a Marine general to chalk this up to a Tongan
failure. 

I have spent time at Leatherneck and Bastion as
a transient, on the way in and out of parts of rural Helmand. It was obvious to
even a casual observer that many of the posts were unmanned and were comically
left with a "green Ivan" silhouette target as a half-hearted attempt
at deterrence. The fact that there was dead-space around the largest U.S.
military installation in the province is a fundamental failure and simply
unacceptable. Additionally, it was widely known that there were issues with
undocumented TCNs (third-country nationals) on the base that represented a
major counterintelligence challenge. It was naive to think that the enemy would
be unaware of the existence of unmanned towers. 

From the article:

"You
can't defend everywhere every day," Gurganus said in response to a question
about the attack. "You base your security on the threat you've got." He said
the Taliban caught "a lucky break."

"When you're fighting a war, the enemy gets a
vote," he said.

While it is indeed impossible to mitigate all
risks, even on large bases, I vehemently disagree with Maj. Gen. Gurganus'
assertion that you can't defend everywhere every day in this context. It is
indeed understandable to have VBIED and suicide bomber incidents at entry
control points (ECPs) of bases, but it is another story entirely to have a
dismounted assault penetrate your perimeter and stroll onto your airfield. His
claim that you base your security on the threat you've got is the root cause
for the environment of complacency that enabled this tragic event to occur. His
statement about the enemy getting a vote is absurd in this context. Indeed the
enemy does get a vote, but so do you, especially when it comes to defending
nearly all Marine aviation assets in the region and a large concentration of personnel.
Precisely because the enemy gets a vote, he has an obligation to anticipate and
counter the enemy, and act like it is a war zone and actively defend his men
and assets. The enemy's "vote" is not akin to a hall pass to stroll
onto the base. 

The most offensive of his statements is coining
the attack a lucky break. The attack only occurred because of an egregious
failure in basic infantry practices. The enemy may have been lucky to exploit
these failures, but neglect was the precondition that set the stages for this
attack. Intelligence analysts should not have to issue a warning of an
impending frontal assault on a major military base for the base to be
prepared. 

There is an appalling lack of accountability and
introspection that is evident in Maj. Gen. Gurganus' comments about this
incident. It is painfully obvious that this attack would not have been
successful, or likely even attempted, if not for multiple security failures at
Leatherneck/Bastion. This single episode highlights a much larger problem of
accountability in the Marine Corps. It is nearly impossible to get fired for
incompetence.

We need to stop treating the Marine Corps like
a teachers union and demand excellence and accountability from our officer
corps. 

Nick Francona is a
former Marine Corps Ground Intelligence Officer with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines
in Twenty Nine Palms, CA.  He served as a Scout
Sniper Platoon Commander in Helmand Province in 2011.