Exercises in futility
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| Alam Halfa exercise soldier |
One of the more interesting pieces of news I came across this week was about Alam Halfa, a military exercise in the North Island, involving 1000 troops from NZ, Canada, Britain and the USA.
The exercise lasted for over a month and has been heavily publicised by the NZDF, including a video released on youtube, Ready for any terrain. The local news reports have emphasised the important help the army have received from people living in the areas where it's taken place. As the report in the Manawatu Standard explained the main part was the '...counter-insurgency field exercise throughout Tararua and Wairarapa, which began on Monday.
The week-long exercise sees soldiers integrated into the local community where they will work with civilian volunteers to remove insurgent forces from "Alpira", the name given to Tararua and Wairarapa.''
Whilst military exercises take place regularly, it is interesting that the key component of this one was counter insurgency, especially as the US military and Marine Forces were also involved. According to Colonel Parsons, the key focus in the training was how to separate insurgents from the communities in which they are '...interwined and co-ercing the population'.
The exercise lasted for over a month and has been heavily publicised by the NZDF, including a video released on youtube, Ready for any terrain. The local news reports have emphasised the important help the army have received from people living in the areas where it's taken place. As the report in the Manawatu Standard explained the main part was the '...counter-insurgency field exercise throughout Tararua and Wairarapa, which began on Monday.
The week-long exercise sees soldiers integrated into the local community where they will work with civilian volunteers to remove insurgent forces from "Alpira", the name given to Tararua and Wairarapa.''
Whilst military exercises take place regularly, it is interesting that the key component of this one was counter insurgency, especially as the US military and Marine Forces were also involved. According to Colonel Parsons, the key focus in the training was how to separate insurgents from the communities in which they are '...interwined and co-ercing the population'.
