US Marines Training in Israel

There's an interesting post at Elder of Ziyon about a US/Israeli joint military training program.

As part of the ongoing cooperation between the Israeli Defense Forces and the US Armed Forces stationed in Europe, a company of US Marines came to Israel for a month of intensive training at IDF facilities and alongside IDF soldiers. Dividing their time between the Adam Base in central Israel and the Tze'elim Base in the south, the soldiers trained in urban and cautious warfare, reconnaissance, and at various shooting ranges.

The Israelis have built an entire mock town for urban warfare training. According to Israel Today, this facility has been used extensively by U.S. forces training to go to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sonic Assault in Marjah

I knew we used loud music as an interrogation tactic, but apparently we are also using it for wider psychological operations in Afghanistan.

US special forces in Marjah have hit upon the genius idea of blasting deafening Metallica, Thin Lizzy and Offspring tunes in the general direction of suspected insurgent strong-holds in a bid to root out hard rock-averse guerrillas. ... Marines in Marjah, a farming community in the middle of Afghanistan's poppy belt, have rigged up an armoured vehicle with massive speakers that can be heard up to a mile away. "Taliban hate that music," explains one officer of a multiple-hour playlist that includes the aforementioned rockers interspersed with Afghan government propaganda and death threats.

Unfortunately, according to the article, it annoys the locals in general, not just the Taliban. And apparently it wasn't authorized, since a Lieutenant Colonel in the area is quoted as saying that he's going to put a stop to it.

I can see blasting music like that to motivate the troops before an attack or another major operation, but I have my doubts that just playing music, no matter how loud, is actually going to drive out insurgents. Maybe the idea is to provoke them into attacking, so they can then be killed. That's a time-honored military tactic.