It’s a 30-hour trek from Lejeune to Afghanistan

[thedrifter]

It’s a 30-hour trek from Lejeune to Afghanistan
Hurry up and wait is nothing new for the Marines
March 27, 2008 - 12:27AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.


KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The trip began on a cold morning at Camp Lejeune and ended more than 30 hours later on chilly, dusty morning at a base in the southern part of Afghanistan.

It took about 100 Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from North Carolina to Virginia on a half-full commercial jet, distinguishable from another civilian plane only by its lack of first-class seating and yellow ribbons posted on the bulkhead.

After a few hours in Virginia, the Marines and sailors reloaded the plane, now joined by about one hundred airmen also headed for Afghanistan. The group traveled through Maine, then Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Manas Air Base in the Kyrgyz Republic before the airmen and Marines split up, headed to different areas of the same country.

Cpl. Will Gillespie, an administrative clerk with the 24th MEU, said he slept through most of the flights, and he wasn't the only one.

"When I was awake, everyone else was asleep," he said.

Traveling on a civilian aircraft while wearing uniforms and carrying weapons was strange, Gillespe said, but the concept of "hurry up and wait" is nothing new to the Marines.

And while the trip was long, the group had possibly the shortest journey of any in the unit, Marines already in Afghanistan said.

Many groups spent a night or even 24 hours at Manas Air Base - helping make one day in March the busiest day in recent years, said Lt. Col. Adriane Craig, chief of public affairs for the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing.

The base, which opened after Sept. 11, 2001, and began running operations in December 2001, processed more than 1,600 people one day in mid-March, Craig said.

With service members coming and going from deployments, the base population can double in a day, and a late flight can mean 200 extra people for dinner, she said.

But Manas has made many facility improvements to meet the needs of Marines, sailors and others who pass through, Craig said.

From a 24-hour dining facility and a gym that never closes to recreation centers that offer bingo, karaoke, movies and video games to everyone coming through, Craig said the Air Force personnel "try to provide a lot of things for people to do, to ease the transition."

The transition for this group from the 24th MEU was relatively short - just three hours in which the troops checked in, unloaded luggage, reloaded bags onto palettes and piled into a C-17 airplane.

Then, at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Eastern time, or 6 a.m. Afghanistan time, they stepped off the plane, ending their travels and beginning their seven-month deployment.



Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Cappuccino takes bite off dusty, concertina wire-clad place
March 27, 2008 - 12:33AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

FILED: 1 p.m. EDT, March 26, 2008


The first thing I noticed when the C-17 airplane touched down in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday morning was the dust. Even at 6 a.m., it hung around the International Security Assistance Force base like fog.

Most of the Marines have come down with what they call "the funk" in their first few days here - likely the result of breathing in the powdery sand. It eventually goes away, but no one really knows how to avoid it.

I grew up in Arizona and I don't mind the desert. And the dust has no obvious smell or flavor. But it is not easy to escape. Service members from more than a dozen countries walk around the base in various shades of desert camouflage, sunglasses on to shield their eyes from the glaring sun and ubiquitous dust.

The living and working facilities, while much nicer than I expected, are nonetheless pervaded by the dust and strong afternoon heat. And I learned that even a shower doesn't do much to get rid of the dirt - since it will simply collect again on feet and legs during the long walk back to the tent.

Still, I have been impressed with dining facilities (or "chow halls," as they're called), the tents and the buildings here - some of which did not even exist before Camp Lejeune Marines began arriving here about a month ago. And the Canadians brought with them a miniature Tim Horton's, a coffee and pastry shop that offers a refreshing and tasty iced cappuccino.

A few Marines have said they think their wives may stop sending those generous care packages if they know how "cushy" the accommodations here really are. But I know better. I know that those homemade cookies aren't baked because a family member is afraid her loved one is starving. It's more akin to the reason the Canadians set up Tim Horton's - to make this dusty, concertina wire-clad place feel a little more like home.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

From ocean sands to desert sands
March 26, 2008 - 10:33PM
Jennifer Hlad
Freedom ENC

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The trip began on a cold morning at Camp Lejeune and ended more than 30 hours later on chilly, dusty morning at a base in the southern part of Afghanistan.

It took about 100 Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from North Carolina to Virginia on a half-full commercial jet, distinguishable from another civilian plane only by its lack of first-class seating and yellow ribbons posted on the bulkhead.

After a few hours in Virginia, the Marines and sailors reloaded the plane, now joined by about one hundred airmen also headed for Afghanistan. The group traveled through Maine, then Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Manas Air Base in the Kyrgyz Republic before the airmen and Marines split up, headed to different areas of the same country.

Cpl. Will Gillespie, an administrative clerk with the 24th MEU, said he slept through most of the flights, and he wasn't the only one.

"When I was awake, everyone else was asleep," he said.

Traveling on a civilian aircraft while wearing uniforms and carrying weapons was strange, Gillespe said, but the concept of "hurry up and wait" is nothing new to the Marines.

And while the trip was long, the group had possibly the shortest journey of any in the unit, Marines already in Afghanistan said.

Many groups spent a night or even 24 hours at Manas Air Base - helping make one day in March the busiest day in recent years, said Lt. Col. Adriane Craig, chief of public affairs for the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing.

The base, which opened after Sept. 11, 2001, and began running operations in December 2001, processed more than 1,600 people one day in mid-March, Craig said.

With service members coming and going from deployments, the base population can double in a day, and a late flight can mean 200 extra people for dinner, she said.

But Manas has made many facility improvements to meet the needs of Marines, sailors and others who pass through, Craig said.

From a 24-hour dining facility and a gym that never closes to recreation centers that offer bingo, karaoke, movies and video games to everyone coming through, Craig said the Air Force personnel "try to provide a lot of things for people to do, to ease the transition."

The transition for this group from the 24th MEU was relatively short - just three hours in which the troops checked in, unloaded luggage, reloaded bags onto palettes and piled into a C-17 airplane.

Then, at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Eastern time, or 6 a.m. Afghanistan time, they stepped off the plane, ending their travels and beginning their seven-month deployment.



Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Reporter's notebook: A return to the brotherhood
March 28, 2008 - 12:48AM
JENNIFER HLAD
daily news staff

I spent about half of the day Thursday with Combat Logistics Battalion 24, talking to Marines and sailors about their jobs and their role in the MEU.

One Marine I met is Cpl. Brian Wheat, who is with the maintenance detachment. Wheat served in the Marine Corps from 1992 until 1997, then got out. He re-enlisted on Jan. 31, 2007, as a way to take care of his wife and son.

But that wasn't the only reason.

"I missed this, to tell you the truth," Wheat said.

"It's the brotherhood. You can't get this out in the civilian world. I tried." Being a 34-year-old corporal can be difficult, Wheat said, more difficult than he expected. But he plans to stay in the Marine Corps until he can retire, if possible.

"If the Marine Corps wants me to stay, I'll stay," he said. "If not, I'll go."Alarms sound: The mortar attack alarm sounded tonight for real.

First there was one boom that sounded like the explosions that happen a lot at Camp Lejeune, but it didn't shake the ground like the Camp Lejeune ones do. Then, about five minutes later, the alarm went off.

This time, I was in the public affairs tent, so I just went with the other Marines to the bunker. Maybe 20 or 30 minutes later, they gave the all clear.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine camp courtesy of contractors
March 28, 2008 - 12:50AM
BY JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF



EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.



KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - When Cpl. Robert Harrell arrived here two months ago, the area now referred to as "North Side" was nothing more than a minefield, he said.

Now, it is a Marine camp, complete with tents, showers, a dining facility and air conditioning. Not only does it house the bulk of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, it also will be a temporary home for the Marines of the California-based 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

Unlike in other locations, where the logistics Marines typically set up their camps themselves, most of the work at North Side was contracted out to KBR, said Harrell, the assistant commandant for the camp.

United Nations workers de-mined the land, but KBR scraped, graded and graveled the land, then built foundations and erected the tents, said 2nd Lt. Gregory Procaccini, combat engineer officer for Combat Logistics Battalion 24 and the camp's commandant.

The contractors also provide support and maintenance, Procaccini said.

All the tents came from the Air Force in kits that included flooring, air conditioning, lights, ventilation, generators, cots and trash cans, he said.

"Nothing fancy, just the essentials," Procaccini said. "But it is a vast improvement from a two-man tent."

Working with NATO contractors was different than working with American contractors, Procaccini said, but the Marines got used to it.

And there is still more to build. While the camp already has laundry service, a dining hall, sleeping tents, bathroom facilities and a makeshift outdoor gym, the area will get an indoor gym and more work space within the next two weeks, Procaccini said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Greeters wish deploying Marines well
Maine volunteer group aims to make the troops feel appreciated
March 27, 2008 - 11:23AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

BANGOR, Maine - Bill Knight served 32 years in the military, first in the Army Air Corps during World War II, then in the Navy. Now, he serves in a different way - volunteering his time to greet troops headed to or from deployments.
"I wish I was still there," Knight said Monday evening, sitting inside the Maine Troop Greeters storefront in the Bangor airport.
"I'm not there, so I've got to be here. They're my life."

Knight was one of a handful of veterans and civilians who greeted Marines, sailors and airmen headed to Afghanistan with a handshake and smile.

The point, said volunteer Tom Kohl, is to make the troops feel appreciated.
"You're not going to make it fun, but at least we can make it comfortable," said Kohl, who served two years as a soldier in the Vietnam War.

The group, a loose organization of about 150 volunteers, sends members out day or night to welcome troops headed to or from deployment, and offer them a free call on a cell phone, a complementary snack and the opportunity to share sea stories. They greeted their 3,000th flight Saturday night.

"We try to get someone here all the time," Kohl said. "We just think it's our job to be hosts and hostesses to the city."
Knight said he got involved because of the way he saw troops treated when they returned from Vietnam. It upset him that service members could not wear their uniforms in public or walk in groups, he said.

Since 1990, when Knight began working with Maine Troop Greeters, the welcomes have been well received.
"They all seem to be very happy and thankful that we're here," Knight said.
Pfc. Brandon Gibbs, a Marine with VMA-542, a Cherry Point-based Harrier unit attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said he appreciated the gesture.

"There's something humbling about World War II vets and retired master sergeants with Purple Hearts shaking your hand and thanking you for what you do," Gibbs said.

Lance Cpl. Kevin Wyer agreed.

"It was very welcoming," said Wyer, who is also with VMA-542. "It's great, what they are doing. It makes me feel better doing what I do."

For the veterans, like Knight, Kohl and Bill Dean, it also is a way to stay connected to the military brotherhood.
"To some extent, you miss it," Kohl said.

And the reaction of the troops makes the often crazy hours worth it, he said.

In addition to greeting the incoming and outgoing service members, the group has a storefront with unit coins, plaques, flags and other memorabilia, as well as a Web site, on which they post thousands of photos of the men and women they meet.

"Some of the messages posted on those pictures ... it keeps you coming back," Kohl said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Plenty to do for dentists with MEU
March 28, 2008 - 1:30AM

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Navy Lt. Adam Firestone pulled nine teeth out of one mouth Wednesday - all from a Romanian soldier who spoke no English.

It was a challenge, the dentist said, because he had to try to determine through a less-than-fluent translator whether the anesthetic was working or if the man was in pain.

Luckily, he said, teeth are universal.

Performing extractions, root canals and dental exams on troops and civilians from all over the world - some of whom have never before gone to a dentist - is a part of the job Firestone and Navy Lt. Gregory Hohl didn't expect when they deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

But it is work they say they are happy to do.Usually, a MEU has one dentist - attached to the combat logistics battalion.

But since the 24th MEU will be here with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, they added another one.Firestone and Hohl doubled the number of dentists at this International Security Assistance Force base in southern Afghanistan, which houses thousands of troops from more than a dozen countries.

Their presence also allowed one British dentist to go home early on emergency leave. Since they examined all the MEU teeth before leaving Camp Lejeune, Firestone and Hohl expected to spend much of the time waiting for dental emergencies.

Instead, they rotate between working at the MEU camp - where most of the work consists of double-checking the mouths of Marines with no obvious dental problems - and working at the base's hospital, where they treat troops, contractors and civilians from all over the world.

"There are a lot of people with a lot of things you don't expect to see," Hohl said. "But the military has trained us well to see the types of patients we see here.

"The hospital may actually expand its dental hours now that Hohl and Firestone are available to treat patients, Hohl said.

While many people would not think of a dentist as an integral part of a military team, Firestone said dental pain is actually one of the most common reasons a service member would be flown out of a forward operating base.

The reason, he said, is that bases generally have numerous surgeons and doctors equipped for a wide range of medical emergencies but no one to treat dental problems.

It's a quality-of-life issue, Hohl said. Dental problems are generally not life-threatening, but a Marine who can't sleep because of intense tooth pain or one who is fighting an infection is not as battle-ready as one who has a healthy mouth.

"They bring us here for the ‘what ifs,'" Hohl said, hoping that the dentist won't be needed - but knowing they will.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines adapt to tech threats
March 29, 2008 - 12:39AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Enemy forces use many differ-ent types of explosives to target Americans. But Marine forces here have a list of new technologies designed specifically to defeat them.

One of the most widely known is the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, a type of truck with a V-shaped hull designed to deflect an improvised explosive device blast away from the vehicle.

"It does what it is supposed to do," said Don Scattergood, a contractor with Force Protection working in southern Afghanistan to train Marines on how to use the vehicles. "I won't leave the wire myself unless I'm in one of my vehicles."At the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. did not have vehicles designed to take a hit from an IED, said Scattergood, who came to Afghanistan after spending years in Iraq.

The MRAPs, as they are often called, are made of armor and bullet-proof glass to protect against the explosions.

"There have been a lot of hits on a lot of vehicles, and a lot of people have gone home (safe)" because of the MRAPs, Scattergood said. "This truck has seriously saved a lot of lives."

Another type of gear designed with IEDs in mind are "jammers," tools used to counter electronic signals from the enemy.

"We try to take away the ability of the bad guy to select his target," said Bob Krch, field representative for a Counter Improvised Explosive Device section of Marine Corps Systems Command.

"We're taking away one form of detonation," he said. "The occurrence of events and fatal-ities has dropped off since we started using the equipment." Marines must learn how to use the jammers, just as they must be trained how to operate the MRAPs and use other new equipment.

"In the Marine Corps, half the battle is the training," Krch said. "Our fielding concept is not just outfitting the vehicle, but equipping the Marine."

Still, "The best way of defeating an IED is right here," he said, pointing to his eyes.

In addition to the jammers and MRAPs, the Marines have mine-rollers that go in front of vehicles to activate pressure-activated IEDs before a manned vehicle drives over them, said Maj. Brian Newbold, liaison officer.

And inside the vehicles, the Marines have a touch-screen computer called the Blue Force Tracker. The tracker has mapping and land navigation capabilities and allows Marines to send messages or reports to other vehicles or the operations center via a type of text message, said Genaro Guerrero, field service representative for the BFT.

While radios sometimes can be garbled because of the rough terrain, the Blue Force Tracker is not affected by the geography, Guerrero said. The computer also helps prevent friendly fire situations by allowing Marines in one vehicle to see exactly where other friendly vehicles are, he said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Afghan bazaar
Trip to the Afghan bazaar offers sundries, family gifts
March 30, 2008 - 12:28AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

Filed: 12:26 p.m. Saturday (3/29)

Today was the weekly bazaar on base, out near the edge of the camp. I have been to bazaars before, and the setup and general feel were the same, but I was impressed by the range of wares available.

Besides the normal selection of DVDs, cigarettes, pashmina scarves and T-shirts, there was some really pretty jewelry, nice rugs and all sorts of hand-carved wooden figures and other crafts.

Just inside the bazaar, the onslaught begins. A man hawking DVDs yells out prices, while two children approach with sad faces, selling local currency and asking ‘please, please, please?'

Lance Cpl. Sara Russell, a 24th MEU Marine originally from Michigan, was one of many Marines at the bazaar. She was looking for something to send home to her family, but she didn't buy anything Saturday.

"We're coming back after pay day," she said.

Pfc. Stephen Cantry, a Marine with Battalion Landing Team 1/6, found jewelry for his mother and girlfriend. But Lance Cpl. Kevin Tonsetic, of Combat Logistics Battalion-24, didn't have any luck.

"I was looking for a guitar, but they didn't have anything I wanted," he said.

Still, he plans on returning.

"I'm here to help," he said. "I might as well put some money back in (the economy)."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU gets eyes in Afghan skys
Harrier jets arrive at base
March 30, 2008 - 12:22AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The dust, fine as powdered sugar, cast a fog in the air as Harriers cut through the sky. As the jets taxied to their spots on a newly built mat, each plane kicked up a small storm of sand in its wake.

Ten days after leaving Cherry Point Air Station in North Carolina, the first wave of jets from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Harrier detachment landed on base in southern Afghanistan. The AV-8Bs give the Marines on the ground an eye in the sky, said Maj. Stephan Bradicich, a Harrier pilot.

The jets can perform reconnaissance or determine routes, Bradicich said, as well as "keep an eye on the fight" and send information directly from the cockpit to the ground.

"It extends the range of vision for the ground commander," Bradicich said.

The jets also provide heavy firepower, he said, "the big bombs."

And laser-guided and Global Positioning System technology means "we can put bombs on target the first time around," said Sgt. Robert McElmurry, an aviation ordnance Marine with the Harrier detachment.

That can be very important when ground troops call in for air support, he said.

"When the ground guys are out doing their thing, if they run into trouble, they know we're just a phone call away," he said.

McElmurry has been in the Kandahar province less than a week, but he spent a year in Bagram, Afghanistan, on a previous deployment. During that tour, he said a group of American soldiers came and thanked the air unit for air support.

"They said without us, they'd be dead," McElmurry said. "It was really cool and kind of humbling to hear it actually from their mouths."

Harrier pilots Capt. Christopher McLin and Capt. Arthur Bruggeman also arrived Saturday. This is the first deployment for both, and they said they are not exactly sure what to expect. But since the MEU is the first large Marine unit in this area for a few years, Bruggeman said he thinks there will be plenty to do.

"We're definitely looking to do some good work, and looking to be busy," he said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Siren signals bunker dinner bell
March 29, 2008 - 12:38AM

Filed: 2:33 p.m. Friday

Friday night, when I was in the chow hall with the public affairs officer and my husband, the rocket attack siren went off again. We actually didn't hear it very well inside the building, but we noticed about half the people there were getting up and leaving at the same time.

We weren't done eating, so I actually took my roll, pecan pie and Coke with me.

One thing I thought was a little weird was that all the American sol-diers and Marines were leaving, but a lot of the contractors and foreign service members seemed not to be in a big hurry to get to a bunker.

My husband and some of the other Marines were a bit annoyed that the siren interrupted the steak and lobster dinner, but they definitely moved quickly to get out of there.The three of us ended up in a bunker with a bunch of Dutch soldiers, who of course laughed about the fact that I brought pie. (My husband also brought some food). And since I had told the PAO that I learned how to say one Dutch phrase when my parents lived in Belgium, she made me say it to the Dutch soldiers.

They laughed about it, since the phrase (I don't know how to spell it, but it sounds like Smakliken) means something like "enjoy your meal" - and I was the one eating.

None of us - including the Dutch soldiers - had heard any explosion. We did hear some vehicle sirens while we were waiting in there, but I know that everyone in the MEU was OK. I will try to find out tomorrow whether there is any more information available about either of the attacks.

Also, tomorrow there is a bazaar on base. It is something that happens every week, and I am interested to see what they have available. I heard they have $5 Oakley sunglasses, but I have a feeling they are not the real thing!

Ellie

[thedrifter]

March Madness takes hold in Afghanistan
Following NCAA requires early start
March 30, 2008 - 11:32PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.



KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Sgt. Derek Dortch was up bright and early this weekend - all in the name of basketball.

Dortch, a University of Memphis fan, got up at 4:45 a.m. Saturday and headed over to the Morale, Welfare and Recreation tent to catch some hoops live on Armed Forces Network. He stayed up late Sunday night to catch the Memphis-Texas game. And this weekend wasn't the only time he's stayed up late or woken up even earlier to watch the NCAA men's basketball action.

The early rounds were difficult, he said, because not all the games are broadcast and there are many people who will stay out until 4 a.m. to watch their teams play. But once favorite teams were eliminated, the crowd started dropping off a bit, Dortch said.

"I was keeping up with UCLA ... and UNC, just because I wanted to see them lose," Dortch said Saturday during halftime of the Memphis-Michigan State game.

Army Spc. Jarmarcus Smith, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, has been in southern Afghanistan for 15 months. He is slated to go home next week.

Smith is a University of North Carolina fan and says he stays up all night to catch the games.

Before Smith arrived in Afghanistan, he said he didn't realize he'd be able to watch his teams. So he was pleasantly surprised to see there are cable inputs in the modular housing he lives in and televisions at the MWR tent.

"I didn't think they would have so many resources available for us to keep in touch with what's going on in the states," he said.

Smith and Dortch said they were most surprised to see Davidson get so far, and to see Duke fall so early.

"Even though I hate (Duke), they're a pretty good team," Smith said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sunday can be day of rest
Reporter's notebook
March 30, 2008 - 11:35PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Filed 2:33 p.m. Sunday

It turns out Sunday is a day of rest, even on base in Afghanistan.

The Marines here never truly take a day off, but Sunday is the day they can sleep in a little later and take things a little easier. Instead of the normal breakfast hours, the chow hall offers "Sunday brunch," though the food didn't seem much different to me.

The difference was evident out at "the boardwalk" - basically a wooden boardwalk surrounding a large dirt lot, where the gift shops, food vendors, volleyball courts and hockey rink is set up. Yes, I did say hockey rink - but it is for sneakers, not ice skates.

The rink is made of concrete and decorated with a maple leaf. This morning, two teams wearing hockey jerseys and shorts faced off as other service members stood in line for Tim Horton's coffee or sat at plastic tables, enjoying the not-too-hot-yet morning sun.

Later in the day, service members browsed the gift shops around the boardwalk, as American soldiers played volleyball on one of the two sand courts and a random assortment of people played a pick-up game of baseball on a sandy diamond.

But the day wasn't entirely relaxing.

In the afternoon, I went out to north side to interview a pair of brothers - one a pilot, the other an infantry officer - who are both serving with the MEU. The drive there was fine, but when we went to leave, we noticed the driver's side front tire was hissing air.

The hissing stopped when someone would push the air valve to the side, but obviously no one could hold it there. So we tried using chewing gum, but that did not work, either. Finally, the public affairs officer pushed on the valve, popping it back into place, and the hissing stopped.

We piled into what they refer to as the "Scooby Doo van" - complete with a white fur dashboard cover - and started driving. But when we stopped to drop the infantry officer off, the tire was hissing again and had gone completely flat. It's the fourth flat tire that van has gotten so far, and it probably won't be the last. Luckily, most of us were able to catch the bus back to the main area of the camp, while the public affairs officer found someone who could fix it.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU'S dad-to-be count down the time
April 1, 2008 - 12:29AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - When 1st Lt. Chad Bonecutter first arrived here in southern Afghanistan, he checked his e-mail - and got a surprise from his wife.

"One of the e-mails popped up and said ‘I'm pregnant,'" Bonecutter said. "She got a phone call right after that."

For Lance Cpl. Jake Willis, the news came in a phone call the day he was set to leave for deployment.

"I wasn't expecting my wife to call and say, ‘We're having a baby,'" Willis said Monday.

Bonecutter and Willis, both with Battalion Landing Team 1/6, are two of more than 50 Marines in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit who are expecting a new baby. But while Bonecutter and Willis will likely be home for their wives' respective late-November due dates, Lance Cpl. Kevin Wyer will miss the birth of his first child.

Wyer, an intelligence specialist with the MEU's aviation control element, said he was excited to deploy but sad to leave his wife at home. The couple's baby is due in mid-April.

"I have mixed emotions," Wyer said. "I am ready to go out and do my job, but I am already trying to set up a video link to see my wife and baby."

Wyer isn't the only one who will be able to see his new child via video link. The MEU is working to make sure anyone whose wife gives birth while they are deployed will be able to do a video teleconference to meet the new baby - as long as the wife is in the Camp Lejeune area.

Cpl. Russell Alloggio isn't sure whether he'll make it home in time for his wife's October due date - which would mean missing both of his children's births. He missed the birth of his daughter by a week, he said.

Alloggio's wife found out two weeks before he left for deployment that she was pregnant again, and it came as a surprise to both of them. She was scheduled to deploy to Al Asad, Iraq, three days later.

Though going through the pregnancy at home while Alloggio is deployed will be stressful, "she's all right with it," he said.

But it is difficult, he said, to know that one day he will have to tell his daughter, and possibly his second child, that he missed their births.

Plus, he said, it is tough to not be there "to help her, take care of her like you're supposed to."

Willis's wife is also in the military, so she understands, but she is not thrilled that he is in Afghanistan, he said. He also does not like being away from her while she is going through the pregnancy. But they are handling it.

And though Bonecutter's wife is not in the military, she grew up in a military family, so she also understands the difficulties of deployment, he said. She is a nurse, so she knows what to do, and "she's got a good support group back home."

"I'm pretty lucky; she's a good girl," Bonecutter said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

My longest half-mile trip ever
April 1, 2008 - 12:31AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Filed: 12:05 p.m. Monday

It wasn't that hot today, but it was definitely windy.

I went over to northside today to find expectant dads to interview, and then I had to find a ride back. I could have just ridden the bus, but I foolishly thought I could catch the Marines who were getting the van fixed from yesterday.

It really is not that far from the entrance of the main northside camp to the vehicle maintenance area - maybe half a mile, tops. And I see people running along that road all the time. So I didn't think it would be too bad of a walk.

About one minute after leaving the main camp, the wind started kicking up the dust, which in turn went straight into my eyes. I was wearing a hat and sunglasses, but the dust did not care. The farther I walked, the more dust attacked me.

Apparently I wasn't walking very fast, because I got passed by two groups of Marines. Meanwhile, the wind would die down a little, then the dust would swirl again, seeming to envelop me in a miniature brown cloud.

You can probably imagine what I looked like when I got to the vehicle area. One of the Marines who had driven a Humvee past me apologized for not giving me a lift, but I didn't mind. It was only a half mile, after all.

Unfortunately, when I finally got to the place where the van had been fixed, it was already gone. I was trying to decide whether to walk back to the camp to catch the bus or just go ahead and walk the two and a half miles back to the main building, when a Marine I interviewed earlier this year offered to give me a ride.

Sgt. Billy Miller - whom I met when the Marines were loading gear onto ships at the port in Wilmington - left his Ramen noodles behind and drove me back to my workspace in a Humvee. I was quite thankful I didn't have to venture out on foot again. But we did pass runners along the way.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

This is my friend Sean..

A Corpsman and fellow bartender at Spanky's..

He is with the 24th MEU stationed in Afghanstan..

I talked to him yesterday which he wanted to me to say it sucks there...LOL, but taking care of Our Marines and himself....


http://fontman.smugmug.com/photos/264773623_7BswF-M-1.jpg

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Dogs' sniffers key to detecting bombs
April 1, 2008 - 2:26PM
BY JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Finding hidden explosives is a long, arduous task. But four furry members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit make the dangerous work go much faster.

Amber, Bram, Lex and Olaf, the MEU's military working dogs, are trained to use their powerful noses to sniff out bombs - much more quickly than a human using a mine detection device could find them.

"These (dogs) have phenomenal noses, they can pick up that odor so quick," said kennel master Staff Sgt. Jeremy Whitmire.

That powerful snout can help clear routes, clear rooms and find explosives caches, Whitmire said. It gives the Marines "another tool on the battlefield," and a little extra safety.

Finding explosives requires a person or animal to be basically "on top of it," said handler Sgt. Joseph Boleyn. The dogs are able to find the bombs more safely than a human, and can detect plastic explosives a metal detector would not, he said. They also are trained to attack when necessary.

But unlike other battle tools, dogs require food, water, medical care and attention to stay effective.

"It's a lot like walking around with a 6-year-old, constantly," Whitmire said.

Handlers carry their own supplies, as well as food and medicine for their dogs. When the canines first arrived in southern Afghanistan about a week ago, the handlers began getting the dogs acclimated to the hot, dry weather.

Dogs don't sweat like humans do, but rather cool down through the pads on their paws and by panting, Whitmire said. The handlers must pay close attention to their dog's heart rate and temperature, he said, and get them out of the sun if they start to get overheated.

The handlers check the dogs every day to make sure their health is OK. And they know the dogs must get adequate rest to perform at their peak.

"If they're overworked, you can see diminished performance," Whitmire said.

Dog handler Cpl. Anthony Hulyk said the dog is always the No. 1 priority.

"You are the only one who is looking out for this dog," he said.

And that relationship - plus the sheer amount of time dogs and handlers spend together - forges a strong bond.

Handler Cpl. Cole Johnson let his dog, Lex, drink out of the mouthpiece of his Camelback water pouch Tuesday afternoon. He said he doesn't mind sharing food or water with Lex, because he knows Lex will look after him, as well.

"I know if I had a cut, he'd lick it," Johnson said.

The bond between dog and handler becomes even tighter during a deployment, Whitmire said, and the dog reads situations through the handler.

"Everything goes down leash," he said. "These (dogs) will do everything they can to protect their handlers."



Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Blogging from the Afghan front

BBC Scotland's Cameron Buttle is in Afghanistan with cameraman Alan Harcus reporting on how Scots in 52 Brigade are coping with operations in Helmand Province.

In December, Cameron saw 52 Brigade take part in the operation to capture Musa Qala.

The commanding officer of task force Helmand, Brigadier Andrew Mackay, told him to come back in three months to see the difference.


On his return, Cameron will be filing a regular blog on their progress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7326126.stm

Ellie

[thedrifter]

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Finally, a chance to observe Afghanistan ‘outside the wire’
April 3, 2008 - 2:00AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

Filed Wednesday at 12:06 p.m.

I went off base Wednesday for the first time. I'm not going to lie; I was a little scared. But it was really interesting to see what the country is like, "outside the wire."

I grew up in Phoenix, so I have seen my share of desert. But the Afghan desert - at least in this region of southern Afghanistan - is a little different.

Shortly after we left the base, we passed some mud huts and buildings that looked like they had been bombed or burned. A handful of children were running around outside, and most of them waved happily at the passing convoy. The air was thick with dust, and the visibility was poor, so I couldn't see any mountains, even though I know there are some around here.

The landscape itself was similar to the middle-of-nowhere Arizona: dirt, rocks and a few weeds. But unlike the American Southwest, the area we traveled through was strewn with all sorts of trash. Plastic bags flapped in the wind, caught on small bushes and shrubs. A pile of used pudding cups suggested at least some of the trash came from the base. Rusted, abandoned machinery dotted the otherwise desolate landscape.

The area we traveled to - known as Tarnak Farms - is rumored to be an old terrorist training camp, though I can't conclusively verify that. What I can verify is that someone left behind numerous buildings - most larger than an average mud hut - and vehicles in the middle of the desert.

The thick, dusty air and almost total lack of life outside the base made the trip quite surreal. When I got back to base, one of the Marines asked me if I had been scared, and joked that he would be a hysterical, crying mess. I will say there were some moments that freaked me out, but it's a trip I'm glad I made.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

MEU’s arsenal put to test
April 3, 2008 - 1:52AM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - A group of Marines traveled off base and into the Afghan desert Wednesday to test their weapons to ensure they are in working order before operations begin.

The Marines of Weapons Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit drove to an area known as Tarnak Farms for their operational test fire - a way to identify which weapons need maintenance before the Marines start their missions.

The test fire allows the Marines to see if there are problems "before somebody else shoots at us," said Gunnery Sgt. Michael Speelman, platoon sergeant for the Light Armored Reconnaissance Platoon.

The weapons have been sitting in boxes for months, so it is crucial to test them, said Capt. Michael Little, commander of Weapons Company. The tests also confirm the accuracy of the weapons, Speelman said.

Half the company went out Tuesday, and the other half went out Wednesday for the tests, Little said. Wednesday, Marines test-fired mortars, the tracked optical wire-guided missile, 81-millimeter mortars, 50-caliber machine guns and 25-millimeter chain guns.

The Marines did find some weapons that weren't functioning properly and placed those in the maintenance cycle, Little said. But overall, the testing went well, he said.

In addition to testing the weapons, the trip allowed the men to get off base and see a little bit of the country, Speelman said.

"It's good for some of these guys to get out there and drive," he said. "This is perfect for us, out here in the middle of nowhere."

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Flood of letters, packages pour in for 24th MEU
April 3, 2008 - 11:48PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The letters, boxes and envelopes from home are already rolling in, packed full of homemade Rice Krispies treats, trail mix, Doritos, egg crate mattresses, sunscreen and love.

The Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit have received about 27,000 pounds of mail since March 14, and it is the postal clerks' job to make sure each carefully prepared gift is delivered safely to the correct Marine or sailor.

The trip for a package from home usually begins in Jacksonville, taking the box through New York, Bahrain and Bagram before landing in Kandahar province, said Sgt. Daniel Balarezo, a postal clerk.

The process takes about five to seven days for mail sent from the East Coast and seven to 10 from elsewhere, said postal clerk Lance Cpl. Ben Brooks.

"It's pretty fast," Balarezo said, noting that one Marine got a package in three days.

Not every piece of mail arrives in good condition. One box showed up completely drenched, with items falling out of the disintegrating box, Balarezo said. He urged family members to put liquids in waterproof containers so they do not leak in the box or on other people's mail.

"Ziploc baggies do wonders," said Cpl. Sarah Faleris, also a mail clerk with Combat Logistics Battalion 24.

Families generally package things correctly, Balarezo said, and the Marines have not had to send anything back because of a faulty address. But the post office has had some problems with service members trying to send "unmailables" home.

Some soldiers leaving soon to return to Fort Bragg tried to send gear or left rounds in the pockets of their uniforms, Balarezo said. Others tried to send hookah pipes they purchased at the bazaar.

Though some have labeled items incorrectly to get past the clerks, Balarezo said it won't work - they have an X-ray machine.

And "snail mail" is not the only way to keep in touch. The mail clerks also process and distribute Moto Mail, an online service that allows family members to send letters directly to a machine on base. The letters are folded and given to the service members sealed.

For more information about Moto Mail, visit www.motomail.us.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Mobile emergency room offers peace of mind <br />
Mission described as 'damage control surgery' <br />
April 3, 2008 - 11:51PM <br />
JENNIFER HLAD <br />
DAILY NEWS STAFF <br />
<br />
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - When a Marine...

[thedrifter]

A night with the CLB means settling for cot, cold showers
Reporter's Notebook
April 3, 2008 - 11:54PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Filed: 1:37 p.m. Thursday

I have been staying in a tent at the main camp, but I spent Wednesday night up at northside with the female officers of Combat Logistics Battalion-24.

Because the camp is very close to the air strip, I was worried about the noise. The planes were roaring overhead when I first got there, but I didn't notice them when I was trying to sleep - although that may well have been because I was so tired.

One difference I noticed was the tent itself. It was air conditioned, like my other tent, but it had cots instead of beds. From what I've heard, many Marines at the main camp have cots as well, but some of the officers, senior enlisted Marines and females do have beds. At northside, the cot was not that uncomfortable, but I still would recommend sending an egg crate mattress for anyone sleeping on one.

And while the walk to the shower facilities was not as long, the showers and sinks themselves were in a tent, instead of a trailer. At northside, there is no way to control the water temperature - which is apparently cold more often than warm.

The chow hall also is in a tent instead of a building, and there are not quite as many choices. But the food looked the same to me - and there was even an omelet station.

A lot of people have asked me why the accommodations are different and why there is less access to the Internet and phones at northside than at the main camp. I think the reason is mainly that troops from all over the world have been using the facilities at the main camp for years and have continued to build and improve on them, whereas the camp up north is brand new, temporary and still under construction.

Some of the access also has to do with jobs - those Marines and sailors whose jobs depend on radio, Internet or phone connectivity have it, while some whose jobs are not tied to computers do not have as much access. But the men and women at northside are able to use all the facilities at the main camp, as well; it is just farther for them to travel.

Some of the women were asking me about how things were at the main camp, and I was telling them about the various features. But while the showers are sometimes cold and there is no indoor gym there yet, they said they don't mind where they're staying. It's better than where they stayed during training in Fort Pickett, Va.

And I will take a cot over the ground any day.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Brothers share Afghan duty
April 4, 2008 - 11:38PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Growing up, the Lynch brothers were like night and day.

And when Ryan Lynch joined the Marine Corps, Adam Lynch remembers thinking there was no way he would ever join the military.

Now, Capt. Ryan Lynch and 1st Lt. Adam Lynch are deployed together with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit - Ryan as a CH-53E pilot with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365 and Adam as a mobile assault platoon commander with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment.

In high school in Barnstable, Mass., Adam was the jock, while Ryan was in the band.

"He was the good child," Adam said, as Ryan nodded. "I was always the one getting caught."

Ryan had always wanted to be in the military, but when he was commissioned as an officer, Adam said he would "never" join the Marine Corps. The next year, Adam visited Ryan.

"I figured, hell, if he can do it, I can do it," he said.

"Ryan was definitely a big influence on me coming in," Adam said. "I've always loved the leadership roles," serving on student council in high school and as student body president his senior year of college. He also liked the physical aspect and the camaraderie he saw.

Adam talked to a recruiter a week before Sept. 11, 2001, and the terrorist attacks solidified his decision.

Ryan said he was surprised when Adam joined, "but proud at the same time." He pinned on Adam's 2nd and 1st lieutenant bars, and he may be able to pin captain's bars on his younger brother during the deployment.

The two had overlapping deployments last year, when Adam was serving in Iraq and Ryan was in Africa. But this is their first deployment to the same location at the same time.

In North Carolina, Adam lives with Ryan and his wife. In Afghanistan, the two live and work on the same base but rarely see each other. An arranged interview was only the second time the brothers had seen each other since they arrived.

"A lot of people come up and say ‘Hey sir, I saw your brother,'" Ryan said. "It's like, ‘Cool, I haven't.'"

Having both sons gone is difficult for their mother, Ryan said, but their parents do like "that we are in the same place, so I can keep an eye on him."

"They're both really proud of us," Adam said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Flood of letters, packages pour in for 24th MEU
April 3, 2008 - 11:48PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The letters, boxes and envelopes from home are already rolling in, packed full of homemade Rice Krispies treats, trail mix, Doritos, egg crate mattresses, sunscreen and love.

The Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit have received about 27,000 pounds of mail since March 14, and it is the postal clerks' job to make sure each carefully prepared gift is delivered safely to the correct Marine or sailor.

The trip for a package from home usually begins in Jacksonville, taking the box through New York, Bahrain and Bagram before landing in Kandahar province, said Sgt. Daniel Balarezo, a postal clerk.

The process takes about five to seven days for mail sent from the East Coast and seven to 10 from elsewhere, said postal clerk Lance Cpl. Ben Brooks.

"It's pretty fast," Balarezo said, noting that one Marine got a package in three days.

Not every piece of mail arrives in good condition. One box showed up completely drenched, with items falling out of the disintegrating box, Balarezo said. He urged family members to put liquids in waterproof containers so they do not leak in the box or on other people's mail.

"Ziploc baggies do wonders," said Cpl. Sarah Faleris, also a mail clerk with Combat Logistics Battalion 24.

Families generally package things correctly, Balarezo said, and the Marines have not had to send anything back because of a faulty address. But the post office has had some problems with service members trying to send "unmailables" home.

Some soldiers leaving soon to return to Fort Bragg tried to send gear or left rounds in the pockets of their uniforms, Balarezo said. Others tried to send hookah pipes they purchased at the bazaar.

Though some have labeled items incorrectly to get past the clerks, Balarezo said it won't work - they have an X-ray machine.

And "snail mail" is not the only way to keep in touch. The mail clerks also process and distribute Moto Mail, an online service that allows family members to send letters directly to a machine on base. The letters are folded and given to the service members sealed.

For more information about Moto Mail, visit www.motomail.us.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
April 4, 2008 - 11:45PM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Filed: 9:03 a.m. EDT Friday

Friday was my last day in Afghanistan, and I am not really ready to leave.

When I first had the idea to come on this trip, I thought I would be more than ready to go after 10 days. But there are so many stories to tell, and the Marines have been so accommodating that I could stay much longer.

Because it poured rain last night (the noise on the tent was insanely loud), the air was very clear today, and I could see the beautiful mountains and actually take a deep breath without inhaling dust. I am pretty sick with the "Kandahar Krud," but I think it will go away in a few more days.

The Marines are still training and getting ready for operations, and I will continue to report on what they are doing and how things are going in southern Afghanistan. I also plan to keep up my blog and keep posting photos of life on base in Kandahar province.

One thing I hadn't thought about before I came here is the fact that I will have to say goodbye to my husband for a second time. Everyone who has been through a deployment knows it is difficult to give that last hug and wave goodbye to the bus as it rolls away, and this time I will be the one flying away while he stays here.

One officer I talked to said he lived in Washington, D.C., when he went to Officer Candidate School, and would go home every weekend. Saying goodbye to his wife each week never got any easier, he said, but he wouldn't have done it any differently, even if he had a choice.

I think this time will be a little easier for me, since I now have a much better understanding of where he is and what he is doing. And I hope that my reporting has made it at least a little easier for some of the families who are missing their own Marine or sailor.

My trip home may be quite an adventure, and I'm not exactly sure how long it will take me. But I will keep you updated as I make my way back to Jacksonville.

***

Filed: 12:29 p.m. EDT Friday

I thought I was leaving Friday, but it turns out my flight was delayed. I'm not really upset about it, because I am hoping I can do another story or two tomorrow before I leave. And I was expecting the flight home to take a while - I just didn't realize the delay would start before I even began.

Friday was actually a very nice day here. The rain cleared the air and cooled down the temperatures, so the weather was clear and present. The public affairs officer said she wouldn't mind if it stayed like this the whole deployment - but unfortunately, it is only going to get hotter.

The "Kandahar Krud" has set in with a vengeance, and I am sure whoever sits next to me on the plane is going to be delighted by my hacking cough and sniffling. But as one reader said, it is a small price to pay to see what is really going on here on the ground.

Now I am just standing by to see when I will leave and where I will end up, but don't expect the stories to stop yet.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghan culture needs nurturing
Military mission attempts to meet the nation's needs
April 5, 2008 - 10:37PM
JENNIFER HLAD
THE DAILY NEWS

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - American forces tend to underestimate Afghan locals, an Army adviser who grew up in the country said.

"A shopkeeper, a farmer working in the field, is more educated as far as the bigger picture, in my opinion," than Americans tend to think he would be, said Spc. Zach Khan, who has spent about 15 months in Afghanistan as a cultural advisor for the Army.

Khan is one of the first soldiers in a new occupational specialty, a combination of translator and cultural adviser who can relate to the locals and educate Americans about the culture. He briefed 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit commanders on what he has learned in his time here, shortly before he was scheduled to return to his home base in Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

Troops tend to get frustrated because they don't understand what they're here to do, and they don't understand the people, said Army Lt. Col. Brian Mennes, who has been serving in Afghanistan for 15 months along with Khan as part of the International Security Assistance Force commander's theater tactical force. What the people want, he said, is water, the right to education, the right to housing and justice.

"What they want is government, and they'll take it from the Taliban because it's effective," Mennes said.

But the Taliban does not provide the education opportunities the people want, he said, and the people do not agree with the way the Taliban enforces the law.

"That's where we are winning the war," Khan said, because people are tired of the killing, of the fighting and the pervasive corruption.

The poppy problem continues because the farmers are indentured servants who must grow poppy - from which opium is derived - to pay a drug lord, Mennes said. And the locals do not understand why the troops are working with the corrupt leaders in the national police and local governments.

"The voice of the local is not being heard. The farmers and shopkeepers, the poor, the common man, they are the ones who need to be heard," Khan said.

The biggest challenge is governance, Mennes said. The people with money and means send their children out of the country for education and may even move themselves. No one is investing in the country, he said. The Afghan people also see a lack of commitment, Khan said.

"To me, we need a New Deal vision," Mennes said, referring to the programs instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration to improve the lives of people suffering from the effects of the Great Depression and give the federal government a role in economic and social affairs.

An entire generation of Afghans has grown up with war, and they welcome the opportunity to have a choice and a better life, Khan said. But they must follow through with their promises, the men said.

"I still think we have a long way to go," Mennes said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomene.com or visit http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK
April 5, 2008 - 10:41PM
DAILY NEWS STAFF
TEH DAILY NEWS

Filed: 1:28 p.m. EDT Saturday

The lights on the airfield cast a glow over the waiting C-130, a Canadian flag hanging motionless in the back. Moths and bats flapped overhead, as hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines lined up in silent tribute.

A Canadian light-armored vehicle drove slowly, without lights, toward the waiting funeral detail. A casket, draped in the Canadian flag was visible in the rear.

"Tonight, Mother Canada grieves once again for her fallen children," the narrator said.

Private Terry John Street was a "vibrant, keen" young man, "a team player, born to be an infantryman," the narrator said.

Street, 24, died Friday of injuries he suffered in an improvised explosive device blast in southern Afghanistan, according to a release from the Canadian Department of National Defence. He was the 82nd Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail.

Saturday, during a "ramp ceremony" at this International Security Assistance Force base, Street's fellow soldiers slowly carried his casket from the LAV into the C-130 to take his body home to his grieving parents.

"Though we grieve, we must not be afraid or dismayed," the narrator said. He asked God to "console us, whose lives have been touched by this noble soldier."

He also asked Street's fellow soldiers to continue the mission, to honor "the ultimate sacrifice that your child has made for peace."

A bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" as Street's casket was brought forward, and one soldier, seemingly overcome with emotion, fell out of formation.

The ramp ceremony to honor a fallen ISAF soldier was not the first, nor will it be the last. But it was a fitting tribute for a man Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said "served his country with pride and selfless dedication."

"He will forever be remembered as an example of bravery and outstanding dedication," he said, according to The Canadian Press.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

‘Like Christmas every day’
Deployment more bearable for couples serving them together
April 7, 2008 - 12:24AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghani-stan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.



KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - For most Marines, deployment means long months and thousands of miles away from spouses and other loved ones. But for Cpl. Neal McGaughey, deployment means working 20 yards away from his wife.

McGaughey and his wife, Lance Cpl. Amy McGaughey (pronounced muh-goy) are both attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's command element. The two grew up together in Kansas City, Mo., and married Oct. 6, 2007.

And they aren't the only married couple in the MEU.

Cpl. Tyrone Griffin and Cpl. Melissa Garnett-Griffin, both of Combat Logistics Battalion-24, met during the MEU's last deployment and were married Dec. 8, 2006.

The couples say they know they are lucky to be able to see each other during deployment, but it is not the same as being together at home.

Griffin said other Marines and sailors give him a hard time "every second of every day."

"It is not so much what we say as what we do," he said. "If we go to chow together or just want to go sit by a bunker and talk, people get ‘that look'."

Garnett-Griffin said no one gives her a hard time, but there is "a constant reminder."

"There is a little more pressure on us, but we know the rules," she said. "It is hard. It is easy to see him every day, but if I wanted to hold his hand, I can't do that. Or if I wanted to give him a peck on the cheek, I can't do that. ... We hold ourselves to a higher standard. But I can see him, and I am happy with that."

It can be difficult, Amy McGaughey said, when the two are walking together and she has to fight the urge to hold her husband's hand.

"You've got to be professional," she said.

It also seems unfair when other Marines are missing and calling their spouses, Neal McGaughey said, since he is able to see his wife every day.

"It's an awkward situation," Neal said. "But would I trade it? No."

Though Garnett-Griffin knew she would be deployed at the same time as her husband, she was happily surprised when she learned she would be able to see him every day. The couple would have been separated on different ships if the MEU had deployed on ships as originally planned.

Working at the same camp as her husband is "like having Christmas every day," she said.

The McGaugheys were excited to learn they would both be deployed with the MEU. Originally, they thought he would go with the MEU and she would be deployed to Iraq. But the pair prayed about it and a week later learned that Amy McGaughey also would be deploying with the MEU.

Still, the McGaugheys "try not to spend too much time together," Neal McGaughey said, "just because of the looks of it."

They see each other about an hour a day and eat together a few times a week.

But he said he feels lucky that he can see her at all.

"It is definitely a big privilege," he said.

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

With military travel, sometimes third time’s the charm
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
April 8, 2008 - 12:30AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Filed: 4:16 p.m. EDT Monday

The first day I didn't even make it to the airport before I learned my flight was canceled. The next day I got to the terminal before being told a B-1 bomber had caught fire in Qatar and my plane wasn't coming.

Sunday, the plan changed about five times before I got to the airport, but I finally got checked in on a flight full of soldiers headed back to Fort Bragg, unpacked all my bags for customs, waited about an hour, then got bumped from the flight.

I was taking my bags off the palette when another soldier came out of the airport and told me I could get on the flight after all - and it was leaving an hour early. Such is the nature of military air travel, I guess. I wasn't that worried about getting out of Afghanistan, since I don't have a specific date or time I needed to be back. Unfortunately, one young Marine who also was supposed to fly out Saturday needed to be back to Kentucky as soon as possible.

While this young man was getting ready for operations in Afghanistan, his brother died at home. And because of all the canceled flights and difficulty getting seats in a timely manner, I heard he had to go back on a cargo flight to Kuwait so he could make it home in time for the funeral.

As for me, instead of flying through Kuwait as originally planned, I flew back through Kyrzygstan. I thought I may have to wait there for almost two days with the Bragg soldiers, but I was able to snag a seat on a flight early Monday morning, heading to Baltimore via Germany. At least I got to go to the fabled Manas Air Base chow hall for about 15 minutes before heading out - and saw a large group of Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment on their way to Kandahar province.

When we were flying out of Afghanistan on the C-17, the pilot announced when we had left the country and the soldiers cheered. Then, when we landed in Baltimore and the pilot announced we were back on American soil, the airmen and soldiers on board began clapping.

It was a long trip, but it is nice to be back.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU beginning operations <br />
April 11, 2008 - 12:29AM <br />
JENNIFER HLAD <br />
DAILY NEWS STAFF <br />
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit began operations in Afghanistan this week, participating in two...

[thedrifter]

Marine quick reaction force starts to settle into southern Afghanistan

By Gordon Lubold
Fri Apr 11, 5:00 AM ET

The Marine contingent arriving now at the massive airfield here in Kandahar will be tasked to become a quick reaction force that the senior NATO commander says will give him new flexibility to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Coming as the spring and summer fighting season begins, the deployment of the roughly 2,300 Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will help to better focus military efforts against the resurgent Taliban, observers say.

But Col. Peter Petronzio, who commands the 24th MEU, is seeking to manage expectations. "We're not the cavalry, we're not here to save the day, we're not here because other people can't do their jobs," he says in his plywood-paneled office. "We're here just to help."

The unit will perform a special duty here as a "theater tactical force," designed to deploy across Afghanistan if needed. And it will report directly to Army Gen. Dan McNeill, the senior NATO commander here.

"It helps me to have a force – and the US is most flexible and viable when it comes to this – to ... go where I say to go and do what I say to do without a whole lot of hesitation," General McNeill says.

Many forces in Afghanistan, like those of Canada or Germany, operate according to political caveats at home that can hamstring commanders. McNeill was criticized by some European nations last year, for example, when he deployed a force to southern Afghanistan to perform combat operations without notifying NATO officials in Brussels first. The Marine unit gives the NATO commander forces he can use without such constraints.

McNeill says the Marines will mostly be focused on fighting the Taliban and other anticoalition militias.

"They'll mostly be doing combat operations, but they'll be helping out whatever they can and in whatever ways they can, but expect them to be on the move and living hard, and to fight when they can find the fight," says McNeill, who will finish up his second tour of Afghanistan this summer.

Although the Marine focus will be on security operations, the distinction as a theaterwide force falling directly under McNeill means the NATO commander can also use them to perform other duties such as humanitarian assistance.

"We're kind of like a Swiss Army knife – there are lots of ways we can be employed," says Capt. Kelly Frushour, a spokeswoman for the unit, addressing what has become the new reality for most forces. "From humanitarian missions to combat operations, we'll go where [the NATO commander] directs us to go and we will do what [he] needs us to do."

The structure of the Marine Corps' MEU is a unique one to the US military and lends itself to such adaptable operations. It possesses its own command, air, ground and support elements.

"Simplifies matters greatly, it's all right there," says McNeill.

The Marines were welcomed by Canadian forces that are also assigned to the region. Canada had threatened to pull out of the mission if more forces weren't sent to help them in the volatile south. The Marine unit will return home by fall, and defense officials insist it's a "one-time" deployment. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently indicated that more US forces would be sent to Afghanistan by 2009, and the expansion of this large airfield hints at a larger presence in the months to come.

In addition to the Marine MEU, an additional 1,000 to 1,200 marines will be deployed to the southern region as embedded trainers and security forces. Those marines will be deployed to northern Helmand Province in the southern region of the country as well as the eastern portion of the province, says Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for the US command that oversees training here.

So far, marines here have been doing drills, firing at the shooting range, and practicing their popular martial-arts program. The unit as a whole won't begin conducting full-fledged operations "until we're ready," Colonel Petronzio says. It's likely, however, that the unit will begin engaging the fight in the coming weeks.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

baltimoresun.com
With the Marines, on patrol in Afghanistan

April 13, 2008

Sun reporter David Wood is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in southern Afghanistan. Here are excerpts from his blog.

April 11: Looking for land mines

I used to know how many mines were thought to be buried in Afghanistan, but such statistics are useless. Known mine fields, after 40 years of war, carpet much of the country. Random and unknown mines continue to take innocent lives. The cleanup is endless.

On a training run this morning, I stopped to talk to some of the blue-helmeted Afghan de-miners (they obligingly came over to where I was standing). The work is pretty straightforward, as they described it. You start at the edge of a known minefield (Russian, in this case) and work from one end to he other and back again, like mowing a yard. You mark what's been cleared with a rock painted white on one side (cleared), red on the other (danger).

On your knees you prod, and inch forward. Prod, inch forward. After a couple of hours, a tea break out under the broiling sun. Then prod, inch forward.

If your prod (like a 15-inch pencil) encounters resistance, you back off and get a shovel, and carefully clear away the dirt to see what it is. Imagine yourself doing this in cement-hard, stony soil (is that a rock, or ... ? How hard should I push?) If you find a mine you summon the specialists. ...

I did ask their supervisor what these guys earn for this work. A heavily bearded Afghan, he leapt up with a grin from where he'd been sitting, on a rug under a white awning, as I approached. After we shook hands back and forth, he calculated the amount.

Thirteen dollars and 30 cents a day. March 30: What we ask

My mother died last night.

I got the news in an e-mail this morning, a crisp, clear Sunday dawn in the Afghanistan desert. It had been a day full of promise. I called home and spoke with my wife. Mom died peacefully. ...

I took a shaky breath and stared out through coiled razor wire at the bright, flat desert and the hazy horizon of barren mountains. Armored vehicles crawled along a distant road. Two platoons of Marines in battle gear trudged past, raising a plume of dust. A memorial service is planned, I heard my wife say. ...

This is not uncommon. 2,500 Marines are sent away to war knowing that among their many loved ones, there will be tragedy and triumph. ... A beaming child will excel, beyond expectations, on a math test. A championship game will be won; a graduation held. Someone will be arrested, someone married.

In this battalion (1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment) alone, 58 Marines will become fathers while they are away.

Only shallow glimpses of this rich, other life reach here, through the scratchy echo of a phone or by e-mail, or letter. The glimpses are precious, a grainy snapshot lovingly folded into a wallet.

It is perhaps the most we ask of those we send. ...

April 2: Marines on patrol, near Kandahar

One hundred twenty rounds of M-16 bullets. Sixteen hundred rounds of linked .50-cal ammo. One M-16 rifle. Twelve bottles of water, four MREs. Hand grenades, fragmentation. Hand grenades, smoke.

Throw all that in your rucksack and add two pair of socks, a small pack of baby wipes, one toothbrush. A small toothpaste for every four guys. Smokes or dip. Camelbak filled with water. First aid kit, night vision goggles and batteries, bayonet, tourniquets.

Hoist it all up over your flak vest and Kevlar helmet and you find you've gained 100 to 120 pounds. Now start walking.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

April 18, 2008
Suicide Bomber Kills 23 in Remote Afghan Province
By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 23 people, among them two senior police officials and several children, officials said Thursday evening.

About 31 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred just before evening prayers in the border town of Zaranj, capital of Nimruz Province.

Nimruz is a remote desert province, sparsely populated and poorly policed, where traffickers smuggle drugs across into neighboring Iran. There has also been an increase in insurgent activity in the province.

Many of those killed and wounded were civilians, shopkeepers and guests at the town hotel, the provincial governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, said by telephone.

He said he believed that the police officials were the bomber’s targets. One of those killed was Bismillah Khan a district police chief, and another the commander of a battalion of border guards, he said.

“They are the enemy of the poor people, the enemy of human beings,” he said of the attackers.

The American military said on Thursday that two United States marines from a unit that arrived just last month had been killed and two were wounded on Wednesday morning when an explosion hit their convoy in the southern province of Kandahar.

Under NATO rules their nationality was not released immediately, said Capt. Kelly Frushour, the unit’s public affairs officer. She gave few details of the episode except to say that it had been a hostile attack, and that the wounded were being sent to the American military base at Landstuhl, Germany.

The marines came from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a force of 3,200 that was sent to Afghanistan recently to help NATO troops faced with a continued insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan. NATO commanders in Afghanistan have called for more forces repeatedly over the last two years, but were rebuffed until the Marine unit arrived.

The marines came with their own artillery, helicopters and Harrier fighter planes, and were expected to add considerable combat capability to the NATO forces, which have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since being deployed in 2006.

About 2,200 of the marines will work with NATO forces and serve as a task force capable of being used across the country as needed. The remaining 1,000 will provide training and support for the Afghan Army and police forces under United States command.

The Marine unit has been stationed at an air base just outside the city of Kandahar, and has yet to see combat. In comments reported in The Baltimore Sun, members of the unit complained recently that the slow and cumbersome NATO command structure has delayed them from being utilized, and that they have been wasting time on the base rather than fighting insurgents.

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, Afghanistan

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Learning to Bridge the Cultural Gap <br />
April 18, 2008 <br />
Marine Corps News|by Cpl. Randall A. Clinton <br />
<br />
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Gone are the simplistic battlefields of previous Marine...

[thedrifter]

Afghan commandos emerge
U.S.-trained force plays growing role in fighting insurgents
By Ann Scott Tyson
The Washington Post
updated 1:06 a.m. ET, Sat., April. 19, 2008

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Night after night, commandos in U.S. Chinook helicopters descend into remote Afghan villages, wielding M-4 rifles as they swarm Taliban compounds. Such raids began in December in the Sabari District here, long considered too dangerous for U.S. patrols, and have already resulted in the death or capture of 30 insurgent leaders in eastern Afghanistan, according to U.S. commanders.

"The Americans are doing this," the Taliban fighters concluded, according to U.S. intelligence.

But though the commandos carry the best U.S. rifles, wear night-vision goggles and ride in armored Humvees, they are not Americans but Afghans -- trained and advised by U.S. Special Forces teams that are seeking to create a sustainable combat force that will ultimately replace them in Afghanistan.

"This is our ticket out of here," a Special Forces company commander said last month at a U.S. base in Khost, where his teams eat, sleep, train and fight alongside the commandos.

The creation of a 4,000-strong Afghan commando force marks a major evolution for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. After small teams of Green Berets spearheaded the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, they took the lead in combat, with the disparate Afghan militia forces they trained and paid playing a supporting role. Today, by contrast, the Special Forces advisers are putting the Afghan commandos in the lead -- coaching a self-reliant force that U.S. commanders say has emerged as a key tool against insurgents.

Three of six planned Afghan army commando battalions -- with 640 commandos each -- have begun operations over the past five months. U.S. commanders say hurdles remain, from basic logistical issues such as teaching the commandos to conserve water to the larger challenge of ensuring that they are well integrated into the regular Afghan army. Still, the program is a bright spot in the broader effort to train Afghan security forces, a crucial aspect of the NATO and U.S.-led strategy to stabilize Afghanistan -- one that is slowed by a shortage of thousands of trainers and recruits as well as equipment problems.

The new approach also offers the prospect of relief for the Special Forces, strained by years of deployments in Afghanistan, commanders say. At any one time, more than 2,000 Special Forces soldiers and support personnel are on the ground, many operating in 12-man teams partnered with Afghan forces in the country's most troubled districts.

In violent parts of Khost and elsewhere, the commandos play a narrow but critical role: They capture or kill insurgent leaders, financiers and bombmakers as the first phase of the strategy to clear areas of enemy cells, hold the territory and build security and governance. The need for an Afghan force skilled in attacking insurgent networks is particularly pressing, as roadside bombs and suicide attacks have increased since 2006.

In a training camp surrounded by mountains in Khost, Lt. Mohamed Reza, 29, of the 203rd commando battalion counts down for a mock helicopter landing. "One minute . . . 30 seconds . . . touchdown!" His platoon rushes forward, one soldier kicking open the door of a compound before the rest run inside, pivoting into each room. A commando grabs a U.S. trainer impersonating an insurgent, puts him in a painful finger lock and forces him out the door.

"Alaklat!" they yell. All clear!

Looking on, a Special Forces adviser makes sure that the commandos do not miss any rooms and that they deal readily with whatever challenges he throws in their path, such as stray goats or disguised fighters. These rehearsals -- starting with simple drills tracing tape on the ground and rising in complexity to assaults on multistory buildings -- exemplify the exhaustive training they receive.


Commandos compete for selection and go through 12 weeks of initial training at Camp Morehead, south of Kabul, before being assigned to a battalion attached to one of five regional Afghan National Army corps. They then begin a rotation with Special Forces advisers that includes six weeks each of training, missions and recovery.

"Our guys live with them and train with them every day, share all the hardships and are with them shoulder to shoulder on the objective," said Lt. Col. Lynn Ashley, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, which is mentoring the new force. "They really become brothers in arms."

Such a regimen hones the skills of commandos far beyond those of their Afghan army peers, U.S. combat advisers say. In marksmanship, for example, commandos fire more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in their initial training alone, while the average Afghan soldier fires 60 rounds in training each year. "I've jumped into stacks and gone into a building shooting live rounds with commandos," a U.S. Special Forces communications sergeant said.

The commandos' high-quality gear and training is an advantage that few regular Afghan security forces have. The U.S.-led training effort in Afghanistan lacks about 3,500 trainers -- or more than 40 percent of its required manpower -- a shortfall that will be only partly made up by the 1,000 Marines arriving this month. Afghan police units suffer most from the shortage, with trainers present in only about 30 percent of Afghanistan's nearly 400 districts.

Special Forces advisers show the commandos videos of their missions, to build pride. "We are the best unit in Afghanistan right now," said Sgt. 1st Class Mohaber Rahman, 22, the platoon sergeant.

"We do everything quickly and accurately," added Pvt. Said Askar, 25, a medic and kung fu instructor.

The commandos also receive $50 in extra pay each month -- raising the total pay of a junior sergeant, for example, to $200 -- as well as better equipment than their regular army counterparts and a double ration of food. "Nobody wants to quit this unit," Reza said over a meal of flat bread, stewed meat and rice with raisins.

In many commando raids, the sudden arrival of an overwhelming force causes insurgents to surrender without a fight, U.S. advisers said. In December, about 200 commandos in Khost and dozens of Green Berets surrounded five targets in one night, detaining five insurgent leaders and 18 suspects involved with bombmaking cells -- all without firing a shot. And on Feb. 9, commandos captured Nasimulla, the leader of a Taliban bomb cell based in Sabari responsible for attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.

"These are targets we would hit ourselves if they weren't here," said a Special Forces captain who, like other Special Forces soldiers, spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. "They are going after the highest-level guys we can pull out of the area."

The Afghans are arguably better suited for the raids because they know the language and culture and can gather intelligence more easily and avoid friction with civilians, according to the advisers. In one instance recently, a commando found an insurgent hiding in a sheepfold after U.S. troops passed by, the company commander said. And when a suicide truck bomb struck the Sabari District center March 3, killing two U.S. soldiers, the Americans asked the commandos to help secure the area. "That was the first time I ever heard U.S. forces request Afghan assistance," said the company sergeant major. "There were Americans buried underneath the rubble."

But the commandos still have much to learn -- sometimes frustrating their U.S. advisers. "We yell at them for . . . drinking too much [water], constantly eating, using their under-gun lights to walk to the bathroom," one U.S. adviser said, adding that the Afghans lacked effective methods for distributing and conserving resources. "They'll have 20 bottles of water, five guys and four days to go -- they'll just drink it and look at you and say, 'I need more water,' " the sergeant major said. The logistics problems, he said, are "across the board."

The commandos rely on U.S. forces to provide helicopters for transport, attack and medical evacuation, as well as satellite communications, intelligence and a range of other support.

A larger issue for U.S. advisers is how to integrate the commandos into the Afghan National Army. "My biggest concern is right now I need to get the rest of the ANA to really understand Afghan commando operations," which differ from conventional maneuvers, the company commander said. "We are trained to do so much more than to air assault into really treacherous areas and be an anvil for the hammer of the regular heavier forces to smash."

Ultimately, the goal is for Afghan commandos to rotate into regular infantry units to spread their skills, "like U.S. Army Rangers," Ashley said. Added Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, who until this month was the top U.S. commander for eastern Afghanistan, "They're professional, they're well led, they're well disciplined. And they're really setting the standards for the rest of the Afghan National Army."

For the Green Berets, many of whom have had several tours in Afghanistan, the commandos offer hope of an eventual respite. "We're not saying we're anywhere close to getting out of here," said the company commander, who has had five tours, while spending just five months with his 2-year-old daughter. Even as the Afghans step forward, he said, "it's going to take a long time."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A day of skirmishing for Marines in southern Afghan town

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 2, 2:46 PM ET

Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas' patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.

The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company's 2nd Platoon, the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.

To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to the west an unseen enemy.

Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan town all week, since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.

The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn't been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan's south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.

The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.

Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

British forces are mainly in the northern part of Helmand, which is the world's biggest producer of opium poppies. Britain has an outpost on Garmser's northern outskirts, but NATO has had no presence south of that.

The Marines in Garmser do not plan a long stay. They will leave the poppy fields be. Their only mission is to open the road for a Marine convoy that will move through town. They sit and defend the 10-foot-wide lane of dirt.

After returning fire from the berm across the empty field, the men under Linas — a 21-year-old from Richmond, Va. — jog 100 yards to the platoon command center, where Marines in the lookout post provide covering machine-gun fire.

The platoon mortar team then dials in coordinates and fires off shells in high arcs toward the suspected location of Taliban fighters, throwing up puffs of smoke in the field. There is no way to tell if any militants are hit.

In the foreground, perhaps 40 yards from the Marines' post, a half dozen Afghan men work in their illegal poppy fields, slicing the bulbs to coax out opium resin that will be used to make heroin. They look up as the mortars boom out, then go back to work.

The 24th Marines served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was al-Qaida in Iraq's stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.

Compared with the dense population centers where they fought in Iraq, Marine artillery and mortar teams have much more freedom to fire in the open spaces of rural Afghanistan, where the Taliban operate.

But before more mortars are fired, 2nd Lt. Mark Greenleaf, the 24-year-old platoon commander from Monmouth, Ill., asks his observers if any civilians are in danger. "What's the collateral damage beyond the tree line?" he barks.

The expanse to the Marine post's west has been empty for days, even as farmers have worked with their poppy plants in all other directions — an indication the Taliban have a heavy presence to the west. But the company commander, Capt. Charles O'Neill, decides he's not interested in an all-day mortar battle with the insurgents.

Mere moments later, the Marines hear the whoosh of a rocket being fired in the distance. Everyone rushes for cover, pushing themselves up against mud walls or down into trenches. The boom of exploding missile rattles the outpost but it's a couple hundred yards off target.

A wave of gunfire rings out as Marines react, until sergeants shout for the men to cease fire. One Marine infantryman with a team still on the berm states the obvious: "They missed."

But Lance Cpl. Matthew Cato of Simpsonville, S.C., 21, says: "I don't care, it scared the ... out of me."

"I hate hearing those things go off because then you're just sitting here going, 'Oh, man,'" adds Cpl. Keith Manley, 23, of Ilion, N.Y.

The heat of the noon sun settles in. Marines — and militants — put down their weapons and hunker down in any shade they can find.

The countryside stays quiet until a convoy of Humvees pulls up in midafternoon to evacuate a Marine with a badly swollen ankle from a sprain. As soon as the Humvees stop, incoming fire starts up.

The gunner atop one Humvee opens fire with his .50-caliber machine gun, and Marines with M-16s also blaze away. After several minutes of heavy gunfire, which kicks up clouds of fine sand that sift down on the Marines, squad leaders yell for their men to conserve ammo.

"If there's too much ... smoke to see the target, then don't waste the rounds," yells Sgt. Chris Battaglia, 28.

An artillery post outside town then joins the skirmish, sending round after round exploding only 600 yards away. Marines yell for everyone to stay down, in a case a shell falls short.

O'Neill, the company commander, says all-day potshots by Taliban fighters are little more than nuisance attacks. The militants use binoculars and have forward observers with cell phones to try to aim better at the Marines, he says.

"This is pure asymmetric harassment," he says. "They'll pop out of a position and fire a rocket or mortar."

The Marines don't move into the field to take on the Taliban at close range. Their mission is to open the road that goes through Garmser, and nothing more. NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy crops, and the Marines have assured farmers their fields won't be touched.

At the end of the day, no Marines are hurt or wounded. The Taliban casualty count is not known. But the Marines living in the mud-hut compound under Greenleaf are buzzing from a day filled with adrenaline.

"I thought it was fun," says Cato. "I know I'm doing my job. It's just a good feeling."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/02/world/20080503AFGHANISTAN_index.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

http://www.strategypage.com/military_videos/military_photos_2008050501542.aspx

Ellie

[thedrifter]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/todays-photos-s.html?csp=34

Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. and NATO battle on uneven Afghan patchwork

By Luke Baker
Wed May 7, 8:34 PM ET

Last week U.S. Captain Roger Hill led a patrol into the Jaldez valley, just southwest of Kabul, and was immediately ambushed from three sides by 50 Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

The army of attackers, robed and bearded, fired somewhere between 25 and 30 grenades at his convoy, Hill said, pinning the patrol down in a furious two-hour gun battle that ended only when U.S. fighter planes swooped in for support.

It was a relatively rare and surprisingly staunch attack for that area of Afghanistan, reminiscent in its intensity to episodes in Iraq, where Hill spent more than a year. Yet asked where he would rather be deployed, he is clear.

"I feel like we're getting somewhere here. In a way we've had to start much more from scratch in Iraq than in Afghanistan," he said. "Here there's a sense of progress."

His commander Major Christopher Faber, the operations officer for a task force of the 101st Airborne Division in Maidan Wardak, a province just south of Kabul, is even more succinct.

"In Iraq, it's hunting season all year long for them," he said, referring to the insurgents. "Here, I feel like there's a lot more optimism."

In some ways those views contradict the received wisdom on Afghanistan, described by military experts in the United States as a "forgotten war" and one America and its NATO allies will lose if they do not boost numbers and change tactics rapidly.

Yet on the ground in Afghanistan the conflict quickly shows itself to be far more nuanced, with large swathes of the country relatively stable and making slow if very cumbersome progress, while other areas -- particularly the far south -- are mired in a conflict that frequently eclipses Iraq for intensity.

"THE RITZ"

In the southern portions of east Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have been operating for more than six years, even the provinces that border Pakistan and have been a refuge for the Taliban in the past are showing signs of calm.

U.S. commanders spend the bulk of their days meeting local Afghan officials, trying to coordinate efforts with French, Czech or Turkish reconstruction teams and running patrols alongside the slowly improving Afghan army.

There tends to be little combat, although rockets are still frequently fired at U.S. bases, roadside bombs are an occasional threat and an uptick in violence is expected as the weather warms into a possible Spring offensive by the Taliban.

At the main U.S. base in the area, just 20 km (13 miles) from the Pakistan border, U.S. soldiers appear very relaxed about their deployment and the day-to-day duties.

"This place is the Ritz," says Private Adam Grow, 23, referring to what is known as Forward Operating Base Salerno.

"I work a 9 to 5 shift, get my work done, and then go the gym or take a class. There's definitely worse places to be."

Grow and his friend Specialist Christopher Moore, 34, are taking a philosophy class as part of a military education program. The gym on the base is the size of an aircraft hangar with 10 running machines, endless weight racks, ice-cold water on tap from stainless steel fridges and live U.S. sports on TV.

"This is a war zone, believe it or not," jokes Moore.

GENERATION TO RECOVER

Three provinces to the southwest, it very much is a war zone. In Kandahar and Helmand, in the desert regions of southern Afghanistan, U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops battle furiously against an entrenched Taliban on a near-daily basis.

Hundreds of U.S. Marines were sent in the last week to retake a town in south Helmand, where around 7,000 British troops have been based for two years and are making slow progress, sometimes taking territory only to lose it weeks later.

The battle to secure Helmand, which alone produces nearly half the world's opium, could drag on for years more. Afterwards, years of intense reconstruction would still be required to prevent the region collapsing again.

Kandahar, the one-time headquarters for the Taliban, is little different. Alone, the two vast provinces help explain why even military and civilian optimists think it could be a generation before Afghanistan is fully on the road to recovery.

At the same time, in those areas to the east and in northern Afghanistan where progress appears to have been made, the United States and NATO have to be sure to coordinate their efforts so that the overall impact is not two steps forward and one back.

Forty countries are now contributing to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which has around 47,000 troops, but drawing up a strategy that unifies their work has proved elusive. In addition, the United States has some 14,000 troops serving in a separate force.

The U.S. defense secretary has expressed frustration that NATO cannot or will not come up with more troops to support the fight. Washington has mooted it could now send up to 7,000 more of its own troops to boost numbers next year.

Perhaps partly as a result, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan joke that ISAF stands for "I Suck At Fighting." Yet a serious note underlines the soldiers' ribbing of their allies.

Because they don't feel totally supported by ISAF on the battlefield, there are elements of tension between U.S. and NATO commanders when it comes to managing post-combat reconstruction.

In Wardak, Major Faber shares a base with some French troops involved in reconstruction, and the Turks have a nearby compound from where they administer aid and training of Afghan forces. They wave hello, but do not always know what everyone's up to.

"I see a lot more international effort here than in Iraq," says Captain Hill, weighing up the positives. "But I don't necessarily know what a French officer, or a USAID guy, or a Turkish reconstruction guy is doing and that makes it hard.

"We're making progress, but if we can't coordinate better then we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot," he says.

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

From The Times
May 12, 2008
British troops guide US Marines on anti-Taleban raids in Afghanistan
Michael Evans, Defence Editor

US Marines supported by British troops in Afghanistan now command three key locations south of the town of Garmsir, in Helmand province, putting pressure on the main supply routes of the Taleban for arms, opium and reinforcements.

For the first time since the Nato campaign expanded to the south in 2006 the Taleban stranglehold in this part of Helmand – stretching from the Pakistan border to Garmsir – has been weakened. Crucial vantage points are now held by 1,200 US Marines from 24 Marine Expeditionary Unit (24 MEU) and 200 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots) battle group.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Matthews, the chief British spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said that the US men were guided by British troops as they moved at night “over extraordinarily difficult terrain . . . to launch their assault”.

The operation, which started on April 28 and involved helicopter and ground assaults, provided the US Marines from 24 MEU with their first offensive against the Taleban since they arrived in southern Afghanistan last month as a special reserve manoeuvre force for the Nato commander of Regional Command South. They have already lost two men.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the British commander of Task Force Helmand, told The Times: “This operation has severely dislocated Taleban control of an area in which they have traditionally enjoyed considerable autonomy.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines take Afghan battle to the Taliban

May 12, 2008
Rosie DiManno
Columnist


KABUL–The spring offensive is well launched – by NATO.

Or, put another way, pre-emptively provoked by the U.S. Marines Expeditionary Force.

If the best defence is a good offence, American troops recently arrived in the southern provinces have wasted no time taking the battle to the Taliban, putting an entirely different complexion on combat tactics in the heartland of the insurgency.

Joining forces with British troops who have responsibility for NATO operations in Helmand province, these battle-hardened Marines – many of them veterans of fierce combat in the Iraqi city of Ramadi two years ago – hurled themselves into the insurgency cauldron last week, with the objective of dislodging Taliban fighters from strongholds north of the border with Pakistan.

Although the British have a base in the town of Garmser, NATO's most southerly outpost, and have battled strenuously to maintain it against encroachment, the vast surrounding district, much of it inhospitable desert, has been essentially free movement territory for the neo-Taliban.

Garmser is a main assembly and staging point for jihadists as they enter Afghan soil. It is also a key transit route for smuggling in arms and smuggling out opium – the vascular network that pumps blood into the insurgency.

The claims and counterclaims – success versus failure – have been fast and furious. While American authorities claimed on the weekend to have killed nine militants, Taliban spokesperson Qari Yosuf asserted it was the insurgents who had killed nine Americans.

There have been no official reports of U.S. casualties from the fighting. But provincial government sources, along with aid workers in the region, accuse the Marines of conducting aggressive door-to-door searches, rousting civilians from their homes, arresting innocents and forcing upward of 15,000 Afghans to flee into the hot desert for safety.

None of these claims has been confirmed. However, the U.S. propensity for using air strikes and artillery and mortar barrages in support of their ground troops has much of the domestic media here caterwauling about a suddenly "Americanized war" in Afghanistan.

NATO had begged for these reinforcements – 2,300 Marines started arriving seven weeks ago – and clearly will not criticize their performance now, particularly since it appears to have achieved the initial goal in Helmand, clawing back turf and pushing back Taliban elements in one of the few regions with a clearly defined front line.

"Several reports tried to overshadow the success of the Marines, accusing them of excessive use of force resulting in civilian casualties and excessive damage to civilian infrastructure," Brig.-Gen. Carlos Branco, chief spokesperson for International Security Assistance Force, told reporters yesterday. "These allegations are very far from the truth. The United States Marines forces have responded to all hostile acts and intents with proportional force, strictly in accordance with the law of armed combat."

Yet Branco couldn't say if American troops are bound by the same rules of engagement – never specifically spelled out for public dissemination – as their NATO colleagues. "I don't actually know the answer to that question," Branco told the Toronto Star.


Civilian casualties are the primary cause of embitterment towards foreign troops, even among the majority of Afghans who support NATO's presence. As propaganda fodder, dead innocents have been heavily exploited by the Taliban, though their fighters routinely take cover among civilians and shred Afghan bodies in suicide attacks.

"We do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties,'' Branco said, reaching for a clutch of statistics: Of more than 16,000 aircraft sorties in 2007, only 0.1 per cent resulted in civilian deaths. "But 100 per cent of suicide bombing events resulted in civilian casualties."

So far this year, insurgents have killed six times as many civilians compared to the same period in 2007, Branco said. Yet only 1 per cent of deaths caused by suicide bombers have been ISAF personnel. "The facts coincide with our words,'' said Branco. "They are the ones who don't have any consideration for the value of human life."

The military operation in Garmser did account for the highest number of "kinetic events" – hostile contact, weapons fired – over a one-week period in 2007.

Branco framed this development as evidence of NATO setting the combat terms with the Taliban, an enemy that usually shuns conventional fighting because it cannot win in that arena.

"It is the Afghan security forces and ISAF forces that set the operational tempo, not the insurgents. But increased military activity does not mean increased insurgent activity. In fact, it is completely the opposite."

The Taliban, it is quite obvious, have changed their tactics in recent months, taking their bombs and blasts to the cities because, ISAF says, they were bleeding out in the volatile southern provinces, with few territorial gains to show for their protracted campaign there and many of their top commanders either killed or captured. And they've achieved some spectacular bragging triumphs in Kabul itself – January's suicide bombing at the Serena Hotel, the attack during a military parade late last month, seen as an assassination attempt on the president. Both incidents ratcheted up the fear factor in the capital, while demonstrating the Taliban can pounce at will, wherever they like, if not with profound tactical payoff.

The optics of a spreading insurgency are misleading, Branco insisted, even as the papers are filled daily with reports of Taliban strikes hither and yon.

This year, Branco noted, 78 per cent of those "kinetic events" have occurred in 10 per cent of Afghanistan's regional districts. "This confirms ISAF's view that the insurgency is confined to specific areas of Afghanistan. In fact, it clearly disproves the widely purported view that the insurgency is spreading nationwide.

"The so-called spring offensive was a mere act of propaganda. We haven't seen any spring offensive. It's true that we have seen increased activity but you have to understand who is taking the fight, who has the tactical advantage and initiative.

"It's not the insurgents. We are going after them and we are hurting them in their backyards."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

12 militants killed in southern Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 39 minutes ago

U.S.-led coalition forces called in airstrikes against the Taliban, killing a dozen militants during fighting in southern Afghanistan that has displaced many families, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, an old mortar round exploded in the north of the country, wounding 17 children.

The coalition said in a statement that its troops opened fire and called in airstrikes Monday after observing militants trying to set up an ambush. The coalition had been targeting a Taliban commander transporting weapons.

The troops also discovered weapons and ammunition in a search of compounds in the area, it said.

Fighting has intensified in the southern province of Helmand since U.S. Marines pushed into the town of Garmser late last month aiming to cut Taliban supply lines in the heart of the insurgency.

About 1,200 families — an estimated 7,000 people — have left their homes in recent weeks because of the fighting in Garmser, said Mohammad Nader Farhad, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

About 900 of those families have relocated to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and about 300 have moved to neighboring Kandahar province, Farhad said. The families were staying with relatives and friends or in rented houses.

Farhad said the government is assessing the situation, and UNHCR, along with other U.N. agencies, is prepared to assist the families as needed after the findings are complete.

Helmand Gov. Ghulab Mangal denied there had been a major exodus, but said authorities would compensate all families whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the fighting.

Mangal said about 150 militants, including foreign fighters from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya, have been killed since the operation began. He said there are still about 500 insurgents in and around Garmser.

A U.S. military spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment on the governor's claim.

In the northern town of Baghlan on Tuesday, a boy dropped an old mortar shell that he was trying to exchange for ice cream with a scrap metal dealer, said police officer Habib Rehman.

The shell exploded, wounding 17 children and a man. Fourteen of the children were evacuated to a hospital in Baghlan. Three others were sent to the nearby town of Pul-e-Khumri, said Dr. Narmgui from the Baghlan hospital. Like many Afghans, Narmgui goes by one name.

Afghanistan is littered with old ordnance left over from decades of war.

On Monday, a rocket hit a house in the eastern Kunar province, wounding two children and a man, said provincial deputy police chief Abdul Sabor Allayer. He blamed insurgents for the attack.

At least 1,200 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence in 2008, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press of figures from Western and Afghan officials. The U.N. says more than 8,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence in 2007.

___

Associated Press reporters Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

MILITARY: At war in Afghanistan <br />
<br />
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer <br />
<br />
AFGHANISTAN ---- Twenty-year-old Navy Corpsman Joshua Spencer and Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Cordero are key players in the U.S....

[thedrifter]

Taliban resisting southern Afghan operation: US Marines

1 hour ago

KABUL (AFP) — US Marines have faced "continuous resistance" from the Taliban since an operation began two weeks ago to clear out a key militant stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the force said Wednesday.

US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched the operation late April in Garmser district in southern Helmand province, a key battleground for the Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing centre.

"We're seeing a continuous resistance," said Lieutenant Colonel Kent W. Hayes, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's second-in-command in Afghanistan.

"They are consistently engaging us," he said, but added that "the bottom line is: When we fight them, we defeat them."

Hayes refused to comment on militant casualties from the operation, saying it was not policy to give figures, adding Garmser was a "planning, staging and logistic hub" for the rebels.

But he did not dismiss a statement Tuesday by Helmand province governor Gulab Mangal that over 150 militants, many of them Al-Qaeda-linked "foreign fighters," had been killed in the past week in Garmser, which borders Pakistan.

Hayes also said his troops had disrupted Taliban logistics networks in Garmser.

"We are noticing that we have influenced that area greatly and we have seen that they are starting to have trouble reinforcing and getting arms and things like that," he said.

Garmser is said to be a gateway for fresh rebel fighters and supplies coming into Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is fiercest along areas bordering Pakistan.

Some rebels are believed to have their first encounters with international troops in Garmser before moving north.

There are about 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan helping the government. The 2,400-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed in March to help NATO forces over the summer, traditionally when the insurgency flares.

A separate US-led coalition including special forces has in the past week reported significant Taliban casualties in Garmser.

The Taliban were removed from government in 2001 in a US-led invasion launched when the extremist regime did not hand over their Al-Qaeda allies following the 9/11 attacks.

The operation forced Taliban and Al-Qaeda across the border into Pakistan, where Afghan and US officials claim they have safe havens from which they can plot their bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines stay in Afghan town after Taliban influx

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 14, 12:19 PM ET

U.S. Marines who once planned to be in this southern Afghan town for just a few days are extending their mission by several weeks after facing an influx of Taliban fighters.

The change in plans shows that despite a record number of international troops in the country, forces are still spread thin and U.S. commanders must make tough choices about where to deploy them.

Manpower problems are acute in Helmand, the largest and probably the most dangerous province in Afghanistan, where the U.S. 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived late last month to open a route to move troops to its southern reaches near the border with Pakistan.

Britain has about 7,500 soldiers in the province, but does not have enough troops to move south of Garmser, a district still largely held by the Taliban and bursting with opium poppy fields.

The 2,400-strong Marine unit met stiff resistance as they moved in. Between 100 and 400 Taliban fighters moved into the Garmser area as the poppy harvest got under way, apparently to defend their interests in the lucrative drug trade.

Maj. Tom Clinton Jr. said the Marines would be in Garmser for several more weeks. It means the Marines might not take part in an operation that was planned in another southern province this month.

"The number of fighters that stood and fought is kind of surprising to me, but obviously they're fighting for something," Clinton said, alluding to poppies. "They're flowing in, guys are going south and picking up arms. We have an opportunity to really clear them out, cripple them, so I think we're exploiting the success we're finding."

Helmand is the hub of opium production in Afghanistan, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the global supply of this raw material of heroin. The Taliban are believed to derive tens of millions of dollars from the trade.

Still, the Marines have been careful not to alienate residents by destroying the poppy fields that poor farmers rely on for income. Commanders say their goal is to rid the region of Taliban fighters so the Afghan government can move in and tackle the drug problem.

The prospects of that happening appear remote. Although thousands of acres of poppy fields are eradicated annually in Afghanistan, it is only a small fraction of the total area sown. Year after year, production has soared and security has deteriorated.

In recognition of the growing threat posed by Taliban militants, there are now almost 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan. The U.S. has 33,000, the most since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 ousted the Taliban for giving haven to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

U.S. forces have mostly operated in the east of the country, rather than the south, where NATO has struggled to find nations willing to fight the increasingly bloody insurgency.

U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, has said he needs three more brigades — two for combat and one to train Afghan soldiers, roughly 7,500 to 10,000 additional soldiers.

When the Marines eventually leave Garmser, any gains the 24th has made could be quickly erased unless other forces from NATO or the Afghan government move in.

"We can't be a permanent 24/7 presence. We don't have enough men to stay here," said Staff Sgt. Darrell Penyak, 29, of Grove City, Ohio. "We would need the ANA (Afghan army) to move in, and right now the way we're fighting, there's no way the ANA can come in. They couldn't handle it."

Afghanistan's army and police forces are steadily growing, but are still not big — or skilled — enough to protect much of the country. Spokesmen for both forces said they were not aware of plans to send forces to Garmser.

Col. Nick Borton, commander of British forces in the southern part of Helmand, recently visited U.S. positions in Garmser, where he told the Americans he'd be happy if they stayed on.

"If they're here for only a short time, we can't build very much off that," he said. "Their presence for a few days doesn't really help us."

A representative of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. government aid arm, told Marine battalion commander Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson that "people lose faith if you pull out."

The next day, at a meeting of Marines and Afghan elders, the bearded, turban-wearing men told Marine Capt. Charles O'Neill that the two sides could "join together" to fight the Taliban. "When you protect us, we will be able to protect you," the leader of the elders said.

Despite uncertainties over how secure Garmser, O'Neill liked what he heard.

"We have something here we can really exploit, if we can get some Afghan national police here," he said. "The Marines can definitely do the job, but we're not a permanent presence. With their own people providing their own security they can really get something done."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Taliban resisting southern Afghan operation: US Marines

Wed May 14, 11:40 AM ET

US Marines have faced "continuous resistance" from the Taliban since an operation began two weeks ago to clear out a key militant stronghold in Afghanistan, a leader of the unit said Wednesday.

US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched the operation in late April in Garmser district in southern Helmand province, a key battleground for the Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing centre.

"We're seeing a continuous resistance," said Lieutenant Colonel Kent W. Hayes, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's second-in-command in Afghanistan.

"They are consistently engaging us," he said, but added that "the bottom line is: When we fight them, we defeat them."

Hayes said Garmser was a "planning, staging and logistic hub" for the rebels.

He refused to comment on militant casualties in the operation, saying it was not policy to give figures.

But Hayes did not deny a statement Tuesday by Helmand province governor Gulab Mangal that over 150 militants, many of them Al-Qaeda-linked "foreign fighters," had been killed in the past week in Garmser, which borders Pakistan.

Hayes also said his troops had disrupted Taliban logistics networks in Garmser.

"We are noticing that we have influenced that area greatly and we have seen that they are starting to have trouble reinforcing and getting arms and things like that," he said.

Garmser is said to be a gateway for fresh rebel fighters and supplies coming into Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is fiercest along areas bordering Pakistan.

Some rebels are believed to have their first encounters with international troops in Garmser before moving north.

Elsehwere in Helmand, two Afghan policemen were killed when their patrol was attacked by Taliban rebels in Marja district, said provincial police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

The police chief said villagers reported that 10 rebels were also killed in the four-hour-long gunbattle, "but we didn't see their bodies."

In another incident in the northeastern province of Kunduz, unknown gunmen shot dead a teacher, said provincial police chief Ayoub Salangi.

"A teacher who had spoken against suicide bombings in a village gathering was shot dead by unknown men. We don't know who has killed him," Salangi told AFP.

There are about 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan helping the government fight the Taliban-led insurgency and rebuild the country. The 2,400-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed in March to help NATO forces over the summer, traditionally when the insurgency flares.

A separate US-led coalition, including special forces, has in the past week reported significant Taliban casualties in Garmser.

The Taliban were removed from government in 2001 in a US-led invasion launched when the extremist regime did not hand over their Al-Qaeda allies following the 9/11 attacks.

The operation forced Taliban and Al-Qaeda across the border into Pakistan, where Afghan and US officials claim they have safe havens from which they can plot their bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU exploits success in Garmsir

5/17/2008 By Staff Sgt. Robert Piper , 24th MEU

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the British forces of Task Force Helmand launched an operation to enhance security for the citizens of the Garmsir District in Southern Helmand Province April 28.

By engaging with the leaders of Garmsir to determine what is required to bring stability to their district – a district which has seen little International Security Assistance Force presence in the recent past, these forces will help facilitate long-term change and improvement.

Garmsir has long been used as a planning, staging and logistics hub by the neo-Taliban. Through capturing identified enemy strong points and defensive positions south of Task Force Helmand forward operating bases, Marines opened previously denied routes through the Garmsir District to the economically vital Helmand green zone, while simultaneously disrupting insurgent activities in the area.

“The Marines gain ground every day and secure more of the routes through the district. The support we have received from our allied partners has contributed to our many successes thus far,” said Col Peter Petronzio, commanding officer, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, International Security Assistance Force.

In contrast to recent tactics, insurgents have demonstrated a persistent and concerted effort to resist the advancement of troops and hold ground. Marines consistently encounter disorganized resistance in the form of small arms, indirect fire, and rocket propelled grenades. Despite stouter than expected resistance, Marines have succeeded in a region that was previously unsecured.

"The number of fighters that stood and fought is kind of surprising to me, but obviously they're fighting for something," Maj. Tom Clinton, executive officer, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th MEU, said. "They're flowing in; guys are going south and picking up arms. We have an opportunity to really clear them out, cripple them, so I think we're exploiting the success we're finding."

The effectiveness of the Marine’s approach is already evident on the ground.

"We have seen that they are starting to have trouble reinforcing and getting arms, said Lt Col. Kent Hayes, executive officer, 24th MEU." “Because we've seen fighters coming in from other areas, the rest of Helmand, rather than from just around Garmsir, that is telling us about the success we're having, that we are affecting and disrupting them. We are defeating the enemy when they oppose us and, when they reinforce, we're defeating them as well."

Success in the region is complex, not defined merely by defeating insurgents, but also by the manner in which you aid the people who live there.

During lulls in the fighting, Afghan citizens began brining children to the Marines for medical treatment, including an 11 year-old boy with abdominal wounds, which his father said was inflicted by insurgents. He, as well as one baby, have been treated and returned safely to their families.

“I think the most telling aspect is that, an Afghan citizen of Garmsir had no qualms about bringing his wounded child to a newly established Marine position where Marines were heavily armed,” said Petronzio. “Here is a man who has first-hand experience of life under the Taliban. He knows that with them there is no offer of hope, no plan and no future. He knows we are here to help.”

As the fighting stabilized in areas, Marines also were able to find and meet with village leaders. In meetings with Afghan elders, the sun-aged, bearded men said that the two sides could "join together" to fight the Taliban. "When you protect us, we will be able to protect you."

As for how long this operation will last or how far south the Marines will pursue insurgents, it is to be determined.

"This is the start," said Hayes. "We started in Garmsir. As far as ending it, I will tell you that it's not time-driven. We will leave Garmsir at the time and place of our choosing."

To date, the Marines have discovered 10 caches. The caches contained variations of mines, rocket propelled grenades, mortars, and IED making materials. They also identified and control detonated 6 IEDs and discovered and destroyed several fortified enemy positions.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines emphasize character building in Afghan police mission


By Kristen Noel
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The 1st Marine Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines’ is focusing on Afghan people, not on fighting terrorists, the battalion commander said May 16.

‘What’s unique about our mission is that we’re doing a police training and mentoring mission, as opposed to coming in here kinetically like a lot of our past exploits have been, especially in Iraq,’ Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Hall told online journalists and ‘bloggers’ in a teleconference.

The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, deployed at the end of March for this mission to assist Afghanistan’s Regional Security Command South with their focused district development program for Afghan police. The program rotates local police forces through eight weeks of uniformed-officer training at a central location, while highly trained Afghan national civil police work in their districts.

Hall explained that the battalion also will facilitate ‘in-district reform’ police training for districts the Afghan national civil police are unable to backfill due to personnel shortages. ‘That is kind of the way that we can fast-track getting more of these districts [to] get their police trained,’ he said.

The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, had success in Iraq executing the police mission in Anbar province, Hall said, and he added that before this deployment, the battalion completed a month-long training exercise called ‘Mojave Viper,’ designed specifically to prepare them for the police situation in Afghanistan.

‘We spent quite a bit of time focusing on escalation-of-force vignettes,’ he said. That training, he explained, focuses on the civil portion of police work.

Though the battalion will do the quantifiable work of improving the Afghans’ policing skills, Hall said, the enduring piece of the training will need to be the mentoring and character development -- ‘in other words, doing the right thing when no one is looking,’ he said.

‘The reason for that is, whether or not we get replaced, … we need to teach a man to fish so that they could be self-sufficient with or without our presence,’ he explained. ‘They need to have the credibility and the respectability of their people in order to maintain that law and order presence, even if we’re absent.’

Hall said he believes that since the Marines and the Afghans are both ‘of a warrior culture,’ the battalion will be able to earn the credibility needed to influence and affect the character of the district police officers.

‘I think [the Afghans are] … going to catch the sense that we’re really sincere about our mission and what we’re trying to do, and they’re going to make no distinction between us and them,’ Hall said. ‘I think that’s really going to add to the character piece, because they absolutely do respect that of other men -- you know, sharing the danger and so forth.’

But although that factor works in his favor, he acknowledged, it won’t be easy.

‘We don’t pretend that it’s not going to be a huge challenge,’ he said. ‘The truth will be in action, when we actually get out there, and we give it a try. We can only hope that everything I’ve said comes true.’

(Kristen Noel works for the New Media branch of the American Forces Information Service.)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Photos Show Marine's Narrow Escape From Death in Afghanistan

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Garmser district has been the center of a joint operation of U.S. and British troops designed to put pressure on Taliban insurgents, Agence France-Presse reports.

Troops have targeted this region on the Pakistan border that has served as a route for supplies and reinforcements for insurgents since April 28.

"Definitely they are putting resistance in the area because Garmser is very important for them," Gen. Carlos Branco, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told the AFP.

"Garmser is a planning, staging and logistics hub. Once lost it will mean a severe defeat for them," he told the agency. "That is why they are reinforcing with insurgents coming from other places, both north and south."

Branco told the AFP that the insurgents had suffered "heavy" losses.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23720905-38197,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,3999,00.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/05/afghanistan_graphing_1.php

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wednesday, May 21, 2008


Distant, impersonal attacks in Afghanistan
U.S. forces rain down artillery on enemy in Narang Valley

By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, May 21, 2008

NARANG VALLEY, Afghanistan — The CH-47 Chinook landed on the dusty hilltop shortly before midnight.

About 30 soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment leapt out in a swirling maelstrom of grit kicked up by the massive bird’s twin rotor blades.

The troops were expecting action. The latest intelligence indicated that enemy fighters had emplaced a heavy machine gun and an 82 mm mortar in the nearby hills. As many as 40 enemy fighters were reported in the area.

The mission had been planned for nearly a month, so it came as no surprise that advance word may have leaked to the enemy.

"Over time, maybe somebody told one of their buddies who worked in the chow hall, who told someone else [who told the enemy]," said 1st Lt. Brendan Kennedy, leader of 3rd Platoon.

Getting in and getting out would be the tricky part, said Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Smith, of Lewistown, Pa., a 13-year veteran. But with plenty of overhead cover from an AC-130 gunship, F-15 fighters and a B-1 bomber, the risks would probably be negligible.

"If anybody is out there tonight, they’ll probably be dead," Kennedy said.

The landing went off without a hitch, and the troops encountered no enemy fire. After settling in for the night, they started fortifying their positions as soon as dawn broke.

"Operation Rock Penetrator," which started nearly two weeks ago, was the latest U.S. effort to disrupt enemy activity in this rugged mountain valley in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. The operation involved more than 100 U.S. soldiers and another 30 or so Afghan army troops.

U.S. forces would hold the high ground while Afghan forces cleared the village of Badel, down in the valley, a frequently-used stopover for enemy fighters infiltrating into the region from Pakistan.

The next morning was mostly quiet, except for the roar of jets and helicopters overhead, and the occasional thunder of artillery strikes in the valley. But everything changed around 1 p.m., when a group of six to eight enemy fighters came up the hill and almost stumbled into the U.S. positions. They made it to within 300 meters before Smith told Spc. Brandon Davidson, 21, of Lake Placid, Fla., and Sgt. Alexander Ditsen, 29, of Cape Coral, Fla., to open fire with their M-203 grenade launchers.

Davidson, Ditsen and Spc. James Corona, 21, of San Antonio, lobbed more than three dozen rounds. The militants were apparently taken by surprise, and did not return fire.

"We got our point across," said Smith, the platoon sergeant. "They still don’t know where we are."

The fighters appeared to have retreated down the hill and across a narrow spur to the opposite ridge, several hundred meters away. Smith called for an artillery strike.

Spc. Timothy Locklear, 23, of Greenville, S.C., worked up a grid coordinate, and soon a barrage of 155 mm artillery rounds pounded the fighters’ suspected location. An A-10 Thunderbolt followed soon after, raking the hillside with 30 mm cannon fire.

A pair of OH-58 Kiowa helicopters swept past overhead a couple of hours later, assessing the damage. But it was unclear how many of the enemy had been killed.

Down in the valley, the Afghan troops clearing Badel found two anti-tank mines in a house and some bomb-making materials. They arrested one man.

The next morning, a dead man, dressed in white, was spotted next to a rock on the opposite ridgeline, a likely casualty from the artillery and airstrikes the day before.

Just before 10 a.m., three more enemy fighters were spotted on the ridgeline, close to where the body lay. The soldier called in another artillery strike. A man’s voice soon came over the enemy’s radio, calling for the men. They did not answer.

"Those rounds were perfect," said Smith. "Right on target. Where that one guy was standing, there is nothing but a crater."

The strikes continued off and on throughout the second day and into the night, whenever U.S. forces got a definite fix on the enemy positions. The killing was distant and impersonal.

As evening approached, heavy machine-gun fire broke out in the distance. Another platoon had come under contact. But there were no U.S. casualties. Soon, more U.S. artillery was raining down on suspected enemy hide-outs.

After one barrage, a surveillance aircraft reported seeing dozens of "hotspots" — infrared signatures — of people fleeing the area. Another strike was planned.

As they waited for the Chinooks to come back and pick them up, one soldier said aloud that he hoped there were no women and children among the group. Another soldier said he hoped there were.

"You don’t mean that," the first soldier said, in the dark.

"Yes, I do," the second one said. "You know what women are here? They’re ACM multipliers."

ACM stands for "anti-coalition militia."

"No, you don’t," the first soldier said, again.

A third soldier decided to lighten the mood. "They’re not ACM anymore," he said. "They’re now FOE."

"FOE?" someone asked.

"Yeah," the third soldier said. "Forces of Evil."

In the dark, everyone laughed. Within an hour, the Chinooks had arrived. The mission was over.

Photos
http://www.stripes.com/08/may08/afghan_gallery/

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Land in Afghanistan — With Biometrics
By David Axe

A year ago this June, Taliban fighters streamed into the remote town of Chora in southern Afghanistan expecting an easy victory over impoverished villagers. Instead, they met heavy resistance from scores of uniformed Afghan men.

Those so-called Afghan National Auxiliary Police (ANAP), all formerly in the service of local warlords, had received two months of training by Dutch and American soldiers and were now the first line of defense against the Taliban.

Arming tribesmen was a risky idea. True, this sort of tribal initiative had been effective in Iraq. But NATO commanders feared that Afghan loyalties to their warlords ran too deep. NATO was “arming people who were not necessarily in line with the [Afghan] government,” U.S. Brig. Gen. Robert Cone told Wired.com.

So, last month, NATO fired the auxiliary cops and scrapped the tribal strategy, leaving gaping holes in Afghanistan's defenses. The fix? Marines, of course, armed with fingerprint pads, iris scanners and electronic databases.

With these biometric tools, the Marines are planning to recruit new cops who have no ties to tribal warlords. “We know there are some shadow police and some militia-type police,” Lt. Col. Ray Hall, the Marine commander, said. “Once we go through the vetting process, we'll have everybody screened … so that problem should go away.”

That means scanning every new recruit's unique iris “eye prints,” logging their thumb prints and feeding it all into a growing, but still very spotty, national database linked to criminal and intelligence records. If a cop has any known warlord ties, he's disqualified from serving.

CIA teams used FBI biometrics while hunting for known Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan in 2001, and since then, the military has gathered data on almost every Afghan it comes in regular contact with.

There's one more problem. Not all the military databases can talk to one another. “We haven't standardized,” said Larry Schneider, a Northrop Grumman VP who last year was working on collapsing many biometrics systems into just one.

Until everyone is looking at the same data, seditious Afghan cops will probably keep falling through the cracks.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

May 27, 2008 <br />
Optimism Grows as Marines Push Against Taliban <br />
By CARLOTTA GALL <br />
<br />
GARMSER, Afghanistan — For two years British troops staked out a presence in this small district center in southern...

[thedrifter]

Marines push back Taliban <br />
<br />
By CARLOTTA GALL <br />
<br />
The New York Times

[thedrifter]

U.S. Marines fighting Taliban in Afghanistan

CTV.ca News Staff

Updated: Sun. Jun. 1 2008 10:49 PM ET

The top-ranking U.S. Marine in Afghanistan says his unit is having some success fighting back the Taliban in Helmand province.

While Canadian troops are gradually shifting their focus to reconstruction efforts, the Marines are in Afghanistan purely to fight.

Col. Pete Petronzio, the 47-year-old leader of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, told reporters that he hoped his efforts had reduced the number of Taliban in Kandahar, which neighbours Helmand.

"A bunch of Taliban guys used to live where we are right now and they don't live there any more," he told reporters in Kandahar Air Field. "And as far as we are concerned, they aren't coming back. It's a small gain, but it's a gain."

When President George Bush agreed to send 2,400 marines into Afghanistan, some analysts said it would help ease the pressure on Canadian soldiers.

But Petronzio said the Marines have not "come to anyone's rescue."

"We're a bunch of guys that came here to do a job," he said. "And as professionals in the profession of arms we are no different than the Canadians, than the Brits, than the Dutch."

Petronzio added that on April 15, it was the Canadians who helped the Marines, when the Taliban attacked a convoy travelling near a Canadian forward operating base in Zhari district. Two Marines died.

The Marines are currently scheduled for a one-time, seven-month mission. But U.S. officials are considering sending more because they're considered to be the best anti-insurgency force Americans have to offer.

Gen. Dan McNeil, the outgoing U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said he expects the Taliban to remain a strong threat unless Pakistan cracks down on insurgents near its border.

"If there are going to be sanctuaries where these terrorists, these extremists, these insurgents can train, can recruit, can regenerate, there's still going to be a challenge there," McNeill told The Associated Press on Friday.

According to NATO, there was a 50 per cent rise in militant violence in eastern Afghanistan last month, compared to April 2007.

The new U.S. commander of NATO will be Gen. David D. McKiernan. He will have control of a greatly expanded force -- 51,000 troops, compared with the 36,000 McNeill oversaw in February 2007.

"That says to me that all the wags who in late 2006 and early 2007 who were predicting the failure and the fracture of the NATO alliance here probably got it wrong," said McNeill. "And I'm not trying to smirk or anything, I'm just saying people ought to go back and see what was being written."

With a report by CTV's South Asia Bureau Chief Paul Workman and files from The Associated Press

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Taliban flee U.S. Marines onslaught in Afghanistan
Mon Jun 2, 2008 10:44am EDT

By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents are fleeing south towards the Afghan border with Pakistan in the face of a U.S. Marines offensive in volatile Helmand province, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Monday.

U.S. Marines have been pushing south from the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir in Helmand for a month in an operation meant to cut off insurgent infiltration routes from Pakistan.

"They have shown under some amount of pressure they flee to their sanctuaries," General Dan McNeill told a news conference.

"In the last two days we have had many reports ... that the insurgents after experiencing these several weeks of pressure below Garmsir are trying to flee to the south perhaps to go back to sanctuaries in another country," he said.

While McNeill was careful not to name any country, the only nation with which Helmand shares a border is Pakistan.

Mainly British troops have been battling the Taliban in Helmand since March 2006, capturing a string of towns in the fertile strip along the Helmand River cutting through the desert.

But Garmsir, the southernmost town of any size in Helmand, and its surrounding villages had previously evaded capture.

Washington dispatched 3,200 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan in March to bolster mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops in southern Afghanistan after other NATO allies failed to come up with reinforcements.

REGIONAL DANGER

Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of harboring Taliban militants, giving the insurgent leadership a base from which to direct operations and allowing fighters to use Pakistani soil for training, rest and recuperation.

Pakistan admits there is a Taliban presence in its border regions beyond government control, but says it does not help the insurgents, pointing out hundreds of Pakistani troops have died fighting the militants.

NATO and Afghan officials have also cautioned Pakistan over peace talks with Pakistani Taliban insurgents, saying such truces free up the insurgents to launch more attacks into Afghanistan.

"If there are insurgencies in places not in Afghanistan, but very close by, and security forces are not taking them on, I don't think that bodes well for the whole region," said McNeill, who is to hand command of NATO's 50,000-strong International Security Assistance Force to another U.S. general on Tuesday.

"If there is no pressure on insurgents in sanctuaries out of the reach of security forces in this country then I think (insurgent) numbers are likely to grow," he said.

Still not mentioning any country by name, McNeill implied the danger of such truces was that they could backfire.

A suspected suicide car bomber killed six people and wounded 25 in the Pakistani capital on Monday.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Afghan forces backed by foreign troops killed 48 Taliban rebels in clashes and airstrikes in the northwest of Afghanistan on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 3, 2008
U.S. Reports Gains Against Taliban Fighters
By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan are fleeing to the Pakistani border after being routed in recent operations by the United States Marines, the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said on Monday.

Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been clearing Taliban and foreign fighters from the district of Garmser, in southern Helmand Province, an important infiltration and drug trafficking route used by the Taliban to supply insurgents farther north.

“The insurgents, after experiencing these several weeks of pressure below Garmser, are trying to flee to the south, perhaps to go back to the sanctuaries in another country,” said the NATO commander, Gen. Dan K. McNeill.

He did not name Pakistan, but Helmand Province shares a border with Pakistan, and the Taliban and drug traffickers have long used refugee camps across the border as a sanctuary from American firepower.

The governor of the province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, also spoke of the rout of the Taliban.

“For the last two days we have information that Taliban are escaping to the border areas,” he said.

The insurgents, including numbers of foreign fighters, were said to be fleeing to Girdi Jungle, an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, and the border town of Baramcha, as well as the southernmost towns of Dishu and Khaneshin, which sit on the edge of the desert and offer quick access to the border.

Governor Mangal said hundreds of foreign fighters had joined the Taliban in their fight against marines in Garmser in recent weeks.

But he said they had suffered heavy losses.

Nineteen bodies of foreign fighters were found in one location, he said.

General McNeill, who hands over command of NATO forces in Afghanistan this week after 16 months in the post, said that if the Taliban and foreign insurgents continued to enjoy free sanctuary outside Afghanistan, their numbers would continue to grow.

He also seemed to warn Pakistan to contain the threat emanating from its land.

“If there are insurgencies in places that are not in Afghanistan, but very close by, and security forces are not taking them on, I don’t think that bodes well for the whole region,” General McNeill said.

Despite the rout of Taliban forces, the general warned that they were not the only problem in Helmand Province and that the enormous opium crop and the powerful drug business posed a comparable threat to Afghanistan’s stability.

Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

'Clearing out the bad guys'
Canadian troops in Kandahar will benefit from the heavy lifting U.S. Marines are doing

Rosie DiManno
Columnist

KANDAHAR–Modesty does not become the Marines.

Ooh rah!

Which is the Leatherhead ejaculation, not to be mistaken with Delta Forces' hoo-wah.

"Absolutely not have we come to anyone's rescue," insists Col. Pete Petronzio, commanding officer of the 2,400 Marines currently deployed to a high-pucker factor (more jarhead jargon, think squeezed buttocks) battlefield operation in the southern quadrant of Helmand province.

Except, of course, the British have been there for a couple of years, and that opium-engorged province had been reeling increasingly out of control – insofar as any stability ever existed – ground zero for a Taliban insurgency that is unnerving much of Afghanistan and freaking out the Western interventionists.

And the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit was indeed summoned specifically – like the cavalry, except that's army – to kick out some jihadist jam; war-wizened, most of them, from tours in Iraq, returning to a country they'd long ago abandoned on orders from their commander-in-chief, that person in the White House, ostensibly leaving the post-invasion mopping up to the U.S. Army (in the east) and the International Security Assistance Force (everywhere else, as of 2004.)

Relief agencies, which are not necessarily to be trusted – embedded journalists have been reporting otherwise – claim the Devil Dogs have been heavy-handed with the local population in Helmand, forcing many to flee their homes during bang-bang thrusts.

Most Canadians would likely cringe at some of the actions the Marines have employed, although these are conventional combat tactics, however contrary to antiquated notions of peacekeeping and group-hug reconciliation, the palaver approach that a certain faction urges for defanging the Taliban.

They blow up compounds – here is the evidence, on their own military website, of a jet fighter zapping a missile at a mud-walled redoubt near Garmser where insurgents had apparently amassed. They use explosives to carve out portals in thick walls so snipers can take aim.

If nothing else, this aggressive "clearing'' operation has certainly seized the Taliban's attention. They had become accustomed, in this critical transit route region, to going about their business willy-nilly, not aggressively pursued, in large part because the Brits didn't have enough of a footprint around Garmser, stuck largely inside their ghost-town outpost, far from the primary base in Lashkar Gah.

Petronzio would not say yesterday how far the Marines have been able to probe and hold, although it appears to be a radius of less than 16 kilometres, for one month's heavy-slogging, heavy-shooting work.

"In our little piece of Helmand, it's going very well," said Petronzio, meeting with Canadian reporters at Kandahar Airfield. "A bunch of Taliban guys used to live where we are right now. They don't live there anymore. And, as far as we're concerned, they're not coming back. It's a small gain, but it's a gain."

There are no Canadian soldiers – officially, shh, can't say more – in Helmand, though Petronzio is quick to acknowledge the deft Canadian response when these Marines had a hairy IED day, early on, Helmand-bound, with two killed and two severely wounded close to a Canadian forward operating base.

And Canadians in Kandahar, with any luck, will benefit from the Marines' operation in Helmand, with jarheads not only drawing Taliban fighters to them but disrupting the enemy's gun-running and drug-smuggling network, perhaps quieting Kandahar somewhat.

"I hope that's a direct positive effect," said Petronzio. "We are on a main artery that runs south to north and potentially east to west. We are attempting to put a stopper in the bottle as far south as we can. Even that's probably not a good analogy because eventually they will flow around us. But we are having an extremely positive effect on their south to north flow. And we will continue to do that."

It is, Petronzio reminds, an asymmetrical fight. "You may think it's clear and tomorrow it isn't. But we're working our way south."

Marines are noted for their counterinsurgency wits and effectiveness. Their focus, as Petronzio explains, is pacifying the environment, whatever that takes, so that others – let us suggest coalition partners not so leathery – can set about implementing the subsequent phases of redevelopment.

"The whole concept behind counterinsurgency is ... clear ... hold ... build. To simplify it as best I could, it's all about clearing out the bad guys, providing that security and holding the ground to bring in the build behind you.''

That's bringing up the rear after somebody else kicks ass.

"Are we uniquely suited to this? I don't know."

Except that he does.

"We may not be uniquely suited to 'the build.' So there will probably have to be someone who does that for a living, to kind of come in behind us."

He didn't mean it as such. But that's a dig.

Columnist Rosie DiManno is on assignment in Afghanistan, where she covered the Taliban's fall in 2001.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Confined to Afghan outpost by rocket attacks, unit finds ways to pass the time


By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, June 4, 2008

ZEROK, Afghanistan — Zerok Combat Outpost, at the edge of a plateau about 7,700 feet above sea level, is surrounded by mountain ridges rising several hundred feet higher.

Enemies love to climb on the far side of those ridges and lob rockets and missiles toward the soldiers below.

It happened Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. And Sunday morning. And more than 100 times since 3rd Platoon, Company D, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment arrived in this area, in eastern Afghanistan, in May 2007. Most of the time, the projectiles don’t come very close to hitting their targets. Soldiers hunker down in bunkers, while those in the watchtowers make sure no one attacks the perimeter.

Spcs. Russell Chappell and William Judd were wounded by shrapnel when a rocket hit their tower last August. They were eventually evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, but they’re now back with their unit.

First Lt. Justin Thornburg, who has led the platoon for three months, says their assailants know they only have a few minutes to get off their shots before the Americans either return fire or call for air support. Their aim isn’t accurate because they have to run for cover. If they stayed with the launchers, they could be bombed from above, but the soldiers aren’t about to go chasing them up the mountains.

The platoon was supposed to rotate into the compound for about a month at a time with another platoon, but those soldiers have largely been needed elsewhere. So there was an 87-day stint in the winter and another 67-day stint. They’ve currently been on post for about 33 days.

Soldiers admit that the days can run together.

"I don’t know what date it is," Spc. Corey McRae admits. "I don’t know what day of the week it is."

Attacks serve to break up the monotony, according to Thornburg. "It’s about 95, 96 percent boredom with about 5 percent excitement," he said.

He and Sgt. 1st Class Paul Makwakwa have to make sure the soldiers are combat ready. And that they don’t dwell on the fact that they’re essentially target practice for insurgents. Makwakwa, with 16 years in the Army, has 10 years on everyone else. Most are either noncommissioned officers or getting ready to join those ranks. All but a few have been promoted during the deployment.

Several were members of the battalion when it last deployed to eastern Afghanistan in 2005-2006.

Spc. Robert Hool says he remembers driving up the mountainous road to Zerok from Orgun-E routinely. There wasn’t a compound then, but soldiers stayed overnight in Zerok or in the village of Naka even further up into the mountains.

"A lot has changed," he said. "There’s been a lot more contacts. Direct and indirect. It seems like this is where they all fled to in the time we left and came back."

A new school the battalion had opened at the end of its last rotation sits abandoned just outside the compound. The locals don’t want to use it because it’s too close to the constant attacks.

Much of the troops’ leisure time is spent lifting weights in a workout area they built themselves. Sgt. Richard Donofrio, a 21-year-old from New Jersey, is probably the strongest guy on the compound. He is close to achieving a 500-pound dead lift.

Soldiers spend hours playing assorted shooter games on an Xbox in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation room, attached to the weight room. As many as four can play at one time. Most of the time, the person starting the game has to bang on it to get rid of the dust before it works.

"You’ve got to think of other things" besides the next attack, says Spc. Jason Leehan, the platoon medic, adding that if you don’t, "it would drive you nuts."

Another morale booster comes in the form of Pfc. Jordan Davis, a cook rotated into the compound who puts together breakfast and dinner every day. Lunch comes in the form of MREs.

The latest morale booster is the feeling that it won’t be long until they’re back in Vicenza, Italy — and away from the rockets, the dust and the football field-sized complex they’ve called home for much of the last 13 months.

"It’s been a long deployment," Hool says.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

In Afghanistan, the NATO-led Force is 'Underresourced' For the Fight Against the Taliban
When it comes to combat, it is a coalition of the willing and not-so-willing
By Anna Mulrine
Posted June 5, 2008


KANDAHAR—Ask American troops in Afghanistan what ISAF means, and you are opening the door to a running joke: "I Saw Americans Fight," and "I Suck at Fighting," and "I Sunbathe at FOBs" (a reference to the heavily fortified and largely safe forward operating bases) are among the more popular punch lines. In fact, ISAF is the acronym for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which is made up of soldiers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and 35 other nations.

And the U.S. soldiers who offer up the jokes are only half kidding. Their point is a serious one: that troops from the United States—along with just a handful of other countries—do the bulk of the heavy fighting, while a number of other ISAF detachments are limited by their own governments' combat restrictions. These include prohibitions, or "caveats," against, for example, fighting in the snow for troops from some southern European nations. Other soldiers are required to stay in calmer areas of the country or to keep their aircraft grounded at night or to consult their home legislatures before operating near the volatile Pakistani border.

These are handicaps, to be sure, though last week the outgoing head of ISAF took exception to criticism of the coalition. As he prepared to hand over the reins of the command he has held since February 2007, American Gen. Dan McNeill pointed out that the number of international soldiers in Afghanistan has grown from 36,000 troops at the beginning of his tenure to nearly 53,000 today. It is proof, he asserted, of the international alliance's commitment to the country. "That says to me that all the wags who in late 2006 and early 2007 were predicting the failure and fracture of the NATO alliance probably got it wrong," he said.

Troop shortage. But "probably" remains the operative word. And considerable challenges awaited Gen. David McKiernan, the former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe and former commander of ground forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion, as he took the helm of ISAF June 3. Violence is up 50 percent in eastern Afghanistan compared with 2007, and the drug trade is exploding. Last year, too, there were 140 suicide bombings here, a record number. ISAF fields one third the number of foreign troops in Iraq, yet Afghanistan is 50 percent larger and has some 4 million more people. So, despite the increase in troop numbers, McNeill says the country still needs more. "It's an underresourced force," he said. "That's been a constant theme since I've been here."

It is a theme that has been echoed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as well, who has expressed concern that NATO could become a "two-tiered alliance," with only a handful of countries—namely Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—willing to "fight and die" against the Taliban. Gates lobbied hard in Europe earlier this year for more troops, writing to every alliance defense minister. France agreed to 700 more soldiers, and Poland 400 plus eight badly needed helicopters. Georgia (which hopes to become a NATO member) is sending 500 soldiers.

But beyond that, there were no big takers among NATO leaders facing their own political pressure on the home front. In the end, the United States upped its own commitment—something the Pentagon initially said it would not do—sending 3,200 marines into Helmand province, the heart of the drug trade and Taliban resistance.

It has been a tough fight for them. Marines are now on Day 30-plus of what was initially expected to be a three-to-five-day campaign, as they live without electricity or running water and face Taliban reinforcements who continue to flow into their territory from neighboring Pakistan. But they are making key strides, military officials say, with a recent operation to block escape routes and cut off Taliban supply lines.

"Mowing the lawn." They are operating in an area that British forces, hobbled by insufficient troop levels, have tried to clear before. One British commander referred to it as "mowing the lawn," since the insurgency seems to just grow back.

The question is, what happens next? Other allies—France, for one—have suggested that Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government will need to hold reconciliation talks with insurgents from the former Taliban regime but not until some level of security is established. Earlier this year, the American ambassador to Afghanistan sought advice from a former Taliban commander, asking what ISAF could do to reduce popular support for the Taliban. Reconciliation steps are important in Afghanistan, note allies, who see the fight here as a classic counterinsurgency struggle.

Such campaigns place a premium on unity of command, which can be tricky to achieve, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Stephen Biddle. "You can easily imagine thousands of operations at cross hairs with each other," he says. "It's tremendously easy to let everything splinter, and that's if everyone's from the same country." And here, that's not the case. As a result, there have been some glitches. Most recently, when marines here first arrived, they were in a holding pattern for a month while ISAF's Regional Command South, led by Canada, wrestled with how exactly to use them and what precisely would be their operational goals.

Further, there is what some military officials describe as lingering U.S.-British tension over the handling of operations in Basra, Iraq, earlier this year, when the U.S. military was training Iraqi security forces for a mission that the Iraqis executed prematurely in the area under British security oversight. While British forces were said to feel left out of the loop, their sentiment left some U.S. forces nonplused. "Brits are so enamored with what they did in [Northern] Ireland," says one senior U.S. military official. "They think they have all this great [counterinsurgency] background, but at the highest levels, they are very politically sensitive and not very aggressive. In Afghanistan, I have seen them reach in and say, 'This colonel here has too many casualties.' "

But these are differences among higher-level officials and not among the soldiers in the field. "The Brits are great," says one marine, to widespread nods among comrades in the courtyard around his austere outpost in Helmand. British troops here, for their part, return the sentiment and express wonder at the myriad small restrictions on U.S. troops—such as prohibitions against wearing civilian clothes like jeans or sandals or against having a beer during their downtime, as is permitted soldiers from some other nations.

On a recent evening, down the road from a U.S. Marine outpost in Helmand province, a Scottish soldier played a plaintive sunset serenade, the "Marine Corps Hymn," on his bagpipe. As they settle in for a long, hot summer, these troops are keenly aware that they are fighting a tenacious enemy together.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines’ ‘victory’ comes at high cost for AfghansPublished: Monday, 9 June, 2008, 02:27 AM Doha Time


By Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi
GARMSIR, Afghanistan: To hear the military tell it, its recent large-scale operation in the southern province of Helmand by a US Marine force was an unqualified success, driving Taliban insurgents from the restive region and restoring hope and confidence to villagers through the region.
The Marines “have disrupted the Taliban’s freedom of movement and pushed them south, and that has created the grounds for us to develop the hospital and set the conditions for the government to come back,” said Maj Neil Den-McKay, the officer commanding a company of the Royal Regiment of Scotland based here. People have already started coming back to villages north of the town, he said, adding, “there has been huge optimism from the people.”
But reporters on the ground found a very different story. This once bustling district is now a ghost town, with villages largely emptied of their populations.
In the village of Loy Kalai alone, 4,000 families fled once the Marines’ offensive started. More than half the houses were destroyed. Abandoned farm animals are beginning to die in the fields. The body of a man who appeared to have died from shrapnel wounds could be seen in one abandoned house. The smell of decay hung over the area.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” said a resident who asked that his name not be used.
The Garmsir district has been the focus of a large-scale Nato operation code-named ‘Azada Wosa’ (‘Be Free’ in Pashto). The offensive, led by the 2,400-member strong US Marine Expeditionary Unit, began in the spring.
Garmsir is strategically located about 40 miles south of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, and is an important transit route for insurgents. The district also serves as a major hub for smuggling opium paste and heroin out of poppy-rich Helmand.
“This was a very successful operation,” Nato spokesman Brig Gen Carlos Branco said during a telephone interview late last month. “Only one US Marine was killed and four injured — two non-battle-related.”
He reiterated ISAF’s policy of not releasing casualty figures of Taliban, but added, “The Taliban are suffering huge losses. They are reinforcing the area in a very disorganised way.”
Branco also dismissed claims that there were a large number of civilian casualties. “I am not saying there were none, only that we have no reports.” He added that such reports that had appeared in the Afghan media were “highly exaggerated”.
“Our figures show 4,000 displaced persons, most of them from before the operation started,” he said.
Local officials and residents, however, tell a very different story.
According to Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal, the fighting has displaced 8,000 families, most of whom are in urgent need of assistance. Aid being provided by the UN in the area “cannot meet the needs of the people,” he said.
Many of the civilians who had fled the area told of numerous civilian casualties.
One man, who fled the area and asked that his name not be used, said he witnessed several women and children killed in the offensive.
“I saw two (Toyota minivans) full of women and children who were trying to get away,” he said. “The cars were bombed and completely destroyed. I cannot say how many were killed because we ran and hid, but we could see the fire and smoke coming out of them.” Abdul Karim, who had fled to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah from a village in Garmsir, said four people were killed when a bomb struck his neighbor’s house.
“Almost everyone in Garmsir is leaving for either Pakistan or Lashkar Gah,” he said. “Those who don’t have money are just stuck in the desert.”
In Helmand’s deserts, where temperatures often reach more than 120 degrees, thousands of people are reported to be without shelter, food, or adequate drinking water.
Asadullah Mayar, head of the Red Crescent Society of Helmand province, said his organisation was doing the best it could under difficult conditions.
“The displaced people are in a very bad state,” he said. “They are not being helped. Last week we helped 280 families with tea, flour, oil and blankets. We have prepared assistance for an additional 700 families. But there are many more.”
Mayar concurred with the provincial governor’s estimate that about 8,000 families had fled their homes to other districts or desert areas.
“We will try and help them as soon as we can determine where they have gone,” he said.
Garmsir has long been a hotly contested area, serving as a key transit point for non-Afghan forces to enter the country to join their Taliban allies.
“Before the beginning of this operation, there were 500 foreign fighters in Garmsir,” said Mangal, the provincial governor. “Now the number has increased to 1,100, and more are coming every day.”
US and Nato forces have relied heavily on air strikes to dislodge Taliban forces, but it’s often the civilian population that bears the brunt of the assault.
Sher Agha, a resident of Garmsir, described scenes of chaos during the attacks.
“I saw old men, women, children, just running, trying to save themselves,” he said. “No one looked out for their children, their parents. It was everyone for himself.”
But Nato’s Branco described the operation as carefully planned and restrained. He insisted that there were no reports of civilian casualties “despite the intensity of the operations.” A US military official went so far as to claim that local residents support the Marines’ efforts.
“The Afghan citizens hold the insurgents responsible for the hardship they impose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The only criticism the Marines have received is that they are moving too slowly.” Nato’s Branco promised that better days were ahead for the region.
“Naturally, we regret any families who have left their homes, but once we have re-established Afghan government control they will return and will enjoy a better quality of life, free from the oppressive regime of the Taliban,” he said.
That’s a promise that many residents have heard before.
Back in September 2006, an operation led by international forces and the Afghan National Army reported clearing Garmsir of insurgents during an operation that lasted eight hours.
In 2007, foreign forces launched yet another operation in the region. By April of that year, Nato was issuing press releases insisting that the Taliban had been driven out and that “in districts such as Lashkar Gah, Naw Zad and Garmsir, local Afghans have started seeing the benefit of a safer environment.” Now Nato, along with the Marine forces, is again claiming success.
“This is the 20th time I’ve heard there are military operations in Helmand,” said Faruq Dawer, deputy director of the Civil Rights Organisation for Afghanistan, a local non-governmental group.
“When the Taliban go to a village, they don’t usually stay for a long time. Then the Americans come in and launch a military operation, counting civilian casualties as their military achievement,” he said. “When they leave the area, the Taliban come back in. This doesn’t make any sense — you cannot stabiliae the area this way.”
Dawer warns that such large-scale military operations are actually making the situation in Helmand province worse.
“Civilian casualties are the reason security is getting worse,” he said. “The relatives of those killed join the ranks of the enemy to exact revenge.” And it’s not just Nato and US forces that have a hard time distinguishing between the civilian population and Taliban fighters, Dawer said.
Because a large portion of the Afghan army is made up of recruits from the northern part of the country, many are unfamiliar with the overwhelmingly Pashtun south.
“For a non-Pashtun, all these turbaned people look like Taliban,” said Dawer. “But almost everyone wears a turban down there.
“This is the fourth week of the operation. But even if it goes on for four years, it will not have any result,” he said.
Nato and Marine leaders insist that this time they’ll get it right.
“There is no set end-date for the operation in Garmsir. Marines will stay until the mission has been accomplished,” said Capt Kelly Frushour, the public affairs officer of the 24th Expeditionary Force.
“And even though the Marines are not in Garmsir permanently, Nato and its forces remain committed to the mission there.” — The Institute for War & Peace Reporting/MCT
* Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi are reporters in Afghanistan who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organisation that trains journalists in areas of conflict.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 10, 2008
Applying Iraq’s Lessons in an Afghan Village
By CARLOTTA GALL

HAZARJOFT, Afghanistan — United States marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a “catastrophic success.”

Yet, NATO troops had conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban had returned soon after they left. The marines, drawing on lessons from Iraq, say they know what to do to keep the Taliban at bay if they are given the time.

“There is definitely someone thinking out there,” said Capt. John Moder, commander of Company C of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, speaking of the Taliban. “That’s why we need these people to be at least neutral to us,” he said, gesturing to the farmers who have been slowly filtering back to harvest their fields.

Originally sent to Garmser District on a three-day operation to open a road, the marines have been here a month and are likely to stay longer. The extension of the operation reflects the evolving tactics of the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, building on the knowledge accumulated in recent years in Anbar Province in Iraq.

The district of Garmser, a fertile valley along the Helmand River, had been under control of the Taliban and members of Al Qaeda for most of the last two years and much of it had become a war zone, as the Taliban traded fire with British troops based in the district center. One of the largest poppy-growing areas in the country, Garmser District has been an important infiltration route for the insurgents, sending weapons and reinforcements to the north and drug shipments to the south to the border with Pakistan.

Previous operations by NATO forces to clear the area of Taliban had yielded short-lived successes, as the Taliban have re-established control each time, Afghans from the area said. It is a strategy the insurgents have employed all over Afghanistan, using roadside and suicide bombs as well as executions to terrorize the people and undermine the authority of foreign forces and fledgling local governments.

In Garmser those with the means gave up and fled to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Interviewed there by telephone, they said they had been living as refugees for almost two years and were still afraid to return — and to be identified, for fear of retribution from the Taliban.

But Company C served in Anbar Province, once one of the most intractably violent areas of Iraq, which quieted last year under a new strategy of empowering local groups called Awakening Councils, which now provide security. The marines were confident they could put that experience to good use here.

Only when you win over a critical balance of the local population and empower them to stand up to the insurgents can you turn the situation around, several marines said.

First Lt. Mark Matzke led a platoon for nine months last year in the Anbar city of Ramadi, where he said he got to know every character in a small neighborhood, both the troublemakers and the power brokers. But it was only when he sneaked in after dark and listened to people’s grievances in private that he was able to work out a strategy for protecting them from the insurgents.

“Through listening to their grievances, you could figure out that the people did not like the insurgents,” he said. But their biggest fear was that the marines would pull out, he said, leaving them at the mercy of insurgents who would treat them as collaborators.

As trust was built up, the people began to side with the marines and started to tip them off about who the insurgents were and where to find them. “You just need to give them confidence,” he said.

In this village, only the poorest laborers and farmers have started filtering back, Lieutenant Matzke said, adding, “These people are completely broken.” They refused all assistance at first, he said, but after talking for a couple of hours they admitted they could use the help, but were afraid to accept it for fear of the Taliban.

The people were glad when the Taliban were driven away, the marines said, and that is a sentiment they need to nurture. “We need to convince the people we are here to help, and to exploit the fact that we can help,” Captain Moder said.

As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes and reopen the bazaar.

When on patrol, the marines carry a small gadget the size of an old Polaroid camera that takes fingerprints, photos and an iris scan of people they meet. It is used to build a database of the residents so they can easily spot strangers, the marines say. The Afghans accepted the imposition without protest.

Observation on the ground, information from the populace and control of key commerce and transportation routes are all ways to prevent the Taliban from seeping back into the area, Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said in an interview.

“You need physically to be there,” he said. “You need to continue to move about the population, let your presence be known, but do it in a way so that you are not smothering and overwhelming. You have got to let life go on.”

But the villagers remain scared, uncertain how long the marines will stay and who will follow in their wake.

“I don’t think I will go back until complete peace and security comes,” said one elder, who said he had heard his house had collapsed under bombardment. “This is not the first time we have suffered. Several times we have seen such operations against the Taliban, and after some time the forces leave the area and so the Taliban find a way to return.”

“If NATO really wants to bring peace and make us free from harm from the Taliban,” he said, “they must make a plan for a long-term stay, secure the border area, install security checkpoints along the border area, deploy more Afghan National Army to secure the towns and villages, and then the people will be able to help them with security.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Photos of 24th MEU in Southern Afghanistan

http://usmc.groups.vox.com/library/post/6a00d41440059a685e00fad68f5cbc0005.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU Marine operations in Afghanistan
American Infidel
Jun 9, 2008 at 2:11 PM

This edition features a story on Marine operations in Afghanistan that were launched
to deter taliban uprising. Produced by Senior Airman Jason Armstrong.
(By American Forces Network Afghanistan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Rn5vsNmtQ&eurl=http://a5.vox-data.com/6a00e398c5ca24000400fa967d849d0003-html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Forgetting the Hold

Carlotta Gall kind of buried the lede here:

HAZARJOFT, Afghanistan — United States marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a “catastrophic success.”

Yet, NATO troops had conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban had returned soon after they left. The marines, drawing on lessons from Iraq, say they know what to do to keep the Taliban at bay if they are given the time…

But Company C served in Anbar Province, once one of the most intractably violent areas of Iraq, which quieted last year under a new strategy of empowering local groups called Awakening Councils, which now provide security. The marines were confident they could put that experience to good use here.

Only when you win over a critical balance of the local population and empower them to stand up to the insurgents can you turn the situation around, several marines said.

First Lt. Mark Matzke led a platoon for nine months last year in the Anbar city of Ramadi, where he said he got to know every character in a small neighborhood, both the troublemakers and the power brokers. But it was only when he sneaked in after dark and listened to people’s grievances in private that he was able to work out a strategy for protecting them from the insurgents.

While the Marines seem to be aware of the “hold” part of the COIN strategy, “Clear Hold Build,” there is little evidence they really stick to that crucial middle step. This could be mostly a problem of manpower—that nasty, persistent problem of under-resourcing: there simply are not enough Marines to do much in an area the size of Helmand. But it also speaks to a critical weakness of the effort in Afghanistan: with troops spread so thinly, it is nearly impossible to respond to wide scale security incidents while also maintaining sufficient force to keep areas cleared so that reconstruction can begin.

Worse still, there is no indication the Marines understand enough about southern Pashtun culture to replicate their success in Anbar. For one, Helmand is not Anbar. Pashtuns are not organized into rigid hierarchical tribes the same way many Arab societies are (this was a painful lesson the British had to learn in the 19th century, when they coopted the tribal leadership of the Balochi but they found no traction in purchasing the loyalties of the Maliks or Lashgars of the Waziri or Mehsuds).

Taken more broadly, the attempt to replicate Anbar in Helmand poses many problems: in Anbar, the tribes rose up on their own, using their own militias against AQI. There is little evidence the local tribal structures in Lashkar Gah and Garmser are as structured as the Anbar tribes, and there is no evidence the Arbaki groups in the area are coherent enough to pose a consistent anti-Taliban front like the tribal militias did in Anbar.

While, according to Gall, the locals remain nervous about how long the pitiful few Marines in Helmand can remain in one place, the Marines are bragging about creating a security cordon—i.e. a quarantine—around Garmser, just like they did around Ramadi. The locals, meanwhile, complain of insufficient ANA numbers nearby, the uncontrolled border, and the very real possibility that the moment some militant group makes a grab at another town or district center, the Marines will abandon them.

They’re forgetting that the hold must be priority number 1, just as they’re forgetting their presence in Anbar was incidental to the Awakening. You can play off a grassroots revivalist movement, even encourage it to work toward your ends, but you cannot invent it as a foreign invader (it is helpful to remember that no matter our intentions, we are still foreign invaders to Afghanistan).

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Trip Illuminates Life on Bases Across Afghan Desert

by Ivan Watson

All Things Considered, June 12, 2008 · In Afghanistan, tens of thousands of NATO-led U.S. and foreign troops are battling a Taliban insurgency across eastern and southern Afghanistan. NPR's Ivan Watson and David Gilkey spent the past four days traveling across the network of NATO bases in southern Afghanistan and sent this postcard about the journey.

It took four days to travel from the Afghan capital of Kabul to a Marine outpost in the southern part of the country.

One of the first stops on the journey was the sprawling air base outside the city of Kandahar.

On Sunday night, thousands of soldiers stood on the tarmac here, to bid farewell to a Canadian soldier who died in the line of duty.

Capt. Jonathan Snyder died while on night patrol, when he accidentally fell into a 60-foot-deep well. Canada has lost 85 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan, the highest wartime death toll for the Canadians since the Korean conflict nearly 55 years ago.

Some 2,500 Canadian soldiers are based outside Kandahar. They are part of a kaleidoscope of different military units deployed across southern Afghanistan.

Kandahar is the main transport and logistics hub for this turbulent region.

It takes less than an hour to fly aboard a C-130 cargo plane from Kandahar to the main British military base in Helmand province.

The British force of some 7,500 soldiers in Helmand suffered fresh casualties Sunday, when a suicide bomber attacked a foot patrol and killed three soldiers.

Lt. Col. Robin Matthews, spokesman for the British force, said one of those casualties represented the 100th death of British soldiers engaged in operations in Afghanistan.

"We're now dealing with a counterinsurgency campaign. … I think everybody now acknowledges the scale of the problem," Matthews said.

From the British base, a twin-rotor helicopter ferries U.S. Marines and equipment to Camp Dwyer, another British base that now is also home to the U.S. Marines 24th Expeditionary Unit.

The camp is a spartan place: no showers and little electricity. Marines swelter in the desert heat in tents with dirt floors infested by camel spiders the size of a hand.

On Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Dale Cortman prepared to lead a large supply convoy across Garmsir District, which had long been a lawless region near the border with Pakistan.

The Marines captured much of this district from the Taliban after weeks of fighting in May.

One of the Marines on board the supply convoy was 19-year-old Doug Hicks from Florida. His job was to guard three detainees in an armored truck.

The prisoners wore plastic flex-cuffs and blindfolds. Hicks barely interacted with them except to hand them bottles of water and occasionally order them, in Pashto, to shut up when they whispered to each other.

The convoy rolled down dirt roads, past endless fields of opium poppies and mud-brick farmhouses, some of which had been damaged during last month's fighting.

Hicks was not impressed.

"This place, I say it's pretty much hell. It's hot, dusty, doesn't rain. Everything's tan," he said.

The convoy finally arrived at the improvised headquarters of this company of Marines.

The young Marines stationed here made a long human chain and spent more than an hour in 120-degree heat offloading bottles of water from the trucks.

"If mail's on the truck, it's the highlight of the day," one Marine said, as he tossed water bottles under the hot sun. "If there ain't no mail, you just get ****ed off!" his neighbor answered.

When they finished the chore, a few lucky Marines learned that they had, in fact, received some mail. They sat in the dirt of their mud-brick compound and read letters out loud to each other under a setting sun.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines’ ‘victory’ comes at high cost for AfghansPublished: Monday, 9 June, 2008, 02:27 AM Doha Time


By Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi
GARMSIR, Afghanistan: To hear the military tell it, its recent large-scale operation in the southern province of Helmand by a US Marine force was an unqualified success, driving Taliban insurgents from the restive region and restoring hope and confidence to villagers through the region.
The Marines “have disrupted the Taliban’s freedom of movement and pushed them south, and that has created the grounds for us to develop the hospital and set the conditions for the government to come back,” said Maj Neil Den-McKay, the officer commanding a company of the Royal Regiment of Scotland based here. People have already started coming back to villages north of the town, he said, adding, “there has been huge optimism from the people.”
But reporters on the ground found a very different story. This once bustling district is now a ghost town, with villages largely emptied of their populations.
In the village of Loy Kalai alone, 4,000 families fled once the Marines’ offensive started. More than half the houses were destroyed. Abandoned farm animals are beginning to die in the fields. The body of a man who appeared to have died from shrapnel wounds could be seen in one abandoned house. The smell of decay hung over the area.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” said a resident who asked that his name not be used.
The Garmsir district has been the focus of a large-scale Nato operation code-named ‘Azada Wosa’ (‘Be Free’ in Pashto). The offensive, led by the 2,400-member strong US Marine Expeditionary Unit, began in the spring.
Garmsir is strategically located about 40 miles south of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, and is an important transit route for insurgents. The district also serves as a major hub for smuggling opium paste and heroin out of poppy-rich Helmand.
“This was a very successful operation,” Nato spokesman Brig Gen Carlos Branco said during a telephone interview late last month. “Only one US Marine was killed and four injured — two non-battle-related.”
He reiterated ISAF’s policy of not releasing casualty figures of Taliban, but added, “The Taliban are suffering huge losses. They are reinforcing the area in a very disorganised way.”
Branco also dismissed claims that there were a large number of civilian casualties. “I am not saying there were none, only that we have no reports.” He added that such reports that had appeared in the Afghan media were “highly exaggerated”.
“Our figures show 4,000 displaced persons, most of them from before the operation started,” he said.
Local officials and residents, however, tell a very different story.
According to Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal, the fighting has displaced 8,000 families, most of whom are in urgent need of assistance. Aid being provided by the UN in the area “cannot meet the needs of the people,” he said.
Many of the civilians who had fled the area told of numerous civilian casualties.
One man, who fled the area and asked that his name not be used, said he witnessed several women and children killed in the offensive.
“I saw two (Toyota minivans) full of women and children who were trying to get away,” he said. “The cars were bombed and completely destroyed. I cannot say how many were killed because we ran and hid, but we could see the fire and smoke coming out of them.” Abdul Karim, who had fled to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah from a village in Garmsir, said four people were killed when a bomb struck his neighbor’s house.
“Almost everyone in Garmsir is leaving for either Pakistan or Lashkar Gah,” he said. “Those who don’t have money are just stuck in the desert.”
In Helmand’s deserts, where temperatures often reach more than 120 degrees, thousands of people are reported to be without shelter, food, or adequate drinking water.
Asadullah Mayar, head of the Red Crescent Society of Helmand province, said his organisation was doing the best it could under difficult conditions.
“The displaced people are in a very bad state,” he said. “They are not being helped. Last week we helped 280 families with tea, flour, oil and blankets. We have prepared assistance for an additional 700 families. But there are many more.”
Mayar concurred with the provincial governor’s estimate that about 8,000 families had fled their homes to other districts or desert areas.
“We will try and help them as soon as we can determine where they have gone,” he said.
Garmsir has long been a hotly contested area, serving as a key transit point for non-Afghan forces to enter the country to join their Taliban allies.
“Before the beginning of this operation, there were 500 foreign fighters in Garmsir,” said Mangal, the provincial governor. “Now the number has increased to 1,100, and more are coming every day.”
US and Nato forces have relied heavily on air strikes to dislodge Taliban forces, but it’s often the civilian population that bears the brunt of the assault.
Sher Agha, a resident of Garmsir, described scenes of chaos during the attacks.
“I saw old men, women, children, just running, trying to save themselves,” he said. “No one looked out for their children, their parents. It was everyone for himself.”
But Nato’s Branco described the operation as carefully planned and restrained. He insisted that there were no reports of civilian casualties “despite the intensity of the operations.” A US military official went so far as to claim that local residents support the Marines’ efforts.
“The Afghan citizens hold the insurgents responsible for the hardship they impose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The only criticism the Marines have received is that they are moving too slowly.” Nato’s Branco promised that better days were ahead for the region.
“Naturally, we regret any families who have left their homes, but once we have re-established Afghan government control they will return and will enjoy a better quality of life, free from the oppressive regime of the Taliban,” he said.
That’s a promise that many residents have heard before.
Back in September 2006, an operation led by international forces and the Afghan National Army reported clearing Garmsir of insurgents during an operation that lasted eight hours.
In 2007, foreign forces launched yet another operation in the region. By April of that year, Nato was issuing press releases insisting that the Taliban had been driven out and that “in districts such as Lashkar Gah, Naw Zad and Garmsir, local Afghans have started seeing the benefit of a safer environment.” Now Nato, along with the Marine forces, is again claiming success.
“This is the 20th time I’ve heard there are military operations in Helmand,” said Faruq Dawer, deputy director of the Civil Rights Organisation for Afghanistan, a local non-governmental group.
“When the Taliban go to a village, they don’t usually stay for a long time. Then the Americans come in and launch a military operation, counting civilian casualties as their military achievement,” he said. “When they leave the area, the Taliban come back in. This doesn’t make any sense — you cannot stabiliae the area this way.”
Dawer warns that such large-scale military operations are actually making the situation in Helmand province worse.
“Civilian casualties are the reason security is getting worse,” he said. “The relatives of those killed join the ranks of the enemy to exact revenge.” And it’s not just Nato and US forces that have a hard time distinguishing between the civilian population and Taliban fighters, Dawer said.
Because a large portion of the Afghan army is made up of recruits from the northern part of the country, many are unfamiliar with the overwhelmingly Pashtun south.
“For a non-Pashtun, all these turbaned people look like Taliban,” said Dawer. “But almost everyone wears a turban down there.
“This is the fourth week of the operation. But even if it goes on for four years, it will not have any result,” he said.
Nato and Marine leaders insist that this time they’ll get it right.
“There is no set end-date for the operation in Garmsir. Marines will stay until the mission has been accomplished,” said Capt Kelly Frushour, the public affairs officer of the 24th Expeditionary Force.
“And even though the Marines are not in Garmsir permanently, Nato and its forces remain committed to the mission there.” — The Institute for War & Peace Reporting/MCT
* Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi are reporters in Afghanistan who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organisation that trains journalists in areas of conflict.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

4 Marines die in Afghanistan; 870 inmates escape

By NOOR KHAN and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers
2 hours, 14 minutes ago

About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.

The bomb in the western province of Farah targeted Marines helping to train Afghanistan's fledgling police force, said U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. One other Marine was wounded in the attack.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment based in Twentynine Palms, California, arrived in Afghanistan earlier this year and were sent to southern and western Afghanistan to train police.

The bombing comes one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.

The four deaths bring to at least 44 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count. No more than two U.S. personnel had been killed in any one attack in Afghanistan this year, according to the AP tally.

In the prison escape, the police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban inmates were among those who fled the prison during the attack late Friday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force put the number of escapees slightly higher, at around 1,100, according to spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco. He conceded that the assault was a success.

"We admit it," Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."

The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from inside the prison courtyard, setting off a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.

The rockets demolished an upper prison floor, said Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy minister at the Justice Ministry. Nine police were killed in the attack, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

There were no indications that the militants received help from the inside, but as a precaution the prison's chief official, Abdul Qabir, was placed under investigation for possible involvement, Hashimzai said.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison.

NATO was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to help track fleeing militants, Branco said.

Afghan officials warned that the Taliban essentially boosted its force by 400 fighters because of the prison break, but Branco said NATO officials didn't think it would change the military situation.

"OK, they got some more fighters, more shooters," Branco said. "These guys who escaped from the prison are not going to change the operational tempo and they do not provide the Taliban with operational initiative."

A man who claimed to be one of the militants who escaped, Abdul Nafai, called an Associated Press reporter and said the insurgents had minibuses waiting outside the prison during the attack and that dozens of militants fled in the vehicles. Other witnesses and officials said the militants fled on foot into pomegranate and grape groves behind the prison.

Hashimzai said the jail did not meet international minimum standards for a prison. The Kandahar facility was not built as a prison but had been modified into one, he said.

A delegation of deputy ministers from the Justice and Interior ministries left for Kandahar early Saturday.

"Plans are under way to renovate all the prisons around the country," said Hashimzai. "Kandahar was one of them, but unfortunately what happened last night is cause for concern."

Kandahar was the Taliban's former stronghold and its province has been the scene of fierce fighting in the past two years between insurgents and NATO troops, primarily from Canada and the United States.

Qabir, the chief of Kandahar's Sarposa Prison, said the assault began when a tanker truck full of explosives detonated at the prison's main entrance, wrecking the gate and a police post, killing all the officers inside.

Soon after, a suicide bomber on foot blasted a hole in the back of the prison, Qabir said.

Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, said militants had been planning the assault for two months.

Canadian soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force helped provide a security cordon after the attack.

Last month, some 200 Taliban suspects at the prison ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised that their cases would be reviewed.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

After Battle in Afghanistan Villages,
Marines Open Complaint Shop
To Win Over Civilians, Soldiers Take
Claims for Damages; a Free Wind-Up Radio
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
June 18, 2008; Page A1

GARMSIR, Afghanistan -- During a month of house-to-house combat, First Lt. Steven Bechtel's men fired about 500 mortar rounds at Taliban insurgents.

Now, he's paying the price.

Just two days after the main Taliban force was routed, Lt. Bechtel put aside his weapons and opened what amounts to a wartime complaints desk in a mud-brick hut. The lieutenant and his men spend their time cataloging the destruction and issuing vouchers to compensate villagers for their losses, whether caused by U.S. missiles or Taliban grenades.

"We're very sorry for the damage to your doors, but we had to make sure the Taliban didn't leave any bombs or weapons inside," Lt. Bechtel last week told Abdul Majid, a 70-year-old with a weathered face, a dense white beard and a cane made from a tree limb.

"It's no problem," Mr. Majid responded. "You're paying for it."

The First Battalion of the Sixth Marine Regiment was recently deployed to Afghanistan as part of a force, 3,000-strong, helping to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban. What resulted was a conventional battle that raged through the villages and poppy fields of Garmsir District, a major waypoint for insurgents leaving safe havens in Pakistan, a sign of how far Western gains have slipped recently.

The fighting sent civilians fleeing into the surrounding desert. After the violence ebbed, the villagers returned, in many cases to homes cracked open by artillery, bombs, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. Soon they were lined up at Lt. Bechtel's door, testing the Marines' ability to shift gears on the fly, from combat to the struggle for popular allegiance. Winning over the locals has always been a goal; now, it's happening in double-quick time.

"It just switched suddenly one day," says Lt. Bechtel, a soft-spoken 24-year-old from Naples, Fla., who decided in the eighth grade that he wanted to be a Marine. "All of the sudden there were civilians in the area."

More than 200 villagers have applied for compensation already, and a vendor has set up shop outside the coiled razor-wire barrier selling cigarettes and soda to the petitioners. At the first coils, the villagers, all men or boys, must lift their shirts or robes to show that they aren't wearing suicide vests. At the guard post, a Marine sentry pats them down before they're allowed to approach the office.

The walls inside are adorned with posters of sumptuous feasts and the holy city of Medina. They're property of the compound's owner. The Marines commandeered the man's residence during the fighting, and now scores of men from the battalion's Alpha Company camp in his buildings and sandy yard, for which they pay the equivalent of $60 a month in rent. The troops promise to leave as soon as they have built a base of their own. But the owner comes by almost daily to demand his house back, or at least more rent.

Verifying the Damage

The first time a villager comes to the complaint office, the lieutenant or his No. 2, Sgt. James Blake, a 25-year-old from Merrimack, N.H., jots down the claim on a piece of yellow legal paper. The petitioner takes the note to a Marine patrol in his neighborhood. The Marines verify the damage and send the man back to Lt. Bechtel.

At the second meeting, the Marines tally up the cost, using data on an Excel spreadsheet that the lieutenant, who majored in mechanical-engineering at Virginia Military Institute, compiled using prices gathered from the local market:

-- One foot of mud wall knocked down: 300 afghanis ($6)

-- One wooden door smashed in: 1,000 afghanis ($20)

-- One acre of wheat burned: 15,000 afghanis ($300)

The Marines won't pay for damage to opium poppy fields.

A typical damage-assessment interview goes like this:

Sgt. Blake: "Were your windows glass, sir?"

Bismullah Jan, a 25-year-old wheat, corn and poppy farmer: "Yes."

Sgt. Blake: "How many cows, sir?"

Mr. Jan: "Three cows and three goats."

Sgt. Blake to his Pashto interpreter: "Hey, James, what's a good price for goats? Just a ballpark figure."

Interpreter: "5,000 or 6,000 afghanis." ($100 to $120)

Sgt. Blake adds up the damage and offers 251,000 afghanis ($5,020). Mr. Jan hoped for something more. He emptied his pockets and held up two 100 afghani bills, worth $2 each -- a plea of poverty.

"Unfortunately, all I can do is pay for damage caused when we were fighting the Taliban," Sgt. Blake told him apologetically.

On a single day last week , the Marines pledged $12,100 in reparations. "I'd rather be shooting mortars," says Sgt. Blake. "But I understand why we're doing this, paying for the damage we caused. And I like helping people out as much as we can."

The Marines take retinal and fingerprint scans of all petitioners -- when the scanner works. When it doesn't, as is often the case amid the dust clouds and the 125-degree heat, they use a regular digital camera to snap mug shots taken against handwritten height marks on the wall.

Taliban Threats

Taliban infiltrators have threatened to kill villagers who accept American money, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Still, petitioners keep coming.

"Congratulations -- you're No. 200," Sgt. Blake said when a man in a gold-embroidered skullcap entered the office the other day. "You've won a free radio."

The man greeted the news with a blank stare. But he willingly accepted the wind-up radio and a damage-assessment note to take to the Marine patrols.

Afghanistan is a wretchedly poor country and, often, villagers hope the Marines will do more than compensate them for battle damage. One man showed up with his son; their house was undamaged, but the boy had tuberculosis. Another man shows up almost every day just to say hello.

Mr. Majid, the elderly petitioner, patted Lt. Bechtel on the shoulder and removed his own blue turban -- gestures of gratitude -- when offered 36,000 afghanis, or about $720, to repair his house and restore his fields. Afterward, he requested medicine for his headaches and help feeding his family. By the time he left, Mr. Majid had a new radio, a few packaged military meals, Tylenol for his head and antidiarrhea medicine for his grandson.

There's one flaw in the Marines' campaign. While they freely issue compensation vouchers, they don't have any actual money to give out yet. The cash, the Marines tell the villagers, will be here on July 1. The date has already slipped once, from mid-June, and some people doubt they'll ever see the money. "If we don't pay them on the first," Sgt. Blake said, "it's going to be bad."

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Coalition units push Afghanistan offensive
Afghan and NATO forces retake 4 towns held by Taliban insurgents

By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King

June 19, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan


Explosions echoed through vineyards and pomegranate groves yesterday as Afghan and NATO forces backed by helicopter gunships recaptured at least four villages in southern Afghanistan that had been seized by the Taliban, Afghan authorities said.

At least three dozen insurgents, including a commander, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in the Arghandab district northwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said. By day's end, the insurgents were still in control of a half-dozen villages.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan's volatile south, four British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province, Western military officials said. It was the largest number of British troops killed in a single incident this year, reflecting growing Taliban prowess in preparing and planting powerful improvised explosive devices.

The British troop loss came less than a week after four U.S. Marines were killed in a roadside bombing in Farah province, the highest American toll in an attack in Afghanistan this year.

Analysts have said that 2008 is shaping up as the most violent year since the toppling of the Taliban movement more than six years ago. NATO officials say the insurgency is being fueled by Taliban fighters who take shelter in Pakistan in between hit-and-run confrontations with Afghan and Western troops.

The Arghandab offensive, one of the largest in months by the Western-led coalition, was expected to take about three days, the NATO command said. Taliban forces, their ranks swelled by a jailbreak in Kandahar last week that freed hundreds of militants, moved into Arghandab late Sunday.

The densely populated farming district is an important gateway to Kandahar, 10 miles to the southeast. The city was the birthplace of the Taliban movement and is considered strategically pivotal to Afghanistan's entire south.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement yesterday that Kandahar "remains firmly under the control of the Afghan government, despite rumors that the Taliban might attack."

Thousands of villagers fled Arghandab before the offensive began at dawn yesterday. Civilians who remained in the area described militants taking shelter in culverts and along riverbanks as helicopter gunships raked the area with fire.

A tribal elder in Arghandab, Haji Ghulam Farooq, said the insurgents, armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, were fleeing northward as Afghan and Canadian troops moved in from the south on foot.

Taliban fighters generally shun confrontations with better-equipped Western-led forces, but insurgent commanders had expressed determination this time to hold their ground and to strike next at Kandahar.

NATO officials insisted yesterday that the size of the Taliban presence in the area had been greatly exaggerated. But villagers, local officials and Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the Taliban force numbered in the hundreds.

NATO estimates of the number of refugees also have been at odds with those of local officials. Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco, a NATO spokesman, had said that villagers did not appear to be fleeing in large numbers, but witnesses described a panicked exodus of hundreds of farm families.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, a provincial commissioner and a brother of President Hamid Karzai, put the number of those who had taken shelter in and near Kandahar at about 1,500 families, or about 4,000 people.

The governor of Kandahar province, Asadullah Khalid, said yesterday that Afghan authorities had appealed for United Nations help in dealing with those displaced by the conflict.

In eastern Paktika province, two coalition soldiers were killed and 10 wounded when their patrol was attacked by insurgents, the military reported without providing details. Fighting also flared yesterday in Zabol province, which adjoins Kandahar province.

M. Karim Faiez and Laura King write for the Los Angeles Times.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

BBC24 _ABCNEWS_AFGHANISTAN_080617

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24thmeu/2591558485/

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghans: Taliban cleared from near Kandahar
By Noor Khan - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 19, 2008 10:30:01 EDT

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — A swift offensive by Afghan and NATO forces has driven Taliban militants from a strategic group of villages they had infiltrated outside southern Afghanistan’s largest city, Afghan officials said Thursday.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said militants fled the villages in Arghandab district after overnight battles and airstrikes. Khalid claimed “hundreds” of Taliban were wounded or killed over the last several days of fighting.

NATO officials have not confirmed that figure, nor said if Arghandab is now militant-free. But NATO spokesman Mark Laity did confirm that the alliance launched a “limited number of successful airstrikes” overnight.

“We don’t have a definitive assessment, though casualties were inflicted,” Laity said. “The main point is that it has helped ensure the continuing success of the mission.”

Laity said the joint Afghan-NATO mission is progressing through Arghandab “methodically and successfully” and has met minimal resistance.

The deputy commander of Afghan forces in Kandahar, Aminullah Pathyani, said Thursday that militants had been pushed out of the remaining six villages they controlled Wednesday.

Afghan officials have said the Taliban infiltrated 10 villages in the Arghandab river valley, a lush fruit-filled region just 10 miles northwest of Kandahar. Arghandab is a strategic military vantage point sought by the Taliban for its proximity to their former power base.

The Afghan army said Monday that up to 400 militants poured into the Arghandab area. That followed a bold Taliban attack on the Kandahar prison last Friday that freed 900 inmates, including 400 Taliban fighters.

Canadian military officials who patrolled through Arghandab this week reported “no obvious signs” of insurgent activity. But that didn’t mean there were no Taliban there, a NATO news release said.

U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly played down the scope of the Taliban push into Arghandab. But the swift military response — 700 Afghan soldiers flew to Kandahar on a moment’s notice — and the fighter aircraft dedicated by NATO suggest that keeping Arghandab clear from militants is an urgent priority.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said Wednesday that more than 36 Taliban fighters were killed in two villages in Arghandab. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed, the ministry said in a statement. Twelve other militants were killed in Maiwand, a separate district in Kandahar province.

Echoing the recent words of President Hamid Karzai, Kandahar governor Khalid warned Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Baitullah Mehsud — the latter is Pakistan’s top Taliban commander — that their fighters will be “punished” for carrying out terrorist activities in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Taliban announced on a Web site used by the militants that a group of suicide bombers had entered Kandahar to attack Canadian and Afghan troops and government officials, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites.

Laity, the NATO spokesman, said officials are always alert to the threat of suicide bombs, but he said the Taliban frequently boast of many more bombers than they actually have as a scare tactic.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

AFGHANISTAN: Fatalities among Twentynine Palms Marines

A third was 19 years old and had only recently married his high-school sweetheart. And the fourth had tried to enlist in the Marines soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but was rejected because he was only 16.

All four were part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, based at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles. They were killed June 14 by a roadside bomb in Farah province, where the battalion is assigned to shape up the Afghan security forces.

Killed were: Sgt. Michael T. Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash.; Lance Cpl. Layton B. Crass, 22, of Richmond, Ind.; Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill.; and Pfc. Michael Robert Patton, 19, of Fenton, Mo.

Although often overshadowed in the media by Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms has been key to the U.S. efforts in Iraq and, now, Afghanistan. According to the unofficial website icasualties.org, 117 Marines from Twentynine Palms have been killed in the two conflicts (23 of the 117 are listed in The Times database for troops with hometowns in California).

Camp Pendleton, with more battalions, has had at least 335 killed (78 are listed in The Times database).

Pietrek, the Polish emigre, "had his dreams and goals and he achieved it," a family friend told the Chicago Tribune. "He always wanted to be a Marine."

Washington's father was a Marine during the Persian Gulf War, his grandfather during the Korean War. Crass' brother Devin, 19, is also a Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: The casket of Marine Sgt. Michael T. Washington arrives Thursday at a funeral home in Auburn, Wash. Saluting in the doorway is his father, Michael W. Washington. Credit: Associated Press.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines make headway in southern Afghan town

GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines are trading gunfire and artillery shells with Taliban militants in the volatile southern province of Helmand, the world's largest poppy growing region.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into the town of Garmser in late April. It's the farthest south U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan in years.

Marine commanders say the Taliban brought in arms and fighters in response, to protect the lucrative poppy fields that cover Garmser. The Taliban derives tens of millions of dollars from the poppy trade each year by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees.

The Marines originally planned to be in Garmser for only a couple of days, to open a road that leads to southern Helmand, near the border with Pakistan. But the 24th MEU decided to extend its stay to root out the fighters.

After weeks of skirmishes with insurgents — who fired rockets and mortars at U.S. positions several times daily — NATO officials say the militants fled the region late last month. A shura — a council of village elders — was held in Garmser for the first time in years.

"Many of the people who have approached our patrols have told us how happy they are that the insurgents have left. They seem genuinely glad to be home," said Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, the commanding officer of the MEU's infantry battalion.

Helmand province is the world's largest opium poppy growing region, the main ingredient in heroin.

The Marines arrived during the poppy harvest season, but didn't cut down the flowery plants. That would have alienated farmers and labors with no other means of feeding their families, the Marines said. Most of the profits in the poppy trade go to traffickers, not farmers.

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are (like) the cornfields of Ohio," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. "When we got here they were asking us if it's OK to harvest poppy and we said, 'Yeah, just don't use an AK-47."'

British troops have responsibility for Helmand and maintain a small outpost on the northern tip of Garmser, but don't have enough soldiers to move farther south.

U.S. and British advisers hope to bring Afghan security forces into Garmser to capitalize on the Marines' gains, but the Afghan government probably does not have enough trained forces to move into Garmser either. That means the Taliban could move back in if the Marines leave.

The situation underlines why NATO commanders have called for NATO countries to contribute up to another 10,000 forces into Afghanistan.

The U.S. now has a record 33,000 troops in the country, part of an international force that has grown to almost 70,000 troops.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines make headway near Taliban's precious poppy fields
By Jason Straziuso
Associated Press
Sunday, June 22, 2008


U.S. Marines are trading gunfire and artillery shells with Taliban militants in the volatile southern province of Helmand, the world’s largest poppy growing region.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved near the town of Garmser in late April. It’s the furthest south U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan in years.

Marine commanders say the Taliban brought in arms and fighters in response, to protect the lucrative poppy fields that cover Garmser. The Taliban derives tens of millions of dollars from the poppy trade each year by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees.

The Marines originally planned to be in Garmser for only a couple of days, to open a road that leads to southern Helmand, near the border with Pakistan. But the 24th MEU decided to extend its stay to root out the fighters.

After weeks of skirmishes with insurgents - who fired rockets and mortars at U.S. positions several times daily - NATO officials say the militants fled the region late last month. A shura - a council of village elders - was held in Garmser for the first time in years.

“Many of the people who have approached our patrols have told us how happy they are that the insurgents have left.’’ said Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, the commanding officer of the MEU’s infantry battalion.

Helmand province is the world’s largest opium poppy growing region, the main ingredient in heroin.

The Marines arrived during the poppy harvest season, but didn’t cut down the flowery plants. That would have alienated farmers and labors with no other means of feeding their families, the Marines said. Most of the profits in the poppy trade go to traffickers, not farmers.

“Poppy fields in Afghanistan are (like) the cornfields of Ohio,’’ said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. “When we got here they were asking us if it’s OK to harvest poppy and we said, ‘Yeah, just don’t use an AK-47.’ ’’

British troops have responsibility for Helmand and maintain a small outpost on the northern tip of Garmser, but don’t have enough soldiers to move farther south.

U.S. and British advisers hope to bring Afghan security forces into Garmser to capitalize on the Marines’ gains, but the Afghan government probably does not have enough trained forces to move into Garmser either. That means the Taliban could move back in if the Marines leave.

The situation underlines why NATO commanders have called for NATO countries to contribute up to another 10,000 forces into Afghanistan.

The U.S. now has a record 33,000 troops in the country, part of an international force that has grown to almost 70,000 troops.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Holding on to a victory
In weeks of fighting, U.S. Marines drive Taliban out of a poppy-rich stretch in Afghanistan. Their mission has been extended to prevent the enemy's return.
Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/22/2008 11:56:26 PM CDT

The original plan in late April was to stay for just a couple of days when the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into the town of Garmser, Afghanistan, to open a road near the Pakistani border.

But the Taliban, which derive tens of millions of dollars from the poppy trade each year by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees, wasn't about to give up Garmser's lucrative poppy fields without a fight.

So the 24th MEU decided to extend its stay to root out the fighters. After weeks of skirmishes with the insurgents — who fired rockets and mortars at U.S. positions several times daily — NATO officials say the militants fled the region late last month. But the Marines are still there.

"Many of the people who have approached our patrols have told us how happy they are the insurgents have left. They seem genuinely glad to be home," said Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, the commanding officer of the MEU's infantry battalion.

The Marines further pleased the local population by deciding not to cut down the flowery poppy plants that are the main ingredient in heroin. Many farmers and laborers have no other means of feeding their families.

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are (like) the cornfields of Ohio," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. "When we got here, they were asking us if it's OK to harvest poppy, and we said, 'Yeah, just don't use an AK-47.' "

Now, the U.S. and Britain, which have responsibility for Helmand province, where Garmser is located, hope to bring Afghan security forces in to capitalize on the Marines' gains. But the Afghan government is short on trained forces, and the Taliban could move back in if the Marines leave. So for now, the Marines remain.

To view pix's

http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_9668307?source=rss

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Difficult week in Afghanistan
By Paul Fanning
Monday, June 23, 2008

This has been a difficult week for our task force here in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense has already announced the names of six Marines and one Navy Corpsman killed in action since June 14th and I know more American families have received dreadful news even as I write this entry.

Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix has suffered a total of 12 casualties since then. Back in May we lost a Georgia and a South Carolina National Guardsman. Both of these courageous Soldiers had volunteered to extend their tour of duty in Afghanistan to serve with their new team mates from New York.

The task force is comprised of more than 8,000 military and civilian personnel from across the country. As the public affairs officer for Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, Operation Enduring Freedom I have a responsibility to the 10 nations and all four U.S. service branches that contribute troops to this task force. By policy, I submit public releases whenever there are fatalities in our task force and I refer to them as "coalition service members." My release also stipulates that each nation will release the names of their fallen according to their protocols following Next of Kin notification.

In the U.S., federal law sets that the Department of Defense has exclusive authority to release the names of fallen U.S. service personnel. DoD set a policy that it will not release names any earlier than 24 hours following confirmation of Next of Kin notification. As a spokesman, I often receive phone calls for additional information on each incident and reporters always ask if I can identify the nationality of the deceased. I do not for the reasons just explained.

In the past, in my usual role as the New York National Guard State Public Affairs Officer, I have advised news organizations to monitor the DoD Web site at www.defenselink.mil and look for news releases under the press tab. This is how names are publicly released.

As the State Public Affairs Officer back in New York I have unfortunately had a lot of experience with these events as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I had the tragic honor of working with many New York families that were faced with a nightmare come true. In these instances my help was requested and to this day I consider the support I was able to offer to be a special privilege. I will never forget the families and their loved one, some of whom I did personally know. Each soldier and family has left a mark on me. Each situation has changed me.

Now I am in the combat theater. I get the combat reports from the operation center; follow the actions of the medical evacuations and responses; listen in to the digital and radio communications and receive the briefings when deaths are confirmed. I see the expressions on the faces of those in the operation center and the other staff members who are called in when tragedy strikes.

And then, I must perform my function in generating the basic release as I described above while my comrades in the personnel section initiate the casualty notification process and the chaplain staff begin theirs. And all the while I picture in my mind each succeeding step in the process that will lead to the dreaded official visit to the home by a notification officer. And then will come a support officer to help with arrangements and the return of the body back home and then a funeral ...

The best news I got this week came in the form of an e-mail message from a friend "down range." I knew he was wounded in one of the events that claimed the life of another coalition service member. He sent a message to a group of us saying he was OK. His body armor had absorbed the blast impact and shrapnel and all he had was a bruise. It was news that I really needed to hear and just in time.

We hold memorial ceremonies here in theater for our fallen. These ceremonies take place at the Forward Operating Base where they were assigned and at the regional security commands. We also hold them here at Camp Phoenix in Kabul.

Last Saturday night, we held one here for four young Marines who were killed on June 14 when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive devise (IED) down south in Farah province. Major General Robert Cone, who commands Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) attended with a Navy rear admiral, along with many of our senior leaders from across the task force.

For photos from the service, view the photo gallery "Pictures from the Front" by clicking here.

The formation in Patriot Square included members of our New York National Guard's 27th Brigade Combat Team, a formation of Navy and Air Force, formations from our resident French and Romanian detachments and two Marines who were friends of the deceased and served as honor guards next to our Fallen Warrior Memorial. This is comprised of a small altar on which is placed empty boots, inverted rifles with helmets over the shoulder stocks, framed portraits and the medals each Marine will be awarded posthumously.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Brignone from Binghamton sang the National Anthem and the Marine Hymn. Our new Air Force chaplain, Father Gildardo Garcia, delivered the invocation. Command Sergeant Major David Piwowarski from Buffalo read a short biographical summary written by the Marines' friends. The task force commander, Col. Brian K. Balfe, delivered the keynote, and our 27th chaplain, Maj. Glenn McQuown, delivered the scripture reading, reflection and benediction. The ceremony included a 21-gun salute with blank ammunition and taps. I served as the program narrator.

The ceremony concluded with a silent dismissal. It started off when the task force commander, command sergeant major and the two chaplains stepped forward and presented themselves in front of the Fallen Warrior Memorial, rendered the slow salute and knelt for a silent prayer. They stood, executed a right face and marched off. The distinguished guests, including Maj. Gen. Cone, followed and soon nearly the entire assembly had fallen in to pay respect. The chaplain's assistant, Staff Sergeant Linda Nosbish from Buffalo, cued up a series of appropriate songs over the sound system. Despite the military prescision and structure, the ceremony was very emotional.

This was our third Fallen Warrior ceremony since the 27th took command of the task force at the end of April. We are planning the next ceremony now. We will hold it here next week.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Try to Improve Image in Taliban Stronghold

by Ivan Watson

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET

Morning Edition, June 25, 2008 · It has been a month and a half since a force of some 1,500 U.S. Marines attacked the Taliban stronghold of Garmsir district in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

After 30 days of nonstop fighting, the Marines succeeded in capturing the area, which also happens to be one of the biggest opium-producing regions in the country.

Now these American troops are trying to win the confidence of the locals, while also being on the lookout for suicide bombers and deadly roadside bombs.

Living Among Insurgents

On one late afternoon, a shot rings out from one of the guard posts protecting the Alpha Company's mud-walled compound in Garmsir. It is a warning shot fired by the guard on duty, Lance Cpl. Clayton Blunt, aimed in the direction of an Afghan man on a passing motorcycle.

The Afghan man gets off his motorbike, hands in the air. A sergeant tells Blunt that the man needs to ride farther from the building when coming by on his bike.

The Marines are on alert after receiving reports that two suicide bombers on motorbikes have crossed the nearby border with Pakistan and are now looking for targets.

The incident ends without bloodshed, but Marines like Cpl. Eric Garris are still tense.

"We've gone two weeks now without hearing any gunshots," he says. "And that's scarier than hearing gunshots every day, because now that just means they're hiding better or they're gone. You never know."

Garris' commander, Capt. Sean Dynan, notes that the Taliban virtually ruled Garmsir district for the past two years.

"This region is near the Pakistani border. It's in the breadbasket of Afghanistan, the Helmand province, right along the Helmand River. So they use this area to cultivate their poppy in order to provide funds off the drug trade," Dynan says. "They also use this area to flow in forces up to the northern part of Afghanistan."

With the intense fighting over, Dynan's company of Marines is now scattered across the district. They are occupying crude mud-brick farmhouses, living side by side with Afghan villagers and, they believe, with enemy insurgents.

Asked if he thinks the Taliban are watching his men, Dynan points across the barbed wire that separates his camp from a nearby bazaar.

"I think there's some in the area," he says. "I think there's some actually in that cafe right over there watching us."

Damage Control

Despite the constant threat of attack, the Marines are trying to win the hearts and minds of the civilian population in Garmsir.

Until recently, Sgt. James Blake was part of a mortar team, lobbing shells at Taliban targets. Now, he is part of a team that is trying to compensate hundreds of residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the fighting.

"It says here that basically your whole building was destroyed by a 2,000-pound bomb," Blake says to a resident. "Sir, for all the damage we cost to your home, in order to help you rebuild and get your trees and everything back, what we can offer in repayment is 243,000 Afghani [around $4,800]."

Blake instructs the Afghan man to return for his payment on July 1. So far, the Marines have pledged to pay close to $150,000 to help 80 Afghan families rebuild their homes.

Asked if he is confident that the money will come through by July 1, Blake says, "I really hope so … I think if it doesn't come, there might be a riot."

Despite the outreach on the part of the Marines, the locals have not exactly embraced their new American neighbors.

A group of Afghan men sits in the shade and watches as several Marines struggle to pull a Humvee out of a patch of deep sand.

"They should leave this village," says Abdul Samad, a gray-bearded farmer. "We can't even walk out of our houses any more. If we step out the door," he adds, "they shoot at us."

The Poppy Factor

Part of the discord between Marines and locals is that almost everybody in Garmsir relies on the illegal opium industry to make a living.

Many Afghan farmers here worry the Marines will bring an end to their cash crop.

"Dealing with the poppy isn't really our job," says Lt. Jack Trepto. "We don't mess with them."

Every day, Trepto leads patrols through what he describes as "the opium capital of the world." Marines on foot patrol pass through fields of waist-high poppy plants and skirt fields of cannabis.

"A lot of the people in this area, they have nothing or next to nothing," Trepto says. "For some of them, their entire livelihood is based off of the poppy crop any given year."

To avoid alienating the locals, the Marines have been forced to make some difficult concessions.

One day, the Afghan landlord who is renting his house to Dynan's company showed up and spent half an hour digging up three trunks that were buried under a wood pile. The trunks contained soccer ball-sized chunks of opium and processed heroin, a year's worth of work, which the landlord was permitted to take away.

The Marines say the Afghan government is responsible for enforcing the ban on growing poppy, but in the weeks since the fighting stopped here, neither the government nor Afghan security forces have established a presence in Garmsir.

In the span of a week, Garmsir's police chief, Gule Khan, showed up just once for a brief meeting with 1st Lt. Micah Steinpfad.

"Our intel tells us that there are still a number of Taliban in the area," Steinpfad says to Khan. "And we're very excited to get you guys down here to start getting those guys out."

Through a translator, Khan tells Steinpfad that he will not be able to assist the troops.

"For right now, I'm very busy," he says. "I don't have that much soldiers and stuff."

For the moment, at least, the Marines appear to be on their own in Garmsir.

Tough Love

On foot patrol, Trepto's platoon kicks open doors and searches empty houses. The Marines also stop and search the passengers of passing vehicles. Meanwhile, Trepto tries to make friends with the locals.

Capt. Dynan, the commander of Alpha Company, says this is an essential element to a successful counterinsurgency campaign.

"We knew ahead of time that we would have to focus on the locals," Dynan says. "We're only as good as our interaction with the local populace."

Dynan says the local reaction over the next few weeks in Garmsir will be critical to the counterinsurgency campaign.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Tactics used by insurgents in Afghanistant are becoming more complex
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, June 25, 2008



ARLINGTON, Va. — Attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan are increasingly sophisticated and complex, the senior U.S. commander in the country said Tuesday.

Insurgents once ambushed a U.S. convoy or attacked it with a roadside bomb, but seldom would approach or stop the vehicles, Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-101, told Pentagon reporters during a briefing from Afghanistan.

"The convoy could drive right through," said Schloesser, who is also commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division.

Now, he said, the attacks are much more complex. A roadside bomb will stop a convoy, followed by an immediate ambush, with insurgents firing from both sides of the road to pin the convoy down.

"Then, as a Quick Reaction Force comes in," Schloesser said, insurgents will detonate a second, pre-planted roadside bomb, to stop the rescuers.

Schloesser said insurgents are also using more powerful bombs, and "it’s not all that sophisticated just to increase the size of the explosive."

One reason for the bigger bombs, he said, is that insurgents have been trying to probe possible weaknesses in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

The MRAPs, which are being used in increasing numbers in Afghanistan, have V-shaped hulls and high-riding undercarriages that, along with their increased armor, make them less vulnerable to roadside bombs and other explosives.

Compared to the same time period in 2007, there has been a 40 percent increase in attacks against coalition personnel in Afghanistan since he took his post in early April, Schloesser said.

Insurgents attacking coalition forces have increased their use of direct-fire attacks, indirect fire attacks which employ mortars and crude rockets, and improvised explosive devices such as roadside bombs, Schloesser said.

The enemy has decreased its number of suicide attacks, Schloesser said.

Twelve percent of all attacks, Schloesser said, are cross-border forays from Pakistan’s frontier into Afghanistan by an increasingly diverse variety of groups that are using the no-man’s land as a safe haven.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

AFGHANISTAN: Goodbye Fallouja, hello Kabul?

Nothing official has been said, but more and more Marines of all ranks are saying that their future is in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

Two facts are giving the rumor extra boost: The Bush administration is known to be retooling its Afghanistan strategy, and the Marines on Saturday will formally turn over security responsibility for Anbar province in Iraq to the Iraqis.

The Marines will stay in Iraq to help the Iraqi forces, but indications are that a drawdown is being planned, maybe by end of the year.

Marine brass, including the commandant, Gen. James Conway, have made no secret of their desire to get back to Afghanistan. This spring, two Marine units, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, and the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment from Twentynine Palms, were sent to Afghanistan for a seven-month deployment.

Few Marines feel a onetime deployment will be sufficient to thwart a resurgent Taliban and continue to train the Afghan forces. For the Marines from Camp Pendleton, a return to Afghanistan would represent an opportunity to complete some unfinished business.

Marines from the base were the first conventional U.S. troops into Afghanistan in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, helping to topple the Taliban but missing a chance to kill or capture Osama bin Laden.

A return, of course, would not be casualty-free. In the past week, seven troops from Twentynine Palms have been killed.

--Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Afghan tribal leaders gather recently, with Marines standing guard against insurgent attack. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines in Afghanistan Weigh In on a Life at War

by Ivan Watson

All Things Considered, June 25, 2008 · When compared to Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is often described as the forgotten war.

The U.S. military has 33,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, and has lost 448 service members there since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

Last month, 1,500 Marines were sent to attack a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan's southern Garmsir district. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit captured Garmsir from the Taliban after 30 days of constant fighting.

Now, their mission is to stabilize the region. Meanwhile, they're dealing with strenuous living conditions and wondering what's happening back home.

Fighting the Heat and Dirt

In the Dari language, Garmsir means hot weather.

The Marines in Garmsir spend a lot of time talking about the heat. A thermometer flat-lined one particular day, when temperatures reached 135 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun.

"It's even too hot at night for the mosquitoes," says one Marine.

They live in crude mud-wall compounds. There are no sewage system, no telephones, no electricity — these young men have been sleeping in the dirt for weeks.

But the Marines have come up with a trick to beat the Afghan heat.

Lance Cpl. Brian Archer sticks water bottles in a wet cotton sock.

"Piece of cloth, wrap up a hot drink in it, well water over it, let the wind hit it. Be like an hour or two. And it feels like you just pulled it out of the fridge. It's great," he explains.

Changing the Meaning of Politics

In this hostile environment, Archer says he feels worlds away from the debates over Iraq and Afghanistan in the U.S. presidential campaign.

"It really is almost irrelevant, too," he says. "When we get here, you know, you know that war, all it is is old men talking and young men dying. That's all we see. So, it calms down politics a lot of when you're out here."

Like many of the Marines in Garmsir, Cpl. Cody Bazanech was in eighth grade when the Sept. 11 terror attacks took place.

Six years later, Bazanech is patrolling on foot through fields of waist-high, opium poppies.

"I do what I have to do," he says. "Signed the contract. … I'm fighting for these people's rights. And I can do that because these people deserve the same rights that we have in our country."

But many of the Marines worry that Americans back home don't know what they're doing in Afghanistan.

"People should know kinda what we're doing over here probably a little more than they are," says Mason Bennet, a Navy medic. "It seems like they're focusing a lot more on Iraq right now than they are on Afghanistan. People call this the forgotten war. They need to know what's going on here, I guess."

Afghanistan and Iraq

About a third of the Marines in this company have done previous tours of duty in Iraq.

Cpl. Dennis James says the living conditions there are more comfortable, but the enemy in Iraq is more dangerous.

"The people in Iraq are sneaky," he says. "They hide amongst the crowd. These guys, you know who's gonna shoot at you, you know who's not. But in Iraq you're right there, next thing you're getting shot. Anything can happen in Iraq."

Lance Cpl. Michael Odel, from Fleet, Ohio, has been to Iraq, too.

"Having been both places, I don't want this place to become another Iraq," he says. "I don't want us to become an occupational force. And we're leaning toward that big time in Iraq."

Sgt. Christopher Nipper says he expects to be sent to Iraq next year, after he finishes up this tour in Afghanistan.

"I'd like to see more action from the politicians versus talking," he says, "because they've been talking now for seven to eight years with very little resolve. The conflict in Iraq's been going on for five years now; the Afghanistan thing's been going on with the U.S. and other countries now since 2001."

But for now, the Marines have come up with a temporary solution to the homesickness and boredom in Garmsir.

On one particular day, the group bought several sheep from a passing Afghan shepherd and cobbled together a barbecue. They took a 50-gallon drum, cut it in half and made a grill.

The Marines ate lamb chops and — for a few hours — forgot about the heat.

Ellie

Video
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=91881419&m=91888507

[thedrifter]

After Long Exile, Afghan Returns to Aid U.S. Marines

by Ivan Watson

Day to Day, June 26, 2008 · At 53, Abdul Torabi is a soft-spoken man with gray hair, a short gray beard and a quiet chuckle. He was born in Afghanistan, but has lived most of his life in exile in America.

He is now in Afghanistan again, working as a Marine interpreter, or "terp."

"My regular job is truck driver. And right now I'm a terp for ... American soldiers. I'm here to help them," Torabi says. "That's my job right now."

This is his first time back to his home country since 1979, when he fled the Soviet invasion. He was forced to flee Afghanistan to protect himself and his family, after he participated in student protests against the Soviet occupation of his country.

"I'm happy because I know I can make [a difference]," he says. "I can be help for two country I love: America and Afghanistan."

A Critical Player

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military relies on thousands of interpreters. They play a vital role, helping U.S. troops communicate with local communities.

Last month, Torabi accompanied the Marines when they invaded the Taliban stronghold of Garmsir, a district in Helmand Province.

He is by far the oldest of a handful of Afghan interpreters in Garmsir now who live, eat and work alongside the Marines in primitive and often dangerous conditions.

Lt. Micah Steinpfad relies on Torabi to translate during a meeting with the police chief of Garmsir.

"Have you heard anything about the Taliban in our area specifically?" Steinpfad asks the police chief, through Torabi.

After a brief exchange in Pashto, Torabi informs Steinpfad that the officer has heard about Taliban activity in several nearby villages.

More than Translation

Interpreters like Torabi provide much more than linguistic services.

"The Marines don't understand the culture, Afghan people, like we do," Torabi says. Marines always ask " 'What should we do?' or how to talk with people," Torabi says. "That's what we do: advise them about the culture, what to do, what not to do, what these people get offended by."

Torabi was on hand to help when jumpy Marines mistakenly fired a bullet at the car of an off-duty Afghan policeman who was trying to deliver a generator to their camp.

"He said, 'I'll do anything I can for you guys, anything you need. I'm here for you guys,' " Torabi translates, as the frightened policeman, named Mohammed Daoud, hands bags of bread and vegetables to the Marines.

"We appreciate it," says First Lt. Steve Bechtel. "We're going to help you out and try to get this windshield replaced for you."

A Personal Mission

For Torabi, this mission is also an intense personal experience. This is his first time back to Afghanistan in almost 30 years.

"I'm surprised what I'm seeing. And this is sad, too," Torabi says, because of all the problems facing Afghans, and "the way the country been destroyed" by wars.

It was the presence of another foreign force that compelled Torabi to leave in 1979. But he says the American soldiers are much different from the Soviet soldiers he fled.

When the Russians came, he says, they didn't care if Afghans were happy or unhappy. "They do what they wanna do," Torabi says. But the Americans, he says, "want to help people."

Torabi was a young man when he fled Afghanistan. He never got to see his mother again. She died in Kabul while he was in exile. When this assignment in Garmsir is over, he hopes to reunite with his brother and sister in Kabul. And one day he wants to bring his American family to visit the land of his birth.

He wants his children to see Afghanistan, he says, "so they understand better the life and appreciate what they have back home."

But first, Torabi is looking forward to returning to the U.S. He is eager for the day when he can barbeque with his family and enjoy the San Francisco weather.

"I like to barbeque some good steak, and my wife's making very good burritos. I miss those burritos," Torabi says, adding, "Of course without cold beer, nothing tastes good."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

At the Front of the Front Line:
Tense Sentry Duty in Afghanistan
In Taliban Country, Lance Cpl. Santiago
Stands Guard Against Suicide Bombers
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
June 26, 2008; Page A1

GARMSIR, Afghanistan -- A few days ago, U.S. intelligence officers intercepted an ominous Taliban order: "Prepare the martyr."

It's Carlos Santiago's job to shoot the martyr before the martyr can martyr himself.

As one of his platoon's most junior Marines, it falls to the 20-year-old lance corporal to guard the outer security post at this front-line patrol base. There, he's supposed to spot suicide bombers among innocent shepherds, farmers and children, and kill them before they explode. Even if he fails, he and his sandbagged guard post will take the brunt of the blast so the rest of the Marines don't.

Such is the cold logic of military service. While no man is expendable, some men are more expendable than others.

"You send the pups out, and you leave the big dogs inside," Lance Cpl. Santiago said, watching Afghans walk past the base's concertina-wire perimeter, 25 yards in front of him. "You can't have a sergeant out here because he's a squad leader. If he gets offed, who's going to take over the squad?"

During a month of fierce combat, the 2,400-strong 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit drove the Taliban from Garmsir, a district along the Helmand River that insurgents had called their own for two years. (Please see related article.) Penetrating deepest into Taliban country were the 180 men of Alpha Company, First Battalion, Sixth Marines, who commandeered a series of mud-brick compounds, reinforced them with sandbags and razor wire, and now use them to launch foot patrols through poppy fields and villages.

The defeat has pushed the Taliban to give up on frontal attacks here for an Iraq-style campaign of roadside explosives and suicide bombs. This month, a bomber blew himself up next to a British foot patrol north of here, killing three soldiers. Taliban militants have also stepped up attacks this week over the border in Pakistan.

Villagers in Garmsir report the bazaars are abuzz with rumors of impending attacks in the district. According to U.S. intelligence reports, would-be bombers are planning to attack on motorcycles or dressed as women. But thus far there have been no suicide attacks on Marine positions here.

A few weeks ago, Lance Cpl. Santiago was kicking down doors and launching mortars. Now he pulls three-hour shifts in a sandy no-man's land. The base is 15 yards behind his guard post. The opening in the razor-wire perimeter lies just ahead.

Hundreds of locals have come to the main Alpha Company position since the fighting tapered off at the end of May. Outside the perimeter, a few sell blocks of ice and bottles of orange soda to the troops. Some ask for food and medicine. Most are seeking compensation for damage done to their homes. To get inside, each must first pass inspection at Lance Cpl. Santiago's post, where a makeshift blanket awning provides the merest hint of relief from the 130-degree midday heat.

"When the bullets are flying, you know where they're coming from," Lance Cpl. Santiago said, watching a small group of men watching him. "But a suicide bomber -- you don't know who the hell it is. It could be one of those guys."

First Line of Defense

Lance Cpl. Santiago doesn't tell his girlfriend that he's the first line of defense against suicide attacks. He doesn't tell his mother much of anything.

He completed a two-year associates degree in architecture in his native Carolina, Puerto Rico. But he admits he was too fond of the night life there and too vulnerable to the drug culture that came with it. He has a long scar on his neck that he hints was the result of a fight. One day early last year, he found himself signing papers at the Marine recruiter's office. "The first reason is because people didn't think I could make it," he said.

On the sandbag wall of his post, Lance Cpl. Santiago and the other junior Marines who share his duty keep a sheet of yellow legal paper with a few English phrases translated into Pashto, the local language.

"Come."

"I don't have any."

"Go wait over there."

"Shut up."

"Run."

Just before he deployed to Afghanistan, he had a blue crucifix tattooed onto his left forearm. It was, he thought, something to "remind me of God" in time of crisis.

"Obviously his life is as important as anyone else's, but someone has to be out there," said Sgt. James Blake, 25, of Merrimack, N.H., the lance corporal's platoon sergeant.

Every so often the Marines move the concertina wire that surrounds the base, pulling its razor-sharp coils across the sand road that runs between the base and the Amir Agha Bazaar a hundred or so yards away. Sometimes the Marines allow car and truck traffic; sometimes they don't. The idea is to make it harder for aspiring car bombers to plan. It also confuses the local donkeys, which frequently get trapped.

Each Afghan visitor must go through a two-step search. At the outside wire, with Lance Cpl. Santiago watching, the men must pull their loose ankle-length robes and pants tight around their chest, back and limbs to reveal the outlines of any mines, pipe bombs or other explosives hidden beneath.

Hokey-Pokey Inspection

Only after the visitor clears the hokey-pokey inspection, as the Marines call it, can he approach the outer guard post. Lance Cpl. Santiago leans the man up against the sandbags and frisks him, all the while keeping a hand on the man's collar for control. The guard is always supposed to remain behind the visitor on the theory that suicide bombers usually blow up forwards.

Lance Cpl. Santiago has his doubts. Asked what would happen if a bomber detonated during the pat-down, he showed no hesitation. "I'm dead," he said, fingering his sparse moustache.

While he frisks each visitor, his cover man, Cpl. Bruce Brorsen, 21, from New Bern, N.C., stands to the side, pistol in his hand. "If he moves quick or anything, I shoot him," the corporal said. The cover man is supposed to aim for the head, because it's the surest way to kill a bomber before he can trigger a device.

After years of war, most every civilian in Iraq or Kabul knows how to behave around heavily armed troops. Garmsir, however, was ignored or in Taliban hands for years, and the Marines know there's a risk of misunderstandings.

Marine commanders invited village elders to a meeting this month where they explained the hierarchy of force that grunts use if approached by a speeding vehicle. First they shout to stop. Then they fire a flare, followed by a warning shot into the ground. If the vehicle still doesn't stop, they shoot to kill.

The public meeting was a radical departure for the Marines. Normally such details are closely guarded, for fear of letting the Taliban know exactly how far they can penetrate Marine defenses before they risk getting shot.

Marines still find themselves firing flares at people who stray close to their lines, either innocently or as a way to probe the base defenses. A sentry at another Marine outpost this month shot and killed a young man on a bicycle who ignored warnings; he was unarmed, but apparently mentally impaired.

Recently, Marine commanders were more worried that heat and boredom were making their troops sloppy.

"Santiago -- watch the friggin' people you're searching," First Lt. Steven Bechtel, 24, from Naples, Fla., yelled on a recent day as he watched the lance corporal's attention wander. The lieutenant ordered Sgt. Blake to organize a refresher course in frisking.

"He's the furthest one out there," Lt. Bechtel said with a sigh. "You'd think he'd be more careful."

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121441829445804089.html?mod=A-hed

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Corps Facing Bloody Afghan Deployment

June 30, 2008
*************|by Christian Lowe

For the Marine Corps this year Afghanistan has proven a deadly and treacherous place.

Whereas 18 months ago the service was absorbing dozens of casualties per month in attacks throughout the once-restive al Anbar province in Iraq, today the bloodletting is in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban insurgency and an undermanned, politically-constrained NATO force has lead to a sharp rise in leathernecks killed or wounded.

In June alone -- when seasonal thaws lead to increased attacks from insurgent groups -- the force of some 3,200 Marines there suffered 10 killed in action, including one Navy corpsman. By comparison, of the 23,000 Marines in Iraq, six were killed in June.

So far this year 13 Marines have been killed in combat in Afghanistan while 17 have been killed in Iraq.

And for the Marine battalion commander in Afghanistan who lost nine of those killed in action in June, the deaths are hitting his unit hard.

"Because we are out there and we are more active, we're exposing ourselves to a higher risk," said Lt. Col. Richard Hall, commander of the Corps' 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, during an interview with military bloggers June 27.

"And consequently, we've had a lot of unfortunate and tragic events that did happen. The IED threat has been the primary culprit."

As the surge in Iraq has dampened hostilities there, violence in Afghanistan is on the rise. International troop deaths in Iraq now take a back seat to casualties in Afghanistan by nearly 50 percent, according to reports. And a Pentagon study released June 27 warned that the once eviscerated Taliban has regrouped and is pushing once more to unseat the fragile U.S.-backed government.

"The Taliban's strategy hinges on their ability to prevent the Afghan government and [Afghan army] from achieving victory and the international community eventually losing the will to tactically intervene in the counterinsurgency effort," reads the Pentagon's Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan. "The insurgency's critical capabilities are its ability to project strength and a mystique of the inevitability of Taliban rule that is constantly sustained through a focused information effort; in other words, 'not losing is winning.' "

Hall said his surge in casualties has been due to a similar surge in NATO combat forces to Afghanistan and a shift in tactics that has primarily American, Canadian and British troops in the volatile south pushing much more aggressively into areas once considered "lost" to Taliban insurgents.

Hall's battalion was part of a springtime increase of 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan, among them the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

"We expected we were going to have a lot of friction with the enemy. They have had absolute freedom of movement, freedom of action until our arrival," Hall explained of his roughly 37,000 square mile operations area. "We're disrupting [Taliban money flow] and they don't like it so they're trying to come after us because of that."

But as in Iraq, militants in Afghanistan are increasingly using roadside bombs to bleed the coalition dry and to shift tenuous support in European capitals away from the stability mission.

In late June, the German parliament authorized 1,000 more troops for the NATO mission after President Bush urged that government to increase its share of the Afghan burden. But the German government refused to allow those additional troops to engage in combat operations in the restive south of the country, leaving units like Hall's 2/7 to do the fighting.

And as they continue to push out into the remote deserts of Helmand and Farah province, Hall's troops increasingly are falling victim to IEDs.

"We're not being beaten by the Taliban, we're being beaten by an explosion," Hall said. "It's not their prowess that's beating us it's the technique they're using."

The Twentynine Palms, Calif.-based Marines have some bomb-resistant MRAP vehicles and are getting more, but it's training and intelligence that help the most in mitigating the IED threat, Hall said. And the Marine commander is working to get more of the roads in his provinces paved over since it's harder to emplace a roadside bomb in asphalt without being detected.

Marine units out in western Afghanistan also suffer from a shortage of rotor-wing aircraft. This is a malady affecting many other NATO units, which have complained that allied governments are dragging their feet and not providing to commanders in the field the number of helicopters promised.

"Nobody wants to be a tattle tail but ... I won't have any reservations echoing the concern that we lack air over here," Hall said. "We need rotary wing assets in order to enable us to do more than we are because we have such a large battle space it just takes a while to do everything by ground."

But Hall said an official with Marine Forces Central Command was visiting him to determine equipment needs. Top Marine officials have argued that the situation in Iraq has calmed enough that Corps units and supplies may be diverted to Afghanistan.

One regiment that was part of the surge plan has already departed Iraq, and the Iraqi government is set to take over security control of Anbar in early July. But it is still unclear when and how much of the Corps' Iraq commitment can be turned to Afghanistan.

Officials with MarCent were unable to provide details of the mission to Afghanistan or what types of equipment they could provide Marine commanders there.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU tour extended a month
Comments 0 | Recommend 0
Mother of Lejeune corporal is disappointed by the news
July 4, 2008 - 12:49AM
MELISSA NORRIS
DAILY NEWS STAFF

As word spread throughout the community and country that the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's stay in Afghanistan will be extended, families of those deployed dealt with the heartache of not seeing their loved ones as soon as they'd hoped.

Mary Arbuckle, whose son is stationed with the Camp Lejeune-based unit, tried to hold back tears as she described reading about the extension on the Web site of another Marine parent.

"It's hard for me to handle this," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Somis, Calif., "I'm in shock."

Arbuckle said it's hard to handle the disappointment of not seeing her son, but she understands how things often change in the service.

"I respect the Marine Corps," she said. "But you still miss your family so much."

Maj. Dave Nevers, a Marine Corps spokesman, issued a statement regarding the extension.

"The 24th MEU will continue conducting full-spectrum operations in Afghanistan for an additional month at the request of the International Security Assistance Force, and with the approval of Secretary Gates," he said.

Arbuckle said she hasn't heard from her son, Lance Cpl. Eric Arbuckle, who is assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, in about two weeks. She said getting the news Thursday through the military grapevine, with no official word, was concerning.

"I don't know why they can't get reserves to go out there or other units that have not gone," she said.

Nevers said there is a reason why these Marines in particular will be deployed longer than expected.

"This will afford the MEU the opportunity to continue building on the tremendous success they have achieved during its tour there," he said. "The Marines are now scheduled to return home in early to mid-November."

Arbuckle expected her son home in October or sooner. Now, she is trying to make sense of all of this new information.

"I don't know what the implications are," she said. "I hope they are home for Thanksgiving."

Contact reporter Melissa Norris at 910-219-8462 or mnorris@freedomenc.com. Comment on this story at www.jdnews.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Pentagon extends 24th MEU's stay in Afghanistan
Comments 0 | Recommend 0
July 3, 2008 - 1:41PM
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, Marine Col. David Lapan confirmed Thursday.

Military leaders as recently as Wednesday stressed the need for additional troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has often praised the work of the 24th MEU in fighting Taliban militants in Helmand Province.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has repeatedly said he did not intend to extend or replace the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, calling their deployment there an extraordinary, one-time effort to help tamp down the increasing violence in the south.

Asked about the possibility of an extension in early May, Gates said he would "be loath to do that." He added that "no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation."

Lapan said Thursday that commanders in Afghanistan asked that the Marines stay longer.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the longer tour does not open the door to an extension beyond the 30 days, nor to the possibility of replacing them with other U.S. troops when they come out in November. "This is a slight addition to this tour and nothing more," he said.

He added that commanders in Afghanistan "asked for 30 more days to milk the fighting season to the bitter end and cement the gains they have made in the south."

The Pentagon announced in January that the Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based at Camp Lejeune, was being ordered to Afghanistan, largely because efforts to press other NATO nations to increase their troop levels at the time had failed.

At the same time, about 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which is based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., was ordered to deploy also. That unit has been used to train Afghan security forces. As a result of the MEU's extended deployment, Marines from both units are now expected to return home at about the same time.

Commanders faced with increasing violence have said they need at least 7,500 more troops in Afghanistan. And President Bush and defense officials have said they hope to identify additional units by the end of the year that could go to Afghanistan early next year.

The Pentagon has said that more U.S. forces cannot be sent to the Afghan fight until decisions are made to further reduce troop levels in Iraq. In the last two months, violence in Afghanistan has led to more U.S. and coalition casualties there than in Iraq, and June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began.

"The Taliban and their supporters have, without question, grown more effective and more aggressive in recent weeks ... as the casualty figures clearly demonstrate," Mullen told a Pentagon press conference Wednesday.

The heavy fighting has claimed the lives of a dozen members of the MEU. One other Marine's death was not related to combat.

"It's a very complex problem, and it's tied to the drug trade, a faltering economy and, as I've said many times, the porous border region with Pakistan," said Mullen. "There's no easy solution, and there will be no quick fix."

There are 32,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, including 14,000 serving with the NATO-led coalition and another 18,000 conducting training and counterinsurgency.

The NATO force includes more than 52,000 troops from as many as 40 countries.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU flips to coin; Civil Military Operations Center opens in Gamsir

7/4/2008 By Cpl. Randall A. Clinton , 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan —

At a forward outpost in Garmsir, a line of Afghans wait to talk with Marines at the newly opened Civil Military Operations Center; they have come to voice their claims and receive cash payments for losses incurred while Marines battled insurgents.

Flown over a sparsely decorated tent, three flags representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan flap in the wind, showing the people that this is not just a Marine Corps or American program, this is their government responding. The cash payments are in Afghan currency - the people see the difference and welcome the Marine presence.

‘You guys are different’ the locals tell Master Gunnery Sgt. John Garth, civil affairs chief, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, ISAF. “They know we come in with overwhelming force and might, but we also come in with compassion,” he said.

Despite deterrents, an abundance of local residents travel to the CMOC to meet with the same Marines who swept through the district and pushed the insurgents out. Almost overnight the Marines transitioned from aggressive combat patrols to a friendlier neighborhood watch of sorts. They verify damage claims and help map the area, bringing a sense of order to the once lawless district.

Where once they traded gunfire with insurgents, now there are daily meetings with locals. Marines dole out payments for the incidental cost of waging war and in the process they encourage progress. Heading the efforts in the district is Maj. Mark McCarroll, battery commander, Alpha Battery, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th MEU, ISAF.

At a table, McCarroll listens as an Afghan man discusses his claim. The Marine has an intimate knowledge of the man’s damaged house; acting as the battalion’s fire support coordinator, he processed each request to fire artillery, drop bombs and launch mortars at insurgent targets; his men pulled the cord sending shells downrange that destroyed the very same property that is now being paid for – property the insurgents had commandeered from the local citizens to use as fighting positions.

“It’s uncomfortable and strange,” McCarroll said of the unique situation.

When the man showed a drawing of his house, McCarroll recognized it instantly. “Yep, that’s the spot,” he said to himself. “We dropped a couple of bombs on it, we did a helicopter run on it and we shot artillery on it.”

Regardless of McCarroll’s reservations about meeting the locals, the average Afghan seems glad to sit and exchange stories with the Marines. As they sit and talk, the Marines begin to see why the homeowners are less angered by destroyed property than one would imagine.

“We have heard a couple different stories,” McCarroll said. “The Taliban kicked me out of my house and the next day you blew it up. At least you killed the guy that kicked me out of my house,” is the way one Afghan explained it to him.

Even with the debris, the way the locals explain it, they have more of a home now then they did just a week ago.

“A lot of people told me they lived in the desert for 18 months. On the edge of the desert, the adult males, at least the working males, came back to their house every day to work their fields, harvest their poppy or wheat, then they went back to the desert. Why? Because the Taliban didn’t want them living in their houses, but they would let them come back and farm their fields every day - part of that was so the Taliban would have a food source,” said Garth

He equates the current situation to the healing process after invasive surgery.

“You have to get rid of the cancer first,” he said. “Hopefully it is common sense; you do what you have to do to achieve success. Success isn’t determined by what is and is not damaged. It’s a measure of; did we get rid of the Taliban? Did we make it safer for them to live their lives? Is there greater opportunity for them now than there was before? Is their house destroyed? Yeah, but is there greater opportunity for them? Absolutely.”

Splitting time between inspecting homes while out on patrol and evaluating claims from the CMOC, Garth sees the district coming around.

“Had we not come, their houses wouldn’t have been destroyed, but they still would have been living on the edge of the desert under Taliban control,” said Garth. “They were forced to grow poppy and not grow wheat or vegetables which they could eat and sell at the market. They had to travel from the desert to farm their fields; the Taliban would take what they wanted from them. So when you look at it from that perspective they didn’t have a home to begin with. We are now giving them a chance to move back home and rebuild,” he said.

According to Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rene Cote, civil affairs officer, 24th MEU, ISAF, $300,000 has been given to the Marines on the ground handling claims, so McCarroll and his men have the tools necessary to help this district make a full recovery.

“The Taliban kicked them out of their homes and the Taliban occupied the compounds and turned them into something these compounds weren’t intended to do. Our function now is to make reparations for what we did to their homes, it’s not necessarily feeling bad about it, it is doing the right thing after the Taliban are no longer there,” said McCarroll. “These people have to live there, it’s their right.”

Since opening June 22, the CMOC, which has both Marines and British soldiers making payments, has had more than 340 visitors.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines act as paymasters to Afghans

In the wake of their offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province, the U.S. troops reimburse civilians for property damage.
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 5, 2008
GARMSER, AFGHANISTAN -- Gola Akar, a black-bearded farmer, did not seem certain whether a monthlong Marine assault here had improved or retarded his business prospects.

On the one hand, the Marines killed or drove out Taliban fighters who had commandeered his mud-wall compound. But the fighting came at the height of the poppy harvest, costing Akar thousands of dollars in drug profits.

"Since you came, things are better," Akar told 1st Lt. Shaun Miller, a slender, easygoing Marine who led a patrol past his compound one recent morning. "But who's going to pay me for my lost poppies?"

Miller told him the U.S. government wasn't in the habit of paying for lost narcotics profits. But Miller patiently wrote down the damage that Akar said the Marine assault had caused to his windows, roof and walls, and promised to pay cash compensation.

Throughout May, Marines pounded a Taliban stronghold here in the southern province of Helmand near where fellow Marines first set foot in Afghanistan in 2001 to help topple the Taliban regime. It was the first time in the 6 1/2 years of war since then that U.S. forces had reentered the area, which is crisscrossed by three major insurgent infiltration routes from Pakistan and is one of the world's top opium-producing regions.

British forces have maintained a base just north of here, but commanders say the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization have lacked sufficient forces to mount an offensive in the region, in part because of the U.S. focus on Iraq.

With the Taliban resurgent in the south, the Marines were deployed specifically to battle entrenched militants. Within a month, they routed the Taliban fighters and disrupted infiltration routes.

Now they are trying to win over Afghan civilians who are trickling back to their damaged homes.

Officers such as Miller are leading patrols through poppy and marijuana fields to assess farmers' losses. The Marines also have been forced into other unfamiliar roles -- as quasi-diplomats, humanitarian workers, moneymen and nurses.

"Not exactly what I signed up for," Miller said. Sometimes, he said, he felt like an insurance adjuster.

The Marines are the only source of security here. The weak Afghan government is nowhere in sight. The Afghan police fled a Taliban takeover two years ago. The nearest Afghan army unit is posted several miles north, with the British forces.

The Marines are rushing to solidify their combat gains while enlisting civilian support in behalf of the absent Afghan government. Time is precious.

The Marines, from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, were scheduled to return home to Camp Lejeune, N.C., this summer, but Thursday the Pentagon extended their stay by 30 days.

"The honeymoon's almost over," said Capt. Sean Dynan, commander of Alpha Company, which controls about 4 1/2 square miles of lush farmland that is home to 3,000 to 5,000 Afghans. "Pretty soon, it's going to be: What have you done for me lately?"

The Marines live in harsh conditions, sleeping on the ground amid goat droppings and flies.

The heat and dust are debilitating. There is precious little shade; they cluster under a small tree, changing positions as the sun moves across the sky.

The men wash in a communal well. They survive on bottled water and packaged meals, or MREs. There is no electricity, no plumbing. They burn their waste.

1st Lt. Steven Bechtel, an artillery officer, has set up a cash-dispensing office in a mud hut, receiving villagers who file claims for war damage.

"It's kind of ironic," Bechtel said. "A few weeks ago, we were blowing these places up. Now we're totaling up the damage and paying for it."

The payment center is in a compound that also houses company headquarters. The property is owned by the local police chief's nephew, who is paid about $65 a month in rent and was given a one-time damage payment of about $1,500.

One day, the landlord asked for permission to dig beneath a mound of firewood in the compound, Dynan said. The man withdrew several trunks that contained what appeared to be opium and hashish, and went on his way.

"We let him go; we're not here to hurt people's livelihoods," Dynan said. "We're not in the drug interdiction business."

Bechtel worked steadily through the punishing heat -- well above 100 degrees -- to process a stream of bedraggled people seeking reparations. A patrol was sent to each applicant's compound to photograph damage and record the property on military maps.

Bechtel said he had promised about $105,000 to 240 applicants.

But there was a hitch: Alpha Company didn't have any cash to make the payments. Because of new Pentagon regulations, the money was held up.

So Bechtel improvised. He tore yellow notebook paper into small slips and wrote down the names, locations and tribes, along with the amount of damages owed.

The applicants went home with the slips that committed the Marines to pay up once the money arrived.

Sher Zaman, a wizened man in a floppy gray turban, stared at his yellow slip in bewilderment. But he brightened when Sgt. James Blake, told him through an interpreter that he would receive $3,200 for his ruined roof and mattresses burned during the Marine assault.

The sergeant asked Zaman to report on any Taliban in his area. The old man shook his fist.

"You guys are good guys trying to help the people [mess] up the bad guys," the old man said. "If I see the bad guys, I'll catch them myself. I'm old, but I can catch them."

Several other people also provided information, warning the Marines that insurgents wearing explosives-packed vests or dressed in women's burkas planned suicide attacks.

"Don't leave us alone," said one applicant, Habib Rahman, a farmer with a crimson-dyed beard. "If you leave, the bad guys will come right back."

Yar Mohammed, 80, who hobbled into the payment hut using a cane, described a damaged wall, gate, doors and steel roof beams. Told that he would be given a yellow slip good for $2,375, Mohammed shook his head and said, "This is not enough."

Blake, a mortarman, explained that the payments for repairs were based on estimates from local contractors fed into an Excel program.

"OK," Mohammed said, shrugging. "You decide."

He happily provided his fingerprints and posed for a registration photo.

The next day, the compensation system got more complicated. Alpha Company's payment center was moving six miles north, to be consolidated with other units. Any Afghan with a yellow slip would have to make the trek there.

From a smaller compound nearby, Miller and his platoon rose at 4 a.m. to patrol in the coolest part of the day. They slogged through fields, crunching dried poppy pods under their boots and brushing past lush marijuana plants taller than any Marine.

"What are you guys doing here?" a shepherd named Noradeen yelled at the troops as they stumbled across his flock in the rosy light of dawn.

"Assessing damage!" Miller called back, through an interpreter.

Noradeen accepted Miller's offer to tour his compound, where the shepherd pointed out damage to doors and walls. He said he had fled with his sheep after the Taliban took over the compound.

"Oh yeah -- that's true," Miller said, giving Noradeen a yellow slip.

"We spent a week right next to this place. We had to blow it up to get the Taliban out of here."

At the next compound, Abdul Rakani, a bony man with one good eye, complained that the fighting had reduced his opium profits from $10,000 to about $3,000 because he could not harvest all of his poppy crop.

Rakani pointed out damaged windows and doors. Miller gave him a yellow slip but declined to pay for other damage, which the lieutenant said was caused by insurgents who had commandeered the compound.

Down a dirt path, the patrol encountered three young men with wild black beards and the dark turbans favored by Talibs. From a distance, Miller ordered them to roll up their sleeves and raise their robes to prove they were not hiding explosives. They complied.

The men told Miller they were farmers returning from a night's work in their fields. They were afraid to work during the day, they said.

"We're afraid the Marines will kill us," one man said.

Civilian casualties, especially those caused by airstrikes, have enraged Afghans. But in a month of fighting here, the Marines said, only two civilian death claims were filed.

At midmorning, the patrol returned to its mud compound, the Marines' vests drenched with sweat. There would be dozens more patrols before they left Garmser.

U.S. and NATO commanders are discussing which forces -- U.S., NATO, Afghan or some combination -- should replace the Marines, said Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

"It's important that they come in and capitalize on our success," Petronzio said. "It'll take a bit of time. You need to eat this elephant one bite at a time."

For Miller, sunburned and exhausted after another three-hour patrol, the hard work his men had put in this spring and summer was too precious to be wasted. He knew the insurgents were eager to return to their former stronghold.

"The key for us is: It can never go back to the way it was," he said.

david.zucchino@latimes.com


Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
Marine 1st Lt. Shaun Miller makes his way through a field of poppies while on patrol in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The Marines had spent much of May doing battle in what had become a Taliban stronghold in one of the world's major opium production areas. In the aftermath of their combat operation, the Marines were trying to provide security to returning residents as well as paying out money for damage caused during the fighting.

more photos

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-helmand-pg,0,5504272.photogallery

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Kabul: A city where war is never far away
By Tyler Hicks
Sunday, July 6, 2008

My first trip to Kabul was in 2001. I arrived as Northern Alliance soldiers were fighting Taliban gunmen in and around the Afghan capital. Those who resisted were killed, and those captured were more likely to be executed than taken prisoner.

There was a power vacuum in Kabul, a brief moment when one set of rulers had fled and the next had not yet taken over. This can be a liberating time for a photographer. There were no clear rules, no central authority that might restrict you from taking pictures. I've returned to Afghanistan nearly every year since then.

Today, at first glance, the dusty stalls and kebab joints of Kabul, with their bearded men and covered women, look much the same - in at least one important way - as they did when the Taliban were forced to flee.

Ordinary people seem stoic under the circumstances, which are better than they were in 2001 but still deeply uncertain.

Generations of conflict have numbed the senses. From the Russian occupation during the 1980s, through the years of Taliban rule in the 1990s, and now the intensifying coalition war against the Taliban insurgency, violence has become ingrained in their lives. After a recent period being embedded with the U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan, I stopped in Kabul to wander the streets and take photos of a city forever in transition. The Western presence was something not tolerated during Taliban rule, so there have been some changes.

A new shopping mall, with escalators in a city where constant electricity is a luxury, offers Western-style clothes, gold jewelry, a cafe. A fast-food establishment, mimicking American chains, offers fried chicken and fries instead of lamb kebab and rice.

Meanwhile, refugees and internally displaced civilians, left homeless by decades of war, have created a beggar society, with the sick and disabled desperate for food and work. The cost of housing in urban Kabul is very high compared with that in the countryside, and many people live in crumbling buildings and makeshift tents.

There is also, on a hill overlooking the city, an Olympic-size pool built by the Soviets in the 1980s. It is said that the Taliban forced criminals off the platforms to their deaths at the bottom of the pool.

Now, as then, it contains little or no water.

With unemployment at about 40 percent, a large number of idle men have little to do. Snooker clubs, where men play and smoke cigarettes, are popular. So are small video arcades. Most popular are the Indian and Pakistani movies that dominate the theaters; there, for the price of a ticket, viewers can watch increasingly revealing scenes of women.

Drug addicts crowd into a dilapidated section of the old city, smoking hashish and shooting heroin. Drug addiction is on the rise in Afghanistan, fed in part by a flow of refugees from Pakistan, who find no work but can buy the drugs cheaply. War or no war, West or no West, Afghanistan remains the world's largest producer of opium, an industry that the Taliban continue to profit from.

The newly resurgent Taliban continue to push for greater influence, and not just in the remote regions near the Pakistan border. A recent assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai during a military parade in Kabul killed three people. Then the Taliban freed 1,200 inmates in a brazen attack on a prison in the southern city of Kandahar.

The Taliban, clearly, are still strong in Afghanistan. So war, as it has been for generations, is never far away.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines: 400 Afghan insurgents killed since April
By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 9, 2008 7:58:20 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — A Marine commander said Wednesday his troops have killed 400 insurgents in southern Afghanistan since late April.

Col. Peter Petronzio, the commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said the figure came from the governor of the southern Helmand province, where his troops have been deployed since late April.

Some 2,200 Marines moved into the town of Garmser in Helmand province to clean the area of insurgents.

Numerous fields in Helmand province support growth of the opium poppy, the main ingredient in heroin. It is also the area with the highest level of insurgent activity in the country.

After months of fighting around Garmser, Petronzio said the area is not yet secure but is more stable.

“The Taliban proved they wanted to fight for Garmser and we took the fight to them,” he told a news conference in Kabul.

Petronzio said NATO and Afghan forces are committed to completing their mission in an area that is an important gateway for insurgent fighters smuggling weapons from Pakistan. The Marines will be replaced by British troops this fall.

“If the Taliban are waiting for us to leave, they will have a very long wait,” he said.

Last week, the Pentagon announced it has extended the tour of the 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would go home on time. The unit will stay an extra 30 days and go home in early November rather than October, officials said.

Meanwhile, the top NATO commander here said this week that rockets and mortars fired from militants in Pakistan at U.S. and Afghan border outposts have spiked in the last month.

“We have seen an increase in the eastern part of Afghanistan of cross-border indirect fires coming into some of our, not only our but Afghan” outposts, said Army Gen. David McKiernan, who took command of the 40-nation International Security Assistance Force mission last month.

But McKiernan said that U.S. and NATO forces have been returning fire.

“Of course, our presumption is that the threat feels safer firing [from] across that border. I’m not sure that’s the case, that they’re any safer, because we do return those fires, coordinated with the Pak military,” McKiernan said.

U.S. troops have fired artillery and used airstrikes to hit militants inside Pakistan.

McKiernan offered no specifics on the number of attacks coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan, but said, “There definitely has been an increase since I’ve been here in the last 30 days.”

The four-star general said he thinks those attacks have spiked because militant groups have the freedom in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas to move across the Afghan-Pakistan border unimpeded and re-supply and recruit in Pakistan.

McKiernan said that violence has increased in recent weeks in Afghanistan because insurgents are attacking more vulnerable targets with complex ambushes and suicide bombings, and because NATO and Afghan forces are moving into new territories and meeting resistance from fighters.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

US carrier moves from Gulf to back up Afghan operations

17 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US aircraft carrier has moved to the Arabian Sea to support military operations in Afghanistan, leaving the Gulf without a carrier, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The shift by the USS Abraham Lincoln over the weekend comes amid stepped up insurgent violence in Afghanistan where US combat casualties have been on the rise even as they have dropped sharply in Iraq.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the move was ordered by the acting chief of the US Central Command, General Martin Dempsey.

"I think he felt that providing some additional combat support in Afghanistan was something he could do without any cost to the mission in Iraq," Gates told reporters during a visit to Fort Lewis, Washington.

Gates denied that it signalled an escalation of the US military effort in Afghanistan, but acknowledged that the violence there has grown in intensity.

"And I think it's just part of our commitment to ensure that we have the resources available to be successful in Afghanistan over the long haul," he said.

Last week, the Pentagon announced it would extend what was supposed to have been a seven month deployment of some 2,200 marines who are fighting with NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.

The marines were supposed to be out in October, but will now leave a month later in November.

June was the bloodiest month for foreign soldiers in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, with 49 dead. In Iraq, 31 foreign troops, including 29 Americans, were killed during the same period, according to icasualties.org.

A US Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the repositioning of the Abraham Lincoln was unrelated to tensions with Iran, which Tuesday announced that the Revolutionary Guard forces were kicking off a new round of war games.

"This is not a move in preparation for an attack on Iran. We're simply repositioning the capabilities to support the commanders on the ground down there," the official said.

The operations in Afghanistan and Iraq "are extremely dynamic and sometimes we have to adjust the posture of forces so we can we can take advantage of certain opportunities that are there," the official said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, breaks the door of a house as he enters for search during patrol in the town of Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan Wednesday, July 9, 2008. The U.S. Defense Department has extended the combat tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Photo Credit: AP Photo

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Scarcity of linguists makes it hard to wage war
Can U.S. be a skillful interventionist with scant supply of foreign speakers?
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
updated 5:10 p.m. ET, Thurs., July. 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - The United States military has a strategic shortfall — not of bullets or ballistic missiles, but of soldiers and Marines fluent in Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, and Turkmen — the languages spoken in Afghanistan.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress sent U.S. troops to Afghanistan to fight al-Qaida forces.

But after seven years on the ground, military leaders are still short of soldiers and Marines who can speak and understand the local lingo.

In movies about World War II, there's often one soldier — for instance, the French-speaking Cajun from Louisiana — who could converse with French villagers in Normandy.

But in the real world of 2008, things are a bit more complicated.

How can the United States be a successful interventionist nation without an adequate supply of people fluent enough to interrogate the locals — not just in Afghanistan — but around the world?

Where will future crises erupt?
It’s not just Pashto and Dari in Afghanistan, but Javanese and Indonesian, or Kazakh, should trouble erupt in that oil-and-uranium-rich nation.


If today’s problem is the Dari deficit, what about five or ten years from now?

How can the Pentagon train soldiers and Marines to be proficient in critical languages if no one knows for certain where the crisis will be, in say, 2012?

The Defense Department might invest money in training a cadre of people in Farsi or Kazakh, only to find that it may not need them in five years, instead finding themselves short of Javanese and Indonesian speakers.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s panel on Oversight and Investigations, convened a hearing Wednesday to draw attention to this language dilemma.

Snyder said that a monetary language proficiency bonus is paid to 17,000 military service members, which sounds like a lot, until you realize that it only amounts to one percent of the Defense Department’s 1.3 million personnel.

And a significant number of the linguistically proficient, Snyder said, are senior officers involved in intelligence work — not soldiers and Marines walking into Afghan villages.

A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, Snyder said he didn’t learn Vietnamese before his tour of duty.

Language in boot camp
But he has an idea to remedy the language scarcity: make language training a required part of boot camp for new soldiers and Marines.

“In the Marine Corps, every Marine is a rifleman and a big part of boot camp is learning to shoot,” Snyder said. “That’s just ingrained in you, and you know that’s important. Discipline is important, honor is important, shooting a rifle is important. If we think this (foreign language proficiency) is important, then why not have that be from the get-go, from day one?”

But training soldiers and Marines to more than a rudimentary level of a language is a long, expensive task — even to get them to “2 plus” on the military’s zero-to-five language proficiency scale.

At the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., “they’re spending 63 weeks in Arabic, five days a week, six hours a day, these kids are amazing. Sixty-three weeks — and only a portion of them can make it,” said Richard Brecht, head of the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, who testified before Snyder’s committee Wednesday. “It’s real tough.”

The demands of irregular warfare
Retired Army officer Andrew Krepinevich, the head of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent policy research institute, said irregular warfare and counter-insurgency will demand larger numbers of U.S. foreign language speakers.

“You don’t need 100 percent of a unit to speak Pashto or Farsi — you go into an area with a platoon of 40 soldiers if a few of them speak the language you’re in pretty good shape,” he said.

Krepinevich told Snyder’s committee that he’d recently talked to one Army general who said, “Once we leave Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re not going to do this for another 30 years. The American people won’t stand for it” — but Krepinevich doesn’t necessarily believe that.

The trends, he said, point to “a disordered world.”

The inescapable demographic reality is that a huge percentage of the population in Africa, South America, and Asia is under age 15 — “a rising number of highly frustrated people” who live in countries with incompetent or corrupt governments, Krepinevich said.

These people often resort to violence and they may live in places with an impact on U.S. trade and prosperity.

“Irregular warfare is here to stay, it is a trend, I think it is going to increase in importance,” said Krepinevich

And this won’t be the traditional waging of war — blowing up bridges or dropping bombs on enemy troop concentrations — but policing, training, and patrolling.


It is possible to imagine a scenario in the next several years in which domestic political pressure in the United States builds for military intervention to stop mass killings in a particular place, such as Darfur.

The defense secretary might turn to the president and say, “We just don’t have sufficient number of people fluent in the local languages to be able conduct long-term stability operations.” For the non-interventionists in the United States, this might sound like good news.

With the U.S. military already over-stretched, irregular warfare will require choices. “We’re probably not going to place a high priority on being able to deploy in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Krepinevich. “There are places in the world where you say if this country fails, it is going to have a major effect on U.S. security or economic well being.”

Case in point: Nigeria, from which the United States imports more than 400,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil every year, nearly as much as it imports from Saudi Arabia. “You say, ‘That’s one area we’re going to have a hard time turning our back on,’” Krepinevich said.

Brecht told the committee that the language deficit can not be remedied only by training of those already in uniform.

In the long run, recruitment of foreign speakers depends on vastly improved language education starting in the nation’s primary schools, he pointed out.

Shortage of Chinese speakers
The military language deficit is part of a larger national shortfall. There are, for instance, few U.S. elected officials who speak Chinese.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is one of the only prominent American politicians fluent in Chinese. Huntsman worked as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan in the late 1970s and served as a trade official and ambassador to Singapore in the 1990s. On a trade mission to China last year he gave speeches in Chinese.


Relative to the size of state population, Utah has the highest number of students studying foreign languages of any state.

“German and French are great, but they’re a bit of an anachronism,” Huntsman said on a recent visit to Washington. “So we’ve done a bit of fortifying of the languages available in our schools. We struck up a relationship with Chinese Ministry of Education through the embassy here. We now have teachers from China dropped into some of our high schools who teach Chinese.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU Successful So Far in Afghanistan

Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 - 06:58 PM

By Amy Kibler
Eyewitness News 9

The battle for Marines from Camp Lejeune is paying off half a world away. Commanders say the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit has killed 400 insurgents in Afghanistan since late April. Officials say many of the insurgents were linked to the Taliban. NATO is also stepping in to help the fight.

Video
http://www.wnct.com/midatlantic/nct/news/local_news.apx.-content-articles-NCT-2008-07-10-0063.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghan border police on patrol with U.S. Marines

By Laurent Hamida
32 minutes ago

"Do you know who these men are?" a U.S. Marine asks residents, gesturing to Afghan border police near the recently captured town of Garmsir. But the answer is always "no," no one has ever seen the force before.

The Afghan border police, accompanied by U.S. Marines, went out on patrol for the first time this week since Garmsir district centre was recaptured from Taliban control in April. No one knows or can remember the last time the border police were seen there.

A fighting force of some 2,200 U.S. Marines was deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year to make up for shortfalls in troops Washington failed to persuade other NATO allies to fill.

The Marines moved into Garmsir district in late April, taking up positions east of the river that cuts through the desert region, and in early May began a fierce fight to push Taliban militants west and south.

"This is the first integrated patrol today. It's just kind of a test one for both sides, so they can get to know us, we get to know them and they start to learn how we operate," said Lieutenant Marc Matzke.

Garmsir, at the southern end of the inhabited green strip along the Helmand River, had been a transit and logistics hub for Taliban fighters moving in from the south. Helmand is also the largest opium producing region in the world.

NEW GUYS ON THE BLOCK

Government presence in the largely empty desert south of the district centre all the way to the Pakistan border some 80 km (50 miles) distant has always been either poor or non-existent, said Captain John Moder of the U.S. Marines.

His men's mission, he said, was to secure a perimeter around the town, which had been captured by the Taliban, and help the government establish its authority in the area. The long-term plan is to extend that perimeter, he said.

Although the district centre is now under control of U.S. Marines, there are still insurgents left in the surrounding areas, but Marines are not being engaged like before.

The Marines were sent to Garmsir as the more than 8,000 mainly British forces in Helmand, holding a string of bases to the north, did not have the numbers to take the town alone.

Since beginning the operation the U.S. Marines have killed more than 400 Taliban, the governor of Helmand said this week, a figure the U.S. military supports.

With the Marines due to leave in October the question had always been what would happen after they went. They had been intended as a mobile force to be replaced by other foreign and Afghan troops to hold the ground they had captured.

But so far due to the lack of either government or other foreign forces, the Marines have stayed in Garmsir, security experts said. Last week the U.S. government extended the Marines' tour of duty by 30 days till November.

The Marines are hoping visual patrols with Afghan border police witnessed this week will increase public confidence in the area as well as keep insurgents away from the district centre.

"You know, the locals, when they are asked questions like: who do you talk to when you have problems, who do you go to have these problems fixed? They say, we go to our government; our officials," said Matzke.

But for the residents in Garmsir anybody who fixes their problem is the official. Two months ago it just happened that they were Taliban, he said.

"But now we are trying to show them that there are some new guys in town."

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan attack kills 9 U.S. soldiers
The insurgent assault on the lightly manned outpost also leaves 15 Americans and four Afghan soldiers wounded. A suicide bombing in Oruzgan province kills 24.
By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King
Special to The Times

July 14, 2008

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Insurgents armed with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades mounted a fierce assault on a remote, relatively lightly manned U.S. outpost in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing nine American soldiers.

It was the largest loss of U.S. troops' lives in a single incident in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 Americans died in the same province when a helicopter was shot down. The province, Kunar, is a swath of forbidding, mountainous terrain that borders Pakistan.

Reflecting the seriousness of the incident, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was briefed early Sunday on the assault, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman. Morrell described the casualties suffered by U.S. and Afghan forces as "significant," but noted they had successfully repelled the attack.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, reported the deaths of nine of its soldiers without specifying their nationalities. But a senior Defense Department official and a U.S. military official in Afghanistan, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the incident, confirmed the dead were Americans. Fifteen Americans and four Afghan soldiers were wounded.

Although the attackers were driven back, the toll they exacted was undeniably heavy. The senior Defense Department official said the outpost was manned by 45 American troops and 25 Afghan soldiers. That would mean that one in five of the American defenders were killed and one-third wounded.

NATO divides Afghanistan into regional commands, and the eastern part of the country, including Kunar province, is under U.S. military control.

Although Afghanistan's south is the traditional heartland of the Taliban insurgency, the east has seen a sharp surge in attacks over the last few months. NATO has linked the increase to peace negotiations being conducted by Pakistani authorities with Taliban militants who shelter in the tribal lands on the Pakistani side of the border.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, visited Pakistan last week and emphasized U.S. concerns about the flow of fighters and weaponry from the tribal areas.

NATO has also accused the insurgents in Pakistan of deliberately seeking to fuel tensions by directing fire across the border at Western troops in Afghanistan. Last month, 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed when coalition troops called in airstrikes after being fired on, an incident that drew an angry protest from Pakistan's new government.

Taliban fighters and other Islamic insurgents have been trying for more than six years to dislodge foreign troops from Afghanistan and reestablish rule based on their austere vision of Islam. This year has been the most violent since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that drove the Taliban from power.

In the Kunar assault, the insurgents were believed to have suffered heavy casualties, ISAF said in a statement. The well-organized attack began before dawn and raged for hours before tapering off late in the day, military officials said. Coalition officials had not made a "final assessment" of the confrontation, ISAF added.

The attack was unusual in its audacity. Taliban guerrillas rarely make sustained frontal assaults on much better-armed coalition forces, preferring hit-and-run attacks and roadside bombs. But militants do make occasional attempts to overrun outposts, particularly if their surveillance indicates that there are relatively few troops inside, or they are aware that terrain or location might make it difficult for Western forces to conduct airstrikes or bring in reinforcements.

It would be considered an enormous battlefield coup for the insurgents to capture a coalition base, particularly if they are able to take captives and seize weaponry. Insurgents often videotape their attacks on Western forces and use the images in recruiting and propaganda videos.

Sunday's deaths accelerated what had already been a rapidly rising fatality count among coalition troops in Afghanistan. During May and June, the 69 deaths among U.S. and other NATO troops in Afghanistan outnumbered American military fatalities in Iraq.

In addition to the Americans killed in Kunar province, an ISAF soldier died Sunday in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, where most of the Western troops are British.

Amid the intensified combat between coalition forces and the Taliban, recent deadly attacks by insurgents in densely populated cities and towns have exacerbated ordinary Afghans' sense of insecurity. Often the targets are security forces or official installations, but suicide strikes in crowded areas almost always exact a large civilian toll.

On Sunday, at least 24 people died and dozens were hurt when a suicide bomber targeted a police patrol in a crowded marketplace in Oruzgan province, local officials said. Six days earlier, 60 people were killed by a car bomb outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

Coalition military officials said that in the attack in Kunar province, insurgents fired from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat, near the American outpost. ISAF accuses Taliban militants of routinely using civilian areas as a staging ground for attacks, placing those who live there at great risk. It was not known whether villagers were present during the attack, or if they had fled.

The uneven pace and intensity of fighting in various parts of Afghanistan have led to friction within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over whether the burden of combat duty falls disproportionately on some member forces.

British, Canadian and Dutch troops, bolstered by more than 2,000 U.S. Marines deployed during the spring, do most of the fighting in the south, and U.S. forces are the main element in the east.

laura.king@latimes.com

Special correspondent Faiez reported from Kabul and Times staff writer King from Istanbul, Turkey. Staff writer Peter Spiegel in Washington contributed to this report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Jul 14, 3:38 PM EDT
Deadly attack on US base sends worrying signal

By FISNIK ABRASHI
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An insurgent raid that penetrated an American outpost in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers, has deepened doubts about the U.S. military's effort to contain Islamic militants and keep locals on its side.

Moving in darkness before dawn Sunday, some 200 fighters surrounded the newly built base in a remote area near the Pakistan border without being spotted by the troops inside, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief.

He said people in the adjacent village of Wanat aided the assault. About 20 local families left their homes in anticipation of the raid, while other tribesmen stayed behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight," Jangalbagh said.

The result was the deadliest incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American soldiers were killed as a rocket-propelled grenade shot down their helicopter.

Violence has been increasing in Afghanistan, and many people are questioning whether the Taliban-led insurgency is gaining, not losing, momentum seven years after the hard-line Islamic regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion.

The coordinated assault at Wanat sent a strong signal to other insurgent groups that "America cannot resist them anymore," said Tamim Nuristani, who was fired as provincial governor last week by President Hamid Karzai's administration for criticizing a U.S. airstrike that Afghan officials say killed civilians July 4 in the same area as Sunday's attack.

Nuristani said the attackers at Wanat were a mix of Afghan- and Pakistan-based militants, some with al-Qaida links - a sign, he said, that cooperation is growing between what had been often fractious factions fighting the Western military presence in Afghanistan.

"The (attackers) were not only from Nuristan but from other districts," Nuristani said. "They are not only Taliban. They were (Pakistan-based) Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Hezb-i-Islami, Taliban and those people who are dissatisfied with the (Karzai) government after these recent incidents. They all came together for this one."

The attack - which U.S. and NATO officials said happened in Kunar province but which Afghan officials said was in neighboring Nuristan - reinforced recent assessments by U.S. officials that militant attacks are becoming more complex and better coordinated.

A NATO official said the attackers used houses, shops and a mosque in Wanat for cover during the hours-long battle.

The militants showered the small base - which had been established just three days earlier - with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Some of the militants breached the wall and got inside, killing nine American soldiers and wounding 15 others, he said.

Other American soldiers managed to drive out the attackers and called in air support. Attack helicopters swooped over the battlefield, and in hours of fighting dozens of insurgents were killed and about 40 were wounded, the NATO official said.

The official described the militant raid as "serious," but also said it was a rarity for insurgents to get inside a base.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack expressed regret that American lives were lost, but argued the attack was a sign of the pressure being put on the insurgency.

"Instead of looking at it necessarily from the perspective of the Taliban or terrorists being more aggressive in coming after NATO or U.S. forces or Afghan forces, in this particular case it was an example of NATO, U.S. and Afghan forces being aggressive in combatting cross-border infiltration," McCormack said.

The U.S.-led coalition and NATO military mission, which together have about 60,000 soldiers, have long maintained that insurgents can now operate only in small groups and have lost every battle with the militarily superior Western forces.

Yet the insurgents' ability to assemble a large militant force to launch the attack undetected and with the apparent complicity of locals is a worrying signal for U.S. commanders.

A Western official with detailed knowledge of the area said the raid underlined questions about the military campaign against the Taliban.

There is "overwhelming evidence that anti-coalition elements are operating effectively and that our counterinsurgency strategy is not successful ... because it has not addressed the most basic need to bring security to the people and devised a means to separate the people from the enemy," said the official, who agreed to discuss the sensitive issue only if not quoted by name.

Nuristan has been a tough nut to crack for any central authority for centuries and was a hub of resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Its rough terrain - mountains with forests, deep ravines and countless caves and gorges - provides a well-protected gateway from Pakistan's lawless tribal areas where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters find haven.

Mark Laity, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said it was not yet clear whether militants had crossed from Pakistan to conduct the attack.

"Obviously that area of Afghanistan is close to the border with Pakistan and the Pakistan border has been relatively open," Laity said.

The number of attacks in eastern Afghanistan have gone up 40 percent compared to last year, U.S. military officials say.

"We put that down to the fact that many insurgents are able to move pretty freely across the border and obviously we need to minimize that as far as we can," Laity said.

The Afghan government on Monday accused Pakistan's army and its intelligence service of supporting the insurgency, saying it suspended a series of bilateral meetings planned for coming weeks. Pakistan, which formally supported the Taliban before the 9/11 attack on the U.S., denies the allegations.

Monthly death tolls of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan surpassed U.S. military deaths in Iraq in May and June.

U.S. officials are considering withdrawing additional forces from Iraq in coming months, in part because of the need for additional troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said they need at least three more brigades in Afghanistan, or more than 10,000 soldiers.

More than 2,500 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

---

Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Images and Impressions from Afghanistan
By NOW Correspondent Bill Gentile

Just weeks after 9/11, I stood at the Afghan border with Tajikistan and watched American bombers pound Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan. I watched as America routed the Taliban and liberated Afghans hopes for a future better than the one they endured during decades of war since the Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Our country had a chance to dramatically and swiftly alter the course of history for the better. But that didn't happen.

Now the Marines are back in Afghanistan as the alarm is sounding and that nation is slipping once more into the abyss. Only days ago, Taliban forces overran a U.S. military outpost in Kunar Province, killing nine American servicemen and forcing others to retreat. It was an enormous propaganda victory for the Taliban. And that's only the latest incident in Afghanistan's downward spiral of violence and instability. The casualty toll for U.S. forces in Afghanistan now rivals the toll in Iraq.

In May and June, I spent nearly three weeks with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU) in the Garmser District of Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province, near the border with Pakistan. This was actually the second time I'd been embedded with the 24th MEU. The first was in 2005 in the Iraqi city of Iskandariyah, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.

My biggest concern this time, contrary to what a lot of people might expect, was not the danger of covering a combat situation. I've been covering conflict since 1979, so this wasn't anything new. My real concern was the heat. Having covered the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and then the war in Iraq, I know how temperatures of 120 degrees can take you down almost as fast as a bullet.

The difficulty in working in that kind of heat was complicated by the fact that I had to carry everything I would need in an environment that offered absolutely no amenities. No hotel. No electricity. No clean, running water. No phones. So I had to carry camera gear, a computer to download the material that I shot with a high-definition digital camera, plenty of batteries to keep everything running, body armor, helmet, other gear and clothing and, on top of it all, the food and the water that the Marines provided. These were some of the most challenging conditions that I had ever worked in.

Also embedded for a while with the 24th MEU was New York Times photojournalist Tyler Hicks. I shot a brief video of him transmitting photographs from the field to New York with a satellite connection. You get a sense of the tough conditions we worked in by watching that video, available on the Foreign Correspondence Network.

"These were some of the most challenging conditions that I had ever worked in."
I was embedded with the Marines in time to watch the end of what they call the kinetic, or heavy combat stage, of their counterinsurgency mission. They cleared an area that the Taliban had seized two years ago. They re-opened a bazaar after clearing it of insurgents and weapons. They helped the Afghan police return and establish an official presence in the area for the first time in two years.

The Marine Corps is a fascinating sub-culture of the American military. They distinguish themselves by a proud tradition of sacrifice, by achieving more with less in the face of adversity, by their camaraderie and their brotherhood. It's an extremely tight-knit meritocracy in which performance and respect are everything regardless of race, ethnicity, color, creed or how rich or poor your parents may be. One Marine told me, "You join the Marine Corps because you have something to prove."And they do. Every day.

I spent my entire embed with the nearly 200 Marines of Alpha Company, which is commanded by 31-year-old Captain Sean Dynan. Capt. Dynan comes from a Boston suburb and his Marines come from the sleepiest towns and the most vibrant cities of America...and everything in between. They are mostly in their upper teens and lower 20s. They are white, black and Hispanic. Alpha Company also includes at least four Native Americans and at least one Asian American.

The soldiers come from model families and from broken families. Their fathers are corporate executives and truck drivers, x-ray technicians and land surveyors, kitchen remodelers and road crew supervisors. One of these Marine's fathers operated his own airline. Another is a Baptist preacher. Still another, a university professor. Their mothers are nurses, receptionists and housewives. They are Montessori teachers, church workers and pharmacists.

During the time I spent with them, many of the Marines opened up and told me their personal stories. Not all their stories are happy ones. When I asked one Marine about his father, he said he hadn't spoken with the man during his entire adult life and didn't care to do so, ever. Another Marine described his mother as "trash" and, "a drug addict." When I asked another about his parents, the Marine said, "That's not your business, Sir."

The Marines share everything, including a level of sacrifice that most Americans will never understand. And they are bonded by one of the most formative experiences of their young lives. In a sense, the Marines have created another family, their own family, and that family is called the United States Marine Corps.

I documented them as they endured temperatures that made my camera so hot that I had to put it down or take it to shade. They ate Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) that turn your insides to concrete. They slept on hard ground and breathed dust so fine that it gets into everything you own and everything you eat or drink. They fought off mosquitoes, spiders and fleas. They drank warm water from plastic bottles and washed their bodies, if at all, from contaminated wells. They repeatedly risked life and limb—and never whined. I wish more Americans could witness that level of sacrifice.

"[The Marines] repeatedly risked life and limb—and never whined. I wish more Americans could witness that level of sacrifice."
And I wish more Americans could see and understand the gravity of what is happening in Afghanistan. The consequences of a failed Afghanistan could be catastrophic. Once again Afghanistan could become a recruiting and training ground for anti-American terrorists like Al Qaeda.

After my embed with the Marines, I had dinner in Kabul with an Afghan friend who knows his country better than anybody else I know. We talked about the security situation that he said had deteriorated so drastically since my last visit three years before.

Toward the end of dinner my friend implored me to help his 19-year-old son leave Afghanistan and enroll in American University in Washington, DC, where I teach journalism. He asked me about scholarships to fund his son's education in the United States. "There is no future in this country," he said.

I hope he is wrong.

Photos
http://www.pbs.org/now/media_player/player.html?id=428&caps=low

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Operation Azada Wosa: Recounting the 24th MEU's progress in Garmsir <br />
<br />
7/21/2008 By 24th MEU Public Affairs , 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit <br />
<br />
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Soon...

[thedrifter]

Last modified Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:09 PM PDT

Marine officers check the view during an inspection in May at a remote outpost high in the mountains of Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. A Marine unit staffs the post along with members of the Afghan National Army. (Photo by Mark Walker - staff photographer)



MILITARY: Marine Corps increasingly eyeing Afghanistan

By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer

Last fall, Marine Corps Commandant James Conway proposed moving his 25,000 troops in Iraq to Afghanistan, arguing that the fight there better suited the firepower of the service's air and ground task forces.

He may soon get what he asked for, and local troops could well be in the mix.

With the Pentagon reporting growing stability in Iraq and calling for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan to counter a resurgent Taliban and increasing numbers of foreign fighters, there is speculation the Marine Corps soon may have a much larger role in what some call the nation's "other war."

Commanders in Afghanistan, which the U.S. invaded after the 9/11 terror attacks, say they need 10,000 more troops to counter the rising violence.

The sense of urgency was heightened last week when nine U.S. Army troops were killed and 15 wounded when their remote outpost near the Pakistan border was attacked by what officials estimated were about 200 fighters.

The question for Pentagon planners now is where the additional troops will come from this year. Several sources said they believe Camp Pendleton and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station forces could be among those tapped for duty in 2009.

Pentagon officials refused to discuss deployment plans. Said Maj. David Nevers: "There are certainly discussions under way at senior levels about how ---- and how quickly ---- to send additional forces to Afghanistan. Many considerations are at play, not the least of which is the pace of the drawdown in Iraq."

Helland's desires

Camp Pendleton's Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, head of Marine Corp forces throughout the Middle East and commander of the base's 40,000-strong I Marine Expeditionary force, is among the leadership backing a greater presence in Afghanistan.

He made that clear during a recent interview with the North County Times after a May briefing with his command staff at Camp Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province.

"Whether or not we ... become firmly entrenched in Afghanistan remains to be seen," the general said. "Afghanistan is a great place for Marines, a great place for us to set up and continue to be part of the fight against the terrorist activity in that part of the world."

During his briefing at Camp Fallujah, Helland told more than three dozen officers in the room that he knew that moving to Afghanistan was in their thoughts as combat operations wind down in Iraq.

And while Afghanistan makes sense for a force known for its combat prowess, the general said, the Pentagon thinking at that time was not to add to the 3,400 Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Twentynine Palms sent to that country this spring.

Two months later, however, finding more troops for Afghanistan is now at the top of the Pentagon's agenda.

The Marines now in Afghanistan represent the largest deployment of leathernecks since shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. They were slated to come home in October until the reported spike in violence prompted Defense Secretary Robert Gates to order them to stay through November.

Factors in play

There are several factors at work that suggest an increased Marine presence in Afghanistan in the coming months, and that those troops could come from local bases. There are about 60,000 U.S. and NATO troops there now, with American forces about 35,000 of the total.

The Bush administration this month said it hoped to bring more troops home from Iraq this fall and Iraqi government officials said last week they want to assume security responsibility for all 18 of their provinces by year's end.

A final decision on troop levels there will come after a September report from U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Marine ground units from Camp Pendleton and aviation units from Miramar assigned to Iraq early this year are nearing the end of their seven-month deployments. A headquarters group and two base regimental combat teams are being replaced by similar units from Camp Lejeune.

With those rotational cycles in mind, Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could soon turn to Conway's proposal.

"We are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces (to Afghanistan) sooner rather than later," Gates told reporters Wednesday.

A report compiled by Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International, a nonprofit military research group in Virginia, said there were 314 insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in June, up 40 percent when compared with June 2007.

"The fight remains tough and complicated," Mullen said during a Pentagon briefing last week. "One need look no further than the well-coordinated attack on the Wanat outpost to see that the enemy in Afghanistan has grown bolder, more sophisticated and more diverse."

He said the border area is a "launching pad" for the insurgency and that he is increasingly worried about the border region.

Mullen also singled out the work of the Marines in the southern area of Afghanistan, fueling speculation that Pentagon planners may call on the Marine Corps to send in more of its troops.

"I spoke with Marines based in the south," Mullen said of his visit to Afghanistan earlier this month. "To a person, they wanted me to know about and they showed me the positive changes they have helped bring about, the villages they can now enter, the Afghan police and forces they are training and trying to improve."

And he underscored commanders' calls for more manpower.

"It's a tougher fight ... and they need more troops to have the long-term impact that we all want to have there," Mullen said.

'Itching for a fight'

A senior Marine officer in Iraq said last week that as the Iraqi army and security forces assume primary responsibility for security in Anbar, where local Marines have been stationed since 2003, U.S. troops are looking ahead.

"Guys are itching for a fight," he said on the condition his name not be used. "If you're a young Marine or you're a battalion commander and you want to use your assets the way they're supposed to be used, Afghanistan is the place you want to be."

Much of the work in Anbar now involves civil affairs and training of Iraqi army and security forces and shrinking combat assignments. While there is work still to be done in Anbar, the officer predicted that Marine Corps forces will be greatly reduced in the province by year's end.

Marines, he said, are growing anxious to move on.

"Not a whole lot of us signed up to pass out soccer balls," he said. "We're looking and watching, and there's no doubt guys want to get into the fight there."

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Officer with 24th MEU dies in Afghanistan
By Bridget Smith - The Courier-Post
Posted : Monday Jul 21, 2008 10:11:31 EDT

WOODLYN, N.J. — When 1st Lt. Jason Mann joined the Marines 11 years ago, his mom, Alfina, was nervous.

It was what he wanted, though, and she decided she had to let go.

“Jason wanted to make something of himself, and he felt becoming a Marine was the ultimate thing he could do,” Alfina Mann recalled Sunday inside her family’s home.

Then, last week, Mann got the news she’d dreaded for more than a decade: The 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed husband, son and father with the infectious smile was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Mann, 29, died Thursday in a non-hostile incident, Defense Department officials said. He was a member of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, which was deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Mann said she was stunned when two Marines arrived at her home to notify her early Thursday morning.

“I just started to shake. All I could say was, “Not my Jason,’” Mann said, running her fingers over several snapshots of Lt. Mann, his wife, Shannon Mann, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Isabella.

William Mann, Jason’s brother, said the Marine died when the roof of a building collapsed on him in Helmand province. Mann said engineers were working on the roof at the time of the collapse and may have been unaware that his brother was inside.

Lt. Mann — described as a shy, chubby high schooler — found himself in the military, his brother said.

“It was a complete transformation,” said William Mann, himself an Iraq veteran.

Mann enlisted in 1997 and became an officer in 2005. It was his second deployment in the last two years, following a stint in Iraq from September 2006 to May 2007. He left for Afghanistan in March and was due home in the fall.

Family members last spoke with Mann on July 6. Alfina Mann said every conversation she had with her son ended the same way: “Please son, I love you so much. Please be safe.”

Mann is also survived by his father, Orville; a sister, Jennifer Cleaver; and three stepsiblings.

Burial is set for Friday at Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia. Mann’s family hopes to hold a memorial service in New Jersey in the coming weeks.

Mann is the first casualty in the 24th MEU announced since Defense Department officials said July 3 that the unit’s stay in Afghanistan would be extended by 30 days, until early November. There are about 2,200 members in the unit.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. Marines Take On the Taliban in Afghanistan
After two Iraq deployments, members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit face a different sort of war
By Anna Mulrine
Posted July 24, 2008

GARMSIR, AFGHANISTAN—At this spartan combat outpost in the heart of Helmand province, U.S. marines are preparing for what may be their toughest fight yet. Under the cover of darkness, they will push out to take up positions for a battle that they hope will break up a key Taliban stronghold in what is currently one of the most dangerous regions in the country.

For the moment, though, their job is to rest up and dodge the 124-degree heat, waiting for the go-ahead while they attend to the rituals of war in the windy high desert. Marines sleep outside on the ground or on the hoods of humvees parked in the middle of opium poppy fields. Sand penetrates everything, so Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Justin Carter cleans his bullets with baby wipes to make sure they are free from grit that could cause his rifle to jam. Cpl. Brandon Karana, a forward scout and former logger, pulls his rifle apart and scrubs it with a toothbrush. He holds it up to inspect his handiwork. "I hope I don't have to fire this thing," he says.

That is looking unlikely. To date, the 1st Battalion Landing Team of the 6th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit—2,200 troops sent here in March to bolster struggling British forces—has been ambushed by Taliban fighters with rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and striking battle savvy. In one particularly fierce assault, marines from Weapons Company were pinned down in an hour-and-a-half-long firefight.

As the 24th MEU has pushed south, the size of Taliban units it is fighting has grown larger, from pockets of three to five to groups of as many as 25 to 30 fighters. And they are well trained. Resistance has been so fierce—and so unexpected, they add—that the unit is on Day 30 of what it initially thought would be a two-to-three-day campaign.

Many of the men here are not new to combat. The 24th MEU fought during the toughest years of the insurgency in Iraq, where urban street battles in cities like Fallujah and Ramadi "were like getting into a fistfight in a phone booth," recalls 1st Lt. Tom Lefebvre, a Weapons Company platoon leader. During its 2004 deployment to Fallujah and then in Ramadi from September 2006 to May 2007, the battalion weathered brutal attacks on a daily basis. Soon after the unit's tour was extended to nine months from six as part of the surge, the marines began to see progress. "It wasn't a matter of if you thought you were making a difference," says Cpl. Scott Oaks of Stewartville, Ala. "You could see a difference."

Here, they are not so sure. They have watched British colleagues fight to retake from the Taliban some of the same hills where old British forts from colonial-era campaigns in the 1800s still stand. Since 2006, control of this town has changed hands three times. Marines say that they are willing to do the hard fighting to clear out the area again. But, they occasionally wonder, to what end—and at what cost? "I've got no problem going after the Taliban," says Weapons Company 1st Sgt. Lee Wunder. "But we'd all like to see, for all our effort and hard work, when we leave that there is someone to backfill for us."

They have received no word yet on when, or if, this will happen. As U.S. casualties in Afghanistan continue to rise, there has been talk of shifting troops from Iraq. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has made it clear, however, that current troop levels in Iraq preclude such an increase. Earlier this year, the Pentagon emphasized that the marines' deployment to Helmand was an "extraordinary, one-time" commitment.

The unit has just learned that its eight-month tour will be extended by one month to November. In the meantime, Mullen has raised questions about the consequences of what he calls an "economy of force" campaign in Afghanistan. "We don't have enough troops there to hold," he says. "And that is key, clearly, to the future of being able to succeed in Afghanistan."

"Beat up pretty bad." Weapons Company was sent in to support comrades in Alpha Company, camped just down the road in this town that serves as a major crossing point on the Helmand River. Here, the Taliban funnels fighters and supplies, and frequently Alpha Company bears the brunt of indirect fire in attacks on its compound just a few hundred yards away. A rifle unit, "Alpha Company was getting beat up pretty bad," says Weapons Company Master Sgt. Rodney Abbott. "It was time for the heavy guns to come down."

Because they thought it would be a quick operation, Alpha Company marines traveled light, carrying only bare essentials on their backs. They each filled CamelBaks with the equivalent of 54 water bottles each for the first three days. Many left even sleeping bags behind. With food and ammunition, gear for each gi weighed an average of 125 pounds, minus the body armor.

This is the largest opium-producing region in the world, and the marines' heavy packs posed hazards in the deeply rutted poppy fields that surround the town. The troops suffered sprained ankles and heat exhaustion. Weapons Company became mired in the fields on its way down as well, as the heavy new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, got stuck in fields and soft sand. At one point, it took the company three hours to go 400 yards. There are other hazards as well, some occasionally doubling as comic relief. The untended donkeys that run and graze in the fields outside the compound—an area the marines have nicknamed the petting zoo—nip at patrols. Troops have been bitten by horses and threatened by rabid dogs. And they have experienced firsthand the largely unexplored consequences of drug consumption among domestic animals. A goat grazing on the marijuana plants that grow here lost its footing after climbing to the top of a pile of discarded boxes and then tumbled down onto a marine dozing in his sleeping bag.

But such comic relief is short-lived. In May, Weapons Company was ambushed by Taliban forces and pinned down in the 90-minute firefight. "We didn't think they'd pour it on like that," says Abbott. "It was one of those things where they just keep turning the volume up, and it was getting louder and louder. There were 30 minutes when we were full-bore reloading," he says. "The next morning, we were like, 'How the hell did we survive that?' "

Recently, Weapons Company lost one of its snipers, at the time detailed to Alpha Company, in an ambush. Such losses take their toll on individual marines. "They get fed up. They cop attitudes and don't talk," says Weapons Company Commander Cpt. Michael Little. "You have to pull them aside and say, 'You're endangering your fellow marines.' That's what 99 percent of the guys respond to." Here, marines "fluctuate between extreme ****ed-off-ness and extreme bored-ness," he adds. Oaks, who joined the Marines because he wanted to be just like the grandfather who raised him, has his own analogy. "You take the best family dog you can think of—loving, caring, the whole nine yards. And you build a wall around it. Then you start throwing hand grenades at it," he says. "Well, that dog is never going to be the same."

Beneath a camouflaged canopy on the compound, Cpl. Randall Clinton flips through a magazine. Reading material is at a premium here, since most of the marines couldn't take up pack space carting in periodicals. Clinton is narrating an article about "Seven Ways to Get to Heaven" in the hopes of helping Oaks choose a religion. "Here, we'll go through it—maybe we can find one that's right for you," he jokes. He begins with Hinduism. "You'll need karma," says Clinton. "Well, that's a *****—my life is a living hell," Oaks replies. "Next." They dismiss Islam because of its ban on drinking. "Here's Christianity," Clinton tries again. "This is pretty popular where you're from."

The battalion's chaplain, Lt. Jeff Jenkins, makes his rounds to the company outposts to lend a professional perspective to the religion discussion. But mostly he wants to see how troops are doing. Weapons Company left 30 marines, or 14 percent of its ranks, back in the States because of trouble they got into with the law, alcohol abuse, or post-traumatic stress, says Wunder.

The transition between war zone and home life can be difficult for myriad reasons, he adds, and some go home with a post-combat sense of entitlement. "They have served, and they have been to war," says Wunder. "And they sometimes feel like it's the Wild West, that the rules don't apply to them."

By now, after multiple deployments, marines know what to expect. "You get home a little bit angrier," says 1st Lt. John Branson, a Weapons Company platoon leader. "Your wife gets scared." When Cpl. Jesse Bosnak came home after deployment in Ramadi, his girlfriend gave him a magazine quiz to see if he suffers post-traumatic stress as a result of an Iraq attack that killed his driver and left shrapnel embedded in his skin. That led her to believe that his symptoms reflected traumatic brain injury from a concussion rather than PTSD, says Bosnak, who signed a predeployment waiver agreeing to defer further medical review until he returns from Helmand. He had wanted to see the Mediterranean ports of call that were supposed to be his unit's next tour of duty, only to find the deployment shifted to Afghanistan instead.

Seeking the POO. On the eve of the operation, Apache Company is hit with another attack. A platoon on patrol is taking fire from a tree line 200 yards away. Apache is trying to call in an air strike, but first the troops need to determine the "POO," or point of origin, of the attack. They have only five minutes of air support left before a marine Harrier combat jet circling overhead runs so low on fuel that it must leave to gas up.

To help guide the planes, Apache has an embedded pilot talking directly to the aircraft and to the home base. Capt. Jason Dale, call sign "Chippin," is a relaxed and unflappable Kentucky native. He has trained the troops back at the base to begin their daily check-in with the scores from the games of his beloved Cincinnati Reds. He is also waiting for news of the birth of his third child, due any day.

Beside him, a half-dozen troops sit on the crates they use for chairs at the company's makeshift combat control center—a plywood plank topped with computers, boxes of batteries, and a jar of garlic salt, which they shake on their food to ward off mosquitoes. They are relaying information and rapidly calling in coordinates. "I'm so going to repeat this right now, because I'm getting confused," says one. The marines are calculating the casualty radius of a potential strike, while continuing to pinpoint precisely where the fire is coming from. "We're losing time with the air," says Dale. They identify the POO and call in final coordinates. "Yes, drop—are we approved?" They get approval for a strike. "Make sure the boys are buttoned up," says another marine on the radio, seconds before explosions—in the form of two 500-pound bombs—rock the compound. It is midafternoon as the marines catch their breath. "As you can see," says one, "we haven't quite moved into the counterinsurgency phase yet."

Troops here debate what is worse—repelling groups of Taliban fighters with good command and control in Helmand or the asymmetrical guerrilla hit-and-run attacks they weathered in Ramadi. "In Iraq, it was just a guy and a couple of his buddies. These guys are better," says one marine. "We saw more RPGs here in the first two days then we'd ever dreamed of in Iraq." They also miss air conditioning on foot patrols in Iraq. "We'd stop in a house and get to watch Spaceballs in Arabic," adds Cpl. Richard Fowler wistfully.

Here, too, the mud brick walls that surround homes—and that Taliban fighters use for protection—have proved disconcertingly resistant to U.S. artillery. Alpha Company has also discovered textbook trenches and fortified bunkers—some booby-trapped—in and around the compound that it took over after a recent battle with local Taliban. Marines are relieved, though, that they are able to more freely use air support in this rural area and that they haven't come across the sheer volume of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that they encountered in Iraq. But they also fear that the use of roadside bombs is on the rise.

Eavesdropping. As it prepares to push out, Weapons Company 2nd Platoon builds a volleyball court-size topographic map in the sand, piling up stones for houses and shredding pieces of fabric to denote rivers and canals. The forward scouts have scoped out the route, and the MEU has been picking up radio transmissions indicating that some Taliban commanders are being reprimanded by their senior leaders for the marines' recent territorial gains. That hasn't stopped Taliban reinforcements from continuing to flow across the Pakistani border, some 75 miles to the south, in large numbers.

With news of the arrival of U.S. troops, many of the villagers loaded up tractors and cleared out. A number of families remain encamped on the outskirts of the hot desert town, many too frightened by Taliban threats to accept the food brought over by U.S. troops. "This could become a humanitarian crisis," says one marine.

An interpreter from Edgewater, N.J., has recently arrived at the outpost on the supply convoy, a bumpy six-hour stop-and-go ride over 7 miles of dirt road to deliver ammunition, food, and water to the company outposts. As he walks around the compound, he expresses concern about one of the "burn pits," an outdoor oven where the marines—with no toilets to use—have been disposing of bags of waste. "That's where the family bakes their bread," he says, noting that the compound owners might view the marines' unwitting act as a deliberate insult. He also worries about the embroidered bedding spread throughout the compound. "This is where families here put all of their wealth," he explains, to buy blankets and pillows to make guests more comfortable.

Some of the marines are fatalistic. "You know after we leave they're just going to come in here and [mess] up everything anyway," says one. "Blame it on us and try to get some money," in the form of compensation that NATO troops pay to locals for damaged property. Weapons Company suspects that the compound is the home of a drug lord. There are rooms filled with mementos, jewelry boxes, and even birth control pills from Iran. "They left in a hurry," says a marine known as Rock, a Weapons Company intelligence specialist and one of the few Afghan-Americans in the corps.

Rock is gibed by his fellow troops—one evening as the sun sets, they quiz him on American movies and music. When he doesn't know the answer, they deduct "patriotism points." They also come to him frequently with questions about locals they encounter. He keeps a picture of his mother in his wallet, a young woman wearing a miniskirt, taken while she was working as a professor of psychology in Kandahar. "They could wear miniskirts?" asked one young soldier, grabbing the picture for closer inspection. Many women did decades ago, Rock explains, but now the country is a different, more traditional place. Out on patrol, where he often encounters villagers impatient to return home, Rock has been surprised by their tolerance of the foreign troops. "These people say to us, 'I will leave my home for you. Thank God for you—we pray for you every day.' "

The chaplain, too, stops by to offer one last prayer for the troops before they leave.

As evening approaches, the marines nap on hospital stretchers in the shade. Gradually, though, Little begins relaying word that the operation has been delayed. Headquarters has found a roadside bomb that the mine-detection sweepers didn't recognize. For now, the batallion must figure out the problem, recalibrate, and resweep the dirt roads.

Some marines turn over and continue napping; others get up to clean their rifles again or do laundry in ammunition cans that they fill with well water. They are not sure now when they will push out. Some are frustrated, impatient to fight. Others are more subdued, aware of the enormity of the task ahead of them in the months to come.

Indeed, since their arrival, they have been struck not only by the ferocity of the fighting but by the immense poverty they have encountered. In Fallujah and Ramadi, families had tables and china cabinets and televisions, the marines note. "You look at these areas, and there is just nothing," says Oaks. The literacy rate in many villages is in the single digits. "Education here is just way too low, and even if you're just talking about bringing in electricity, it's going to take years and years and years."

And more troops, marines here add, who may or may not be coming. That's for generals and politicians to figure out. "All I know is that I'm being told this is the most dangerous place in the country," Oaks says. "And all I see is us."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

AFGHANISTAN: US “battlefield damage aid” helps recovery in Helmand Province

KABUL, 28 July 2008 (IRIN) - About two months after Taliban insurgents were forced out of Garmsir District in Helmand Province, US forces have been helping local people to rebuild their properties and livelihoods.

Some 2,400 US marines, backed by Afghan and UK forces, conducted a military operation from late April to early June in which scores of insurgents were killed, thus restoring the government's authority in the district, according to US and Afghan military officials.

To help people rebuild their damaged property, "24.3 million Afghani [over US$480,000] in battlefield damage aid" had been paid out to about 400 claimants by 27 July, according to the US military.

"We are paying what we call battlefield damage aid. There are certain things we don't pay for, such as damage caused by insurgents or damage caused well before we arrived," Capt Kelly Frushour, a public affairs officer for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, told IRIN in Kabul.

"The process is: Someone with property damage goes to the Civil Military Operations Centre. They report the damage to the marines there. The marines will verify the claim - sometimes this requires going to the location. Once the claim is verified, the person is paid," she said.

Aid “largely insufficient” - local official

Thousands of civilians were reportedly displaced from their homes during the military operation. The clashes adversely affected agriculture, the health and education sectors, and the local economy. However, provincial officials said most of the displaced had returned to their homes.

"Some people have received assistance to re-establish their life after the war, but overall the available aid has been largely insufficient," said Mohammad Anwar Khan, head of the provincial council, adding that people in Garmsir were still facing "a variety of very serious problems".

Some local people complained about the damage to water sources and shops, which they said had not been compensated for by the government and international forces.

Taliban insurgents had allegedly left behind landmines and explosive remnants of war which reportedly killed and wounded several people, and impeded access to agricultural land and public places.

“Stable but not secure”

The Afghan Red Crescent in Helmand Province said during and after the military operation over 1,000 battle-affected families had received food aid.

A district hospital, run by a local non-governmental organisation, had also been re-opened and re-stocked with "basic medical supplies" by the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). "There is one doctor, a midwife and two assistants and they see 80-100 patients a day," said Frushour of the US military.

Frushour said nine other projects had also been funded. These included well-digging and the refurbishment of two mosques.

Afghan and US officials said local people in Garmsir District were “very happy" that the insurgents had been driven out. "The few who have not been pleased with our presence begrudgingly accept us because they don't want the insurgents there either, and they do concede that at least we pay them for damage to their property and/or use of their property," said Frushour.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is expected to hand over the security of Garmsir District to the PRT and Afghan forces in the next three months. "Garmsir is stable but not secure. The insurgents are still there; they are just not engaging with marine forces the way they were," Frushour added.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Artillery battery thumps insurgents <br />
<br />
7/31/2008 By Cpl. Randall A. Clinton , 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit <br />
<br />
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan —In the early morning hours, before the first...

[thedrifter]

US adds 30 days to Marines' tours in Afghanistan
(Reuters)
5 August 2008

WASHINGTON - About 1,000 Marines deployed to train Afghan security forces will have their tours of duty extended by 30 days, a US defense official said on Monday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon has also decided to send fewer than 200 support troops to enhance the ability of Marine trainers to engage in
combat with insurgents while on exercises with Afghan forces.

The extension, which has not been officially announced, follows an identical move last month for another group of Marines battling insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

Extended Marine tours come amid US concern about rising violence in Afghanistan from the Taleban and other groups, including militants that US military officials say are being
trained and equipped at safe havens in neighboring Pakistan.

US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taleban government after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The latest Marines to have their tours extended belong to the 27th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which deployed in April for a seven-month tour that was due to end in November. The
extension will keep them in Afghanistan into December.

Last month, the Pentagon issued a one-month extension for some 2,200 Marines who deployed for combat duty in March from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. That extended
their stay from October to November.

eLLIE

[thedrifter]

FOX News Cameraman Helps Rescue Injured Marine From Insurgent Blast in Afghanistan
Monday, August 4, 2008

A FOX News cameraman helped save the life of an injured Marine in Afghanistan — and was injured himself — when the armored Humvee convoy he was traveling in was struck by a
roadside bomb Sunday night in the Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.

Two U.S. Marines were badly injured when the improvised explosive device detonated near their convoy. Though FOX News cameraman Chris Jackson was injured in the blast,
he went back to the burning vehicle to rescue one of the Marines.

"The cabin was on fire and I jumped out," said Jackson in a report filed immediately following the attack. "I went, grabbed the sergeant out of the shotgun seat, pulled him out."

While Jackson and the Marines assisted the injured sergeant, the heat inside the burning vehicle began to fire off the ammunition inside it.

"We checked him over; his leg was injured. We then carried him away behind a second armored Humvee because the ammunition from the first armored Humvee was cooking off
and firing in all directions."

Helmand province, the site of the IED blast, is a hotbed of insurgent activity and the largest opium poppy growing area in the world.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into the province's capital of Garmser in April to drive out the Taliban, and military officials say more than 400 insurgents have been
killed so far in the campaign.

"For most of my Marines — about 25 out of the 45 — this is their second or third deployment, and it's not their first IED strike, so we're pretty adept at handling them at this point," said Lt.
John Branson, commander of the platoon that was struck by the IED. "But they can always get one over on us every once in a while."

Jackson, 35, a longtime freelancer for FOX News, has been with the Jerusalem bureau since 2007. He is traveling in Afghanistan with FOX News correspondent Oliver North on
assignment for "War Stories with Ollie North," working on a documentary on the Special Forces. North is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Taking the Fight to the Taliban

U.S. Marines communicate with their command operation center during a raid on a Taliban headquarters in Afghanistan, Aug. 1, 2008. The Marines are assigned to Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Freddy G. Cantu.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

US Marines turn to social, detective work after assault - Feature
Posted on : 2008-08-13 | Author : DPA
News Category : Asia


Garmsir, Afghanistan - "We are going to get bombarded when we reach that compound," a US Marine sergeant warns the patrol. Seeing the puzzled look on a reporter's face - the fighting is supposed to have finished - another explains: "Not by the Taliban, by compensation claimants."We don't even reach the compound before they start to appear, emerging from the cornfields with claim papers in hand, speeding towards the patrol from all sides like hungry velociraptors closing in on Sam Neill's group of explorers in Jurassic Park.

Many of these people are entitled to sizeable payment for damage caused to their mud-built homes, fields and orchards in fighting that raged here a few weeks before. All they need is final verification of their claims by patrols before they get the cash, so the locals swarm upon the troops whenever they appear.

It's more than three months since the United States 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) deployed in the Garmsir district in southern Helmand, a Taliban redoubt that the force went through and cleared like a dose of salts in just over a month.

Crushing fortified insurgent positions with infantry, attack helicopters and jet fighters, and killing an estimated 400 enemy forces, the 2,400-strong MEU effectively liberated an area that had been terrorised by the insurgents for several years.

According to Marine officials, there were some injuries among civilians during the offensive, but not one non-combatant died, largely due to the fact that the Taliban had driven many people out during their occupation. They will pull out in the coming weeks, leaving the British to consolidate the gains.

With compensation payments running from 20 to in excess of 10,000 US dollars for wholesale destruction to a home, fields and crops, they now have to work out whose compensation claim is valid and who is on the make.

"We want to help these people but some of the stuff that comes up is like from 10 years ago," says Master Gunnery Sergeant John Garth, a reservist artilleryman with three combat tours under his belt who helps run the reparations programme.

"About 60 per cent of claimants get something, while 40 per cent show up because they think we are giving money away or they are trying to bull**** us," says Garth, who in civilian life works for a mobile phone provider.

The procedure is basic but effective. Claimants approach a checkpoint and describe damage to an interpreter who writes down the alleged losses and location. A Marine will undersign the paper which must then be presented to a passing patrol for verification.

Once confirmed, the claim must be taken to the Marines' reparations centre located in a British military base in Garmsir district centre. And if it is presented with genuine ID, payment of compensation is made on the spot.

On this day, a young man with heavily bloodshot eyes - marijuana grows plentifully around here and the patrol finds whole rooms full of the crop - leads the troops into a compound to demand money for a collapsed wall.

The house does bear bullet and shrapnel marks but this could be Taliban damage too - the area has seen plenty of fighting in recent years and the Marines refuse the foot the bill for everything that got broken.

Garth looks at the wall and with some fancy deduction worthy of TV detective Lieutenant Colombo, he points out that the edge of the mud bricks have clearly been worn away by a season of rain, which dates the damage back many months - long before the Marine came.

The claim is dismissed, the man shrugs and wanders off.

Three days later, the US reception centre on the British base is busy with claimants producing now verified papers to receive their money.

In many cases it's now a formality and funds are dispensed. But there is also a steady and even increasing flow of fraudulent claims and appearance of fake ID papers. The quality is good but the six-man team of Marines running the operation has become increasingly adept at spotting forgeries with slipped photos, suspect printing, and stupid slip-ups by the fraudsters.

In just one day, six apparently valid claim forms are successively accompanied by fake ID papers. Everything checks out and sizeable sums might have been released, only the would-be criminal mastermind carelessly added the same serial number and holder's signature to four of them.

This is still a time of war, and other than showing exposed conmen the door, there's little the Marines can do. Nor do they let it worry them too much that some will have successfully managed to trick them.

"A few hundred dollars here or there isn't a big deal, the big deal is that we got people to move back into their homes," says Chief Warrant Officer Rene Cote, coordinator of the MEU's civil affairs programme.

Towards the wind-down of the compensation drive in August, the force had shelled out almost 700,000 dollars, which after all is probably just the cost of a quick air strike and is pretty negligible to such a super-powered war machine.

While some of the troops wished for more action during their deployment, others among the group of artillerymen assigned to the compensation programme seem to thrive on the peaceful task.

"Being an artilleryman and having caused a lot of the damage down here it's just rewarding for us to help them rebuild their homes and lives and help them get back on track," said Corporal Greg Allen from Wyoming.

Meanwhile, Afghans who are denied payments complain while those who receive money are overjoyed.

Mohammed, owner of a heavily damaged house, emerges from the centre with the balance on a 250,000-Afghani payment in his pocket and wearing a smile so broad it threatens to force his remaining teeth from their sockets. "I hoped I'd get help and I did in the end, I'm so happy."

But despite the relative calm around Garmsir these days, the process is fraught. Claimants leave as fast and discretely as they can to avoid being tagged by Taliban informants for retribution. Suicide bombing threats are rife.

Despite their hard-as-nails reputation, the Marines visibly soften before some of the cases they see.

On a recent day, a landowner is dissatisfied at the sum he received. The Marines are adamant that they have been more than generous, but he still grumbles as he makes for the door that "Some people get undeserved payments while genuine cases don't get what they should."

But before he exits the man pauses and turns to the soldiers and says: "We know you left your families to come here and help us, and for this we thank you."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

US general warns of security gap when Marines leave Afghanistan

by Kimberly Johnson
Wed Aug 20, 11:27 PM ET

Security gains made in southern Afghanistan could suffer if US Marines are pulled out later this year without replacements, the head of the Marine Corps has warned.

General James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, said the US Marines will be unable to provide more forces until there is a significant draw down of their numbers in Iraq.

No firm plan has been made regarding who will replace the 2,200 Marines in the southern Afghanistan when their tours end in November, Conway told AFP.

Conway made the remarks last week in an interview with a reporter who traveled with him on a visit to Afghanistan, where 3,500 Marines have been deployed, and to Iraq, where 24,000 Marines are stationed.

"Our experience has been -- and it's drawn principally from Iraq -- (that) when you are in an area for a while, people will eventually come to trust you, they rely on your security, they will give you intelligence and expect you to continue to provide that security," said Conway on a stop at the Marine base outside the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

"If you leave those people, the method of the Taliban or of the Al-Qaeda is to come in and exact a punishment," he said.

His warning comes amid rising violence in eastern Afghanistan and around Kabul. The Marines have been credited with helping keep the Taliban forces at bay in southern and western Afghanistan since arriving in March.

Conway cautioned that pulling out without a replacement would make it more difficult for Marines -- or any military force -- when they returned.

"What happens when you come back is that there's not a level of trustworthiness that you've had there among the people because you did this once before," he said.

Marine Lieutenant Benjamin Brewster knows how difficult it is to gain the confidence of Afghan locals.

Brewster leads some 70 Marines based at a small camp outside the village of Gulestan, in Afghanistan's volatile southwestern Farah province. The province borders Iran.

Opium and marijuana crops are king in the region, said Brewster, interviewed at the Gulestan camp. The dusty military outpost of tents and camouflage netting is ringed by dirt-filled barriers and is located some 97 kilometers (60 miles) from the nearest Marine base.

"When we leave, they will either go back to being farmers, or will be killed," said Brewster, whose Marines patrol an area some 15 square kilometers (six square miles) large.

Other forces with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could provide security in the region that had intermittent patrols before Marines arrived, Conway said.

"As long as someone is there -- someone who represents the government or represents security to the people -- I think we'll be OK. The question is who and to what degree," he said.

If the Marines return to Afghanistan after this deployment they will need to come back in much larger numbers, Conway said.

"We are undermanned in order to be able to do all we need to do in the south," he said.

Conway noted that the Marine battalion based in Farah province is responsible for 6,178 square kilometers (16,000 square miles) of territory.

"That's a huge area of responsibility. We can't nearly be every place we need to be in sufficient strength to manage that," he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines ship out for scheduled Atlantic deployment


Associated Press - August 25, 2008 4:05 AM ET

CAMP LEJUENE, N.C. (AP) - Thousands of Marines from Camp Lejeune will deploy to the Atlantic for seven months onboard the USS San Antonio, the Navy's newest amphibious ship.

The 2,200 Marines in the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will depart this week onboard three ships, including the USS Iwo Jima and the USS Carter Hall.

The Marines spent the last six months training for the scheduled mission. While training near Indianapolis in June, the Marines helped evacuate a hospital, shored up a levee and took pictures of the damage after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ravaged the area.

Ellie


They left already folks and heading to Afghanistan......;)

Keeping Prayers and Thoughts in mind for a good friend of ours since is going there to take over for the 24th.....

http://fontman.smugmug.com/photos/358706194_jBoET-M.jpg

[thedrifter]

AFGHANISTAN <br />
A Hairy Fight <br />
<br />
As the military considers an Afghanistan 'surge', the head of the U.S. Marines pays a visit, and finds that far more troops are needed on the ground. <br />
<br />
By Kimberly...

[thedrifter]

Duty calls

Marines and sailors with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deploy
August 26, 2008 - 1:34AM
STAFF REPORTS

After months of preparation, Monday was time for Marines and sailors with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit to load up and move out for their six-month deployment with the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A tour different from Iraq
Comments 0 | Recommend 0
26th MEU deploys on ships of strike group
August 27, 2008 - 12:34AM
JENNIFER HLAD

Roughly 1,700 Marines and sailors bid goodbye to family and friends at Camp Lejeune on Monday, giving one last kiss or hug before stepping on buses bound for Norfolk, Va., where they will board the ships of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

Shortly before the buses arrived at the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit headquarters building, Lance Cpl. Ean Cavazos and his wife, Jessica, sat under a tree together, trying to make the best of their last moments before the scheduled seven-month deployment.

"I don't think it's hit me yet," Jessica said. "I think it'll hit me once he gets on the bus."

Ean was nervous, mainly concerned about his wife's welfare while he is gone.

In preparation for deployment, the couple said they went all out, "trying to squeeze as much fun" as possible into the short time, Jessica said.

"I'm really going to miss playing air hockey with you," she said, pulling Ean closer.

The deployment, the first for Cavazos, is also the first for Cpl. Sean Patrick Hosey.

Hosey, whose parents traveled from Fairfax, Va., to see him off, said he was "anxious, nervous, worried and excited."

But, he said, he is glad to finally be going.

The deployment is the third for Sgt. Joshua Jenkins and Sgt. Cory Hamilton, but the first ship-board deployment for both. Jenkins called the MEU cycle - six months of intensive training leading up to a seven-month deployment - the "complete opposite of an Iraq deployment."

During the training period, "you're gone so much it is kind of like you're deployed before you're deployed," said Jenkins, who is married with two children. By the time the actual deployment rolls around, it "is more of a vacation."

There is still the challenge of being away from home and family, Hamilton said, but after the training, "this is just a long exercise."

"I'm actually excited," he said. "It is a nice change of pace from Iraq deployments."

Eli Plumley was only 2 months old the last time his father, Staff Sgt. Joseph Plumley, deployed. Now he's 5 years old.

Being separated from family is definitely the hardest part of deploying, Plumley said, especially now that he has a closer bond with his son.

Vanessa Morrison, wife of Cpl. Ryan Morrison, said she is just taking it one day at a time.

The hardest part is the transition "between being with him and being away from him," she said.

This is Ryan's second deployment, "so we kind of know what to expect this time around," Vanessa said.

Being on ship means the Marines will likely get to visit numerous places, including some ports in Europe. And deploying means "we get to actually do our job, what we're trained to do," Ryan Morrison said.

But as ready as they are for the work part of the deployment, being away from family does not get easier.

"You can never really get ready for it," he said.

Contact interactive content editor Jennifer Hlad at 910-219-8467 or http://26meu.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

US coalition: 100 militants killed in Afghanistan

By JASON STRAZIUSO – 23 hours ago

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint U.S-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100 militants, the coalition said Thursday.

Militants wielding rocket-propelled grenades, guns and mortars attacked the joint patrol in the southern province of Helmand multiple times starting Monday, the coalition said. The combined force called in fighter aircraft for support.

Capt. Scott Miller, a coalition spokesman, said he couldn't provide further details, including a more precise location of the fighting, because the battle was continuing.

The coalition statement said no Afghan, coalition or civilian casualties had been reported.

The large death toll comes about one week after the U.S. said it killed 25 militants and five civilians during an operation in the Shindand district of Herat province. Afghan officials, however, say between 76 and 90 Afghan civilians were killed in that operation last Friday. The U.S. is investigating and plans to make its findings public.

Claims of large death tolls made either by international forces or Afghan officials are almost impossible to independently verify because of the remote and dangerous locations of the battles.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan on a patrol Wednesday. Neither the nationality of the soldier nor the location of the attack was released.

In the Nad Ali area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed 14 insurgents late Wednesday, said Daud Ahmedi, the governor's spokesman.

More than 3,700 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

General: US forces to up Afghan winter ops
By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 3, 2008 14:57:26 EDT

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALAGUSH, Afghanistan — American troops in Afghanistan will step up offensive operations this winter because insurgents are increasingly staying in the country to prepare for spring attacks, a U.S. commander told The Associated Press.

Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser said a 40 percent surge in violence in April and May was fueled in part by militants preparing stores of weapons during the winter, which generally is a slow period for fighting, particularly in snowy Afghan mountainous areas.

“If we don’t do anything over the winter the enemy will more and more try to seek safe haven in Afghanistan rather than going back to Pakistan,” Schloesser said.

U.S. and NATO officials say militants cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they rest, train and resupply in tribal areas along the frontier where the Pakistani government has little sway.

Schloesser estimated 7,000 to 11,000 insurgents operate in the eastern part of Afghanistan that he oversees — a far higher estimate than given by previous U.S. commanders.

He said the U.S. military realized more militants spent last winter in Afghanistan after speaking with elders and villagers who had been pushed out of their homes. The spike in violence in the spring occurred because insurgents were already in position to unleash attacks, though U.S. officials didn’t know it at the time, he said.

“They didn’t have to come over the passes, they were already here,” Schloesser said during an interview while flying in a Black Hawk helicopter Monday to a small U.S. outpost in Nuristan, a province that borders Pakistan.

A NATO spokeswoman said she didn’t believe increased operations would take place over the winter in other areas of Afghanistan where the U.S. isn’t the primary military force.

Attacks in the eastern part of Afghanistan where U.S. troops primarily operate were 20 percent to 30 percent higher in June and July than a year earlier, Schloesser said.

He said an attack by six or so suicide bombers on a large U.S. base near the Pakistan border Aug. 18 was carried out by Arabs and Chechens, foreign militants who are increasingly flowing into the Afghan theater. He said militant Web sites have been encouraging fighters to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

“I can’t prove they are coming from Iraq to Afghanistan, but I’ve seen it on Web sites that that’s what they’re being told to do,” Schloesser said.

This year is on pace to be the deadliest for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan since the invasion that ousted a Taliban regime in late 2001, as militants increase the complexity and scale of their assaults. Nearly 200 soldiers in the international forces have died this year, including 105 Americans. The total for all of last year was a record 222.

On Wednesday, the Canadian military said three of its soldiers were killed and five wounded when their patrol was attacked in the volatile Zhari district near Kandahar city in the south.

U.S. and NATO commanders have been urging that U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan be increased by about 10,000. There are already 34,000 American troops in Afghanistan, the highest since the war began. That includes 15,000 in a NATO force of 65,000, also a high for the war.

Schloesser said he was “reasonably optimistic” that he would see the additional American troops in the next several months. He said leaders in Washington “understand the importance of what our people are doing here.”

In the last two months, troops in the U.S.-led coalition have killed six top insurgent leaders in a valley 40 miles northeast of Kapisa, Schloesser said. The top militant leader in the Tagab Valley of Kapisa province is still on the loose.

U.S. and NATO leaders keep a wary eye on Tagab because it is close to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and the big U.S. military base at Bagram.

“I still want to get (militant leader) No. 1. I’m waiting for him to come back into the country,” Schloesser said. “I don’t believe he’s in the valley right now, otherwise he’d be captured or killed.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Painful Progress Pays Off
September 4, 2008




Time, Tenacity and Toughness -- that's what it took to win the "unwinnable" province of Anbar in Iraq. In a ceremony on September 2 that victory was consummated by handing the reigns back to the people of that province.

Think about that -- the United States doesn't conquer, it liberates. We kick down the rotten door, clean house and then remodel the place -- and pay with our national treasure and the blood of our young men. Then, when the house is completely rebuilt and the thieves and thugs thrown out, we hand the keys back to the people who own the property.

This is why America wins wars. We don't win by consolidating power for ourselves, but by returning it to those from whom it was stolen. That's something to be proud of.

The same Marines who won Anbar province in Iraq are now repeating the process in Helmand province, Afghanistan. This scorching desert south of Kandahar was, until recently, completely under the control of the Taliban. Not because they took it from us, but because we simply hadn't been able to send any forces in there yet.

Enter the Marines of the 24th MEU, some of whom are veterans of three or more combat tours. They moved in four months ago and parked right in the center of the Taliban's prime poppy-growing (and thus revenue-producing) region. And for once, the Taliban stood and fought, which said a lot about the value of the area to the enemy's bottom line.

The Marines in this district are short on just about everything. They have no fans or air conditioners to allay the sweltering temps, which regularly top 120 degrees. Mail is almost unheard of. They eat field rations and sleep out of doors on cots. Their hygiene consists of sticking their heads under the sulfur-smelling spout of well water while a buddy pumps it out of the ground. Don't even ask about their toilet facilities. You don't want to know.

And yet, when asked what they need, these battle-hardened warriors reply with a grin, "just send more enemy." Coming from anyone else, it'd be hopeless bravado. But after living with these incredibly tough men for a week at the beginning of August, I can promise you they are sincere.

Even when their buddies are wounded by sniper fire or IEDs, their resolve never wavers.

When asked if they need reinforcements, their commander, Colonel Pete Petronzio shrugs and says, "Sure, we'll take 'em, but keep them in Iraq until we're sure things there are finished. We can hold down the fort until then. We just don't want to have to go BACK to Iraq because we pulled out too soon."

Afghanistan is NOT Iraq, and the problems faced in the shadow of the Hindu Kush are as different as Arabic is from Dari. But the Marines are confident of victory. They have the tenacity and the toughness to get the job done. Now all they need is time for their winning formula to work.

This week in Iraq, the U.S. handed over Anbar province to the Iraqis -- and left. Look for more of this kind of torch-passing to happen in Iraq in the weeks to come -- just don't expect it to be headline news.

Though for the sake of our heroes, it ought to be.

Chuck Holton
www.livefire.us

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines ordered to stay longer in Afghanistan <br />
1:00 AM <br />
<br />
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has ordered roughly 1,250 Marines serving as trainers for the Afghan security forces to stay on the...

[thedrifter]

2-star sees slow win in Afghanistan
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 5, 2008 13:23:30 EDT

WASHINGTON — U.S.-led forces are achieving a “slow win” in Afghanistan, but the less-than-decisive approach must be accelerated soon, a key American commander there said Friday.

Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, in a videoteleconference with reporters at the Pentagon, said he remains hopeful that the Bush administration will send him more combat troops and other resources by winter.

He mentioned that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is by necessity an “economy of force” mission, meaning it is under-resourced because the war in Iraq is considered a higher and more urgent national security priority.

“We need to get away from that, over time,” to make a stronger push in Afghanistan, Schloesser said.

The current approach, he said, is producing progress but not at a rate that he considers satisfactory.

“It’s not the way that I think ... the Afghans, the international community and the American people would like to see us conduct this war,” Schloesser said. “It will take longer the way we are doing it right now, as far as the level of resources that we have. I’d like to speed that up. So it’s a slow win. I’d want to make it into a solid, strong win” by committing more resources.

There are now about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, compared with about 146,000 in Iraq.

Schloesser, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, leads a contingent of international forces responsible for an eastern sector of Afghanistan, which includes a volatile area bordering Pakistan.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Coalition troops kill 'several militants' in Afghanistan

Thursday • September 11, 2008

International forces killed several suspected militants in eastern Afghanistan in a raid on a "terrorist leader" said to be helping smuggle in foreign fighters, the US-led coalition said Thursday.

The man targeted in the operation near the Pakistan border on Wednesday was also believed to have close ties to senior Taliban commanders, the force said in a statement.

Residents and local officials however said the victims were civilians.

"Coalition forces targeted a regional terrorist leader... who is suspected of facilitating the movement of foreign fighters into Afghanistan," the US-led coalition said.

When soldiers arrived in the Andar district of Ghazni province, they came under attack and responded, killing "several militants" and arresting two.

The statement gave no number of dead, nor make it clear if the targeted man was killed or captured.

Residents and officials in the village of Shahpouri, in Ghazni, said three people -- a mother and two sons, aged 12 and 19 -- were killed in a coalition air strike.

A village elder said the husband and third son were injured and arrested.

There was also a raid on Wednesday on a compound of a subcommander in the network of a Taliban group headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the coalition said.

Haqqani, who was a close aide to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, has not been seen since the fall of the hardline regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

One man was arrested and weapons and other military equipment was found and removed, the statement said.

The raid was in Bak district, which is on the border with Pakistan's tribal areas where Islamist extremists are said to have bases.

The United States led the invasion that ousted the Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks seven years ago Thursday.

Despite the presence of tens of thousands of international soldiers, a Taliban-linked insurgency has grown over the years.

US Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday he was not convinced that "we're winning it" in Afghanistan.

He said he had ordered a "new, more comprehensive military strategy for the region" covering both sides of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. — AFP

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU returns a safer, more stable Garmsir to British Army

9/11/2008 By Cpl. Alex C. Guerra , 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan —After operating in the Garmsir City District for more than 130 days, and liberating its people, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit returned responsibility for the area’s security to the British Army during a Transfer of Authority Ceremony Sept. 8.

With support from Afghanistan National Army, Security Force and Border Patrol, the British Army will again oversee security operations in this region, an area far more secure than the one they patrolled less than six months ago, a testament to the MEU’s success.

“The most important measure of success is the improved quality of life and return to normalcy for the citizens of Garmsir. The reconstruction and development and the active role of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in making that happen were all made possible by the stable environment created and maintained by the MEU,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commanding officer, 24th MEU, ISAF.


Marines may be leaving, but all forces involved have worked hard to ensure the only change the people of Garmsir see in security are the uniforms of the people protecting them.


“The British forces operating in Helmand Province are extremely capable,” said Petronzio. “Our hope is that this transfer of authority is transparent to the Afghan citizens on the ground and there is no interruption to the security we were providing. This enables the TOA Ceremony, for us, to mark the shift of our main effort from the battalion to the logistics Marines and the mission of getting us and our equipment and vehicles home”

During the TOA ceremony Lt. Col. Doug M. Chalmers, commanding officer, 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, British Army awarded a bronzed tiger to Lt. Col. Tony Henderson, commanding officer, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th MEU, ISAF serving as a token of gratitude and accomplishment.

“Seeing our battalion commander accepting that [award] was the first empirical sign for our [Marines] that our mission here was finally done,” said Sgt. William O. Bee, squad leader, Alpha Company, BLT 1/6, 24th MEU, ISAF. “The British have been anxious to pick up where we left off and continue to turn this area around.”


Marines were originally assigned a five to seven day mission to secure some routes through Garmsir so that a portion of the battalion landing team could move to the southern part of the district and set up a forward operating base from which they would disrupt insurgent movement.


“We were told that there were insurgents in the area just south of the British southernmost forward operating base Delhi and that they would fight us for a few days should we try to move through the area,” Petronzio said. “In order to get to the more southern location, we would need to move Marines and equipment through the insurgent controlled area.”


As Marines moved to secure the route, the insurgents did fight, but not for a “few” days as expected, they fought daily for more than a month.

“This made us and others realize that the district center of Garmsir (the area immediately south of FOB Delhi) was pretty important to the insurgents and it was not a place we just wanted to clear and then leave,” Petronzio said. “That is when the commander of ISAF decided the Marines would stay in Garmsir.”


Other factors leading to Marines remaining in the area included concern about giving the insurgents a false victory by enabling them to claim they had run ISAF forces off and protecting the Afghan citizens who had been displaced by the insurgents as they began to return to their homes.


With the mission evolving from original plans, the MEU utilized its forces to transition from the initial kinetic operations to civil military operations – the path counter insurgency operations frequently follow.


“We are not going to solve all the problems with 2,500 Marines for seven or eight months, but what we can do is eat this elephant one bite at time, and we took a big bite and we did some great things in Garmsir, and for the people there it will be a lasting, lasting success," said Petronzio.


British commanders praised the 24th MEU as Marines reintroduced the British who returned to a friendlier populace and an area less hostile.


“The Marines and this unit have really done themselves proud,” said Maj. James J. M. Driscoll, commanding officer, B Company, 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, British Army. “I can see the effort they put into the kinetic [phase] and successfully fought through. From what I can see there has been no confusion from moving from the kinetic stage to the counterinsurgency stage.”

Both units worked side-by-side for several weeks, ensuring that British troops benefitted from the Marines’ rapport in hopes that the Afghans will soon govern themselves.


“The people here have seen a lot of countries come and go – everyone from the Gurkas, the Russians and the British,” said Bee, who previously deployed to Afghanistan in 2001-02 with the 26th MEU. “Hopefully they will remember us for our professionalism and as the ones who affected permanent change.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Afghanistan War - Learning from Iraq
By Chuck Holton
CBN News
September 26, 2008


CBNNews.com - Helmand Province, AFGHANISTAN - Tenacity, Toughness and Time - that's what it took to win Iraq's Anbar province which some said was "unwinnable."

In early September, the victory was celebrated by handing control back to the people of that province. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit now hopes to repeat that victory in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.

Garmsir, Afghanistan

The scorching desert south of Kandahar was, until recently, under the complete control of the Taliban.

Life in the Garmsir district has changed little in the last 500 years. Most of its people have never seen a paved road, indoor plumbing or even electricity. They are subsistence farmers, living alongside canals that help transform the desert into a virtual oasis.

One part of Garmsir is perfect for growing the Taliban's favorite cash crop - Opium. And that's why when the Marines came in, the Taliban fought so hard to keep it. But they lost.

The area didn't have a single coalition base until this past April. When the Marines moved in, they found a desolate area suffering under years of Taliban brutality.

"What I'm hearing from the locals is that when the Taliban lost control over the country they came back here and forced the locals to grow poppies," said an Afghan interpreter who works with American forces.

"The Taliban come and buy the poppy for a very cheap price, and the people don't get to plant their wheat and corn for food," he explained, "and so the price of food has gone high."

When the fighting started, most of the locals moved out into the desert. But now that the Marines have stabilized the area, they are starting to move back in. There are still some villages that have yet to be reoccupied.

1st Lieutenant Chad Buckles is on his second deployment in two years. In 2007, he helped win the fight for Ramadi, Iraq.

He said, "The lessons we learned in Iraq definitely do apply - obviously with their own special twists - but the basic lessons absolutely do apply to this area: Clear out an area and hold it, allow it to economically and socially and politically develop, allow security forces to come in and take over that ground, and then you move on to the next piece of ground.

He continued, "Eventually, step by step, I think that we can kick the Taliban out of here and give the people something that they haven't seen in a very long time."

Trial by Fire

Living conditions here are horrible - summer temperatures routinely top 120 degrees.

Marines have endured for more than four months without fans, air conditioners or showers. The only thing there is plenty of is the enemy - and taking the fight to them keeps these warriors going.

Buckles said, "I think morale is built by hardship, because these guys get to go through something unique."

"They've moved in 130 degree temperatures carrying 120 pounds on their backs, and just through that common experience it brings them a lot closer together and they're basically family. Somebody gets injured, and he's chomping at the bit to get back," he said. "Very close ties."

Soon, the Marines of the 24th MEU will hand over this area to forces of the Afghan National Army and begin the process of coming home.

Until then, they continue to root out the enemy and bring hope to the people of Garmsir.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan has seen 'spiral downwards': top US general <br />
<br />
Mon Sep 29, 12:37 PM ET <br />
<br />
Parts of Afghanistan have seen a &quot;spiral downwards&quot; of violence, the incoming US regional commander said Monday,...

[thedrifter]

Q&amp;A: S.C. Marines in Afghanistan <br />
<br />
More than four dozen South Carolinians are serving with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. Recently a few of the S.C. Marines...

[thedrifter]

S.C. Marines helping secure ‘desert of death’
Bleak region of Afghanistan is Taliban stronghold
By CHUCK CRUMBO
ccrumbo@thestate.com

The troops call it a “beach without water,” a blistering hot, dusty patch of southern Afghanistan that natives know as the “desert of death.”

“It’s like having a blow dryer in your face and (someone) throwing sand in front of the blow dryer,” said Cpl. Chris Mallett of Level Land in Abbeville County.

Mallett is among about four dozen South Carolinians who are members of a Camp LeJeune, N.C.-based 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to the Garmsir District of Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

The area, the crossroads of ancient trading routes, leads the world in opium production.

It’s also a stronghold of the Taliban, who are battling to regain control of Afghanistan seven years after being ousted from power by U.S. and allied forces.

The 2,400-strong Marine unit began arriving in Afghanistan in late March, just as the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team was wrapping up its yearlong tour of duty.

Several S.C. Guard soldiers were stationed in Helmand. Some operated in Garmsir, mentoring Afghan police.

The Marines, supporting NATO-led forces, are in the area to drive out the Taliban and help Afghan forces establish security.

In e-mails to The State, the South Carolinians said they think they are making headway in making the area more secure for Afghans.

“They are happy to see us here,” said Lance Cpl. Corey Bryant of Rock Hill. “We got rid of the Taliban.”

The Marines spent most of April and May battling the Taliban in 120-degree heat. They drove the insurgents out and managed to secure a key road from Garmsir to the Pakistani border.

Most of June and July was quiet with the Marines conducting patrols and getting to know local leaders, including police chiefs and mullahs.

“We are doing the third block in a three-block war,” Bryant said. “Shaking hands and kissing babies.”

The unit’s commanders say the area is more stable now, but not secure.

But Afghanistan remains a battlefield where a U.S. unit can be surrounded by insurgent forces, as evidenced by this summer’s attack on a base that resulted in nine U.S. fatalities.

“The toughest thing for me is keeping my composure when we are getting attacked,” said Lance Cpl. Shanika Felder of Manning, “(and) staying calm, so other Marines don’t freak out.”

The Marines have suffered casualties, losses that are personal in the tight-knit unit.

Sgt. James Ramsey of Chesnee recalled the death of his battalion’s senior enlisted leader, 1st Sgt. Luke Mercardante, 35, killed just days after the unit reached Afghanistan.

Mercardante, of Athens, Ga., and another Marine died April 15 when their vehicle was hit by a bomb hidden in a culvert beneath the road.

Mercardante was the “glue” that held the unit together. “The biggest challenge was dealing with the loss of our battalion’s first sergeant,” Ramsey said.

Because they operate among the local population, the Marines have lots of contact with Afghans.

In the rural, southern parts of the country, there’s little difference in how most Afghans live today compared with biblical times.

Roads are dusty trails. Water is hauled in buckets from a nearby stream. Electrical power is nonexistent.

“It’s hard to believe people still live this way,” said Lance Cpl. Matthew Brock of Spartanburg. “It’s weird being in a place where the main mode of transportation is a triple-hump camel.”

In his job as assistant operations officer, Capt. Joshua Brindel of Irmo works with Afghan contractors who work on U.S. bases.

“They do not have many resources to work with, but (they) have a lot of ingenuity and make the most of what they have,” Brindel said of the Afghans.

The Marines said, while they are hanging tough, they also are looking forward to returning home.

However, their return date has been pushed back 30 days. Now, the unit, which usually is deployed for seven months, won’t be home until November.

“Time actually moves by rather quickly out here,” Brock said. “Even with the news of us being extended for a month, it’s really going by fast.”

“I’m taking it day by day,” said Cpl. James Smith of Darlington. “I miss my wife and daughter, but every day done is another day closer to getting out of here.”

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

In Afghanistan, waging battles of attrition <br />
<br />
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes <br />
Mideast edition, Friday, October 3, 2008 <br />
<br />
ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The first firefight erupted to the south,...

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan Diary: Seven to 10 Days, My Ass!
By Nathan Hodge October 13, 2008 |

In late August, I paid a visit to a combat outpost in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where the Marines of Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment had spent the previous four months clearing the Taliban stronghold of Garmsir. Bravo Company occupied a crumbling mud-brick compound next to a recently harvested opium field. In the punishing heat of southern Afghanistan, most of the Marines had dropped fifteen or twenty pounds.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit launched Operation Azada Wosa ("stay free") in late April. The operation was originally supposed to last seven to 10 days; when they launched the assault, Marines packed food, water and ammunition, and perhaps an extra pair of skivvies. The insurgents did not give ground easily, and fought for over a month. So much for the week-and-a-half-long mission.

After the Marines captured the district center of Garmsir, the commander of ISAF decided to park them there, as part of a "clear-hold-build" campaign. Staying in Garmsir was a classic counterinsurgency move, but it was not exactly a morale booster. "When you write your story," said Lance Corporal Rylan McCollum, "Make sure you emphasize the 'seven to 10 days' part."

Southern Helmand has none of the infrastructure Marines might expect at one of the jumbo U.S. bases, like Camp Fallujah or Al Asad: No recreation rooms with PlayStation and Xbox, no KBR dining facilities, no gym, no air-conditioning. Just packaged rations, lukewarm water, camp showers – and lots of dust, fine as talc. And of course, sh*t burning field sanitation detail.

Counterinsurgency is sometimes described as a patient fight. Colonel Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24 MEU, said as much in a recent Marine Corps news item.

"We are not going to solve all the problems with 2,500 Marines for seven or eight months, but what we can do is eat this elephant one bite at a time, and we took a big bite and we did some great things in Garmsir, and for the people there it will be a lasting, lasting success," he said.

Last month, the Marines handed control of the area to a combined force of British and Afghan National Army troops. According to a note I received from the public affairs officer, lots of "skinny, clean and happy" Marines are now hanging around Kandahar airfield. The MEU is scheduled to return home next month, but the Marine Corps commandant has made clear he wants Afghanistan to be the next big job for the USMC.

Over the next few days, I’m going to post some photos and diary entries from my trip. The war in Afghanistan is starting to recapture attention in Washington, and this slice-of-life stuff will show just how difficult the mission in Afghanistan will be.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU begins leaving Afghanistan
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 15, 2008 12:37:35 EDT

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit has begun to cycle out of Afghanistan, eight months after entering the country to fight the Taliban and provide security in the country’s volatile southern section.

The move was confirmed by Maj. Kelly Frushour, a spokesman for the MEU. The 2,200-plus member unit has been involved in some of the bloodiest battles the Corps has seen this year, as it moved through volatile Helmand province pushing insurgents out of areas that coalition forces hadn’t seen in years.

Based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the MEU deployed in March for what was expected to be a “one-time, seven-month” assignment, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in mid-January as news of the unit’s deployment was released.

But as Marines found themselves facing fierce opposition in the country’s poppy-rich Garmser district, officials announced that the MEU’s deployment would be extended for an additional month, leaving it with an anticipated return date early in November.

Top officials in the Corps and other sectors of the Defense Department have widely praised the MEU for its tenacity, with Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen telling reporters the Marines “had an enormously positive effect, very rapidly.”

Marine officials did not indicate who might take on duties the MEU handled, but they have indicated for months a desire to shift their focus from increasingly peaceful Iraq to Afghanistan.

“That’s our kind of fight, because it’s expeditionary,” said Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent in a September interview. “We’re definitely looking at getting to the fight.”

The first wave of 24th MEU Marines arrived at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan on Monday.

In November, a Marine Air-Ground Task Force comprising troops from across the Corps will supplant those from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, out of Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., who remain in Afghanistan.

Lejeune’s 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, will form the MAGTF’s ground element, while the headquarters will come from 3rd Marines, out of Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii, officials have said.

Ellie

We will be picking up a few friends on Saturday evening...;)

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan Diary: Mapping the Human Terrain in Helmand, Part II
By Nathan Hodge

After the heavy fighting ended around Garmsir, Helmand Province, Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit began doling out cash compensation to Afghans for buildings damaged in the fighting. Back at headquarters in Kandahar, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rene Cote, a Marine civil affairs specialist, told me the Marines handed out over $784,000 in battle damage aid at the Civil Military Operations Center in Garmsir. They also took biometric data – fingerprints, photos and retina scans. “We logged everybody who came in, took their pictures, thumbprints, all that kind of stuff,” he said.

“Which goes to intelligence collection?” I asked.

Cote raised a finger. “That wasn’t the primary purpose!” he said emphatically. “Its primary purpose is to validate that people are who they say they are and that kind of thing. And if we get multiple hits on the same person for different names, it might be an issue.”

“Human terrain mapping” is all the rage inside the Pentagon these days, part of a larger push to increase the cultural sophistication of the military. The Army has even funded a high-profile – and controversial -- effort to create Human Terrain Teams, anthropologists and social scientists embedded within brigades. One of the many criticisms of the program is that, in the end, it isn't an attempt to understand the locals -- it's a way of collecting intelligence on 'em. Intelligence which can later be used for targeting.

The Marines in Helmand did not have an HTT at their disposal. They did, however, create map overlays that would plot social relations and tribal affiliations in their area, along with photos of key local leaders. When I asked Colonel Peter Petronzio, the commander of the 24 MEU, about his approach to human terrain mapping, he offered a few thoughts on how he would refine the concept. Rather than hiring Ph.D.'s, Petronzio said he would recommend recruiting a cadre of native-borne advisers: “a native adviser, not an academic or a sociologist, but someone who is from the region. And who can sit in shuras and whisper in the battalion commander’s ear.”

By Petronzio’s reasoning, a local – as opposed to someone with academic training -- can read the nuances of custom, gesture or dialect. They can tell when someone says one thing and means another, and so on.

Language is another issue. “Some of the interpreters aren’t very good,” Petronzio said. “What I am proposing is to identify half a dozen senior interpreters and link them with company commanders.” What about Marines learning Pashto or Dari, the main languages of Afghanistan, rather than relying on contract linguists? “You’d have a hard time doing that. Every year one third of the United States Marine Corps turns over. How are you going to generate a Dari or a Pashto capability? We focus more on the culture than the language.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan Diary: MRAPs Suck!
By Nathan Hodge October 16, 2008

Many months and many billion dollars after they were declared a top priority, the the Mine Resistant Ambushed Protected vehicle, or MRAPs, are starting to hit the road in serious numbers.

In places with a reasonably developed highway system and decent ports – Iraq, for instance -- the MRAP is a decent proposition. It’s tough, survivable and reasonably agile. Problem is, MRAPs are poorly suited for Afghanistan, where the roads are narrow, primitive and poorly maintained. That is, when there are roads.

During my recent embed with Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, the number one gear complaint was the MRAP: it was too wide for most roads, and the top-heavy vehicles were prone to rollover.



As Captain Charles O'Neill, commander of B Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, told me, a few of the MRAPs had “gone into the wadi” – i.e., rolled over – during operations in Helmand. “The MRAP is an outstanding vehicle for force protection,” he said. “It would do great on paved roads. However, here in southern Helmand province, the roads don't facilitate the MRAP necessarily that well.”

With that experience in mind, the Marines are now re-assessing the requirements for MRAPs in Afghanistan, and they have asked the defense industry to come up with options for an “MRAP light.” Some of the fixes might include better off-road mobility, a more robust suspension and a lower center of gravity. Several MRAP manufacturers are getting set to unveil their versions of a lighter-weight MRAP.

Which begs the question: What will happen to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle? The JLTV is supposed to be the Next Big Thing, a vehicle that will combine the light weight and mobility of the Humvee and the survivability of the MRAP. But with the Pentagon spending gazillions on MRAP, there’s always been a question of whether the services can afford JLTV.

Bloomberg is reporting one possible outcome: Pentagon officials are going out to allied nations to get them to pony up research and development funds on JLTV. Stayed tuned on this one: it’s bound to get expensive.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan Diary: Culture Clash
By Nathan Hodge October 17, 2008 |

In late August, a contingent of Afghan National Army soldiers – with a team of British advisors in tow – arrived at the mud-brick compound occupied by Marines of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment in southern Helmand Province. The arrival of the ANA would mean relief for the Marine riflemen who had spent a long summer in this dusty, primitive outpost.

As the Afghans moved into their quarters, a few Marines looked on with astonishment. The Afghans had a somewhat more casual approach to soldiering. One ANA soldier was toting a boom box along with his newly issued M16; another had slung a teapot from the barrel of his rifle. Muzzle discipline – in a few alarming cases – seemed a bit lax. And whatever lip service their leaders may pay to the concept, cultural sensitivity was not a strong suit for the Marines.

“Did you see that? They’re f*ckin’ holding hands.”

A young lance corporal marked a pathway in the dirt with some flat rope so the Afghans would stay out of their way.

“Ski, what the f*ck is that?” asked the company executive officer.

“Sir, I had an RPG pointed at me twice today!”

A staff sergeant chimed in, laughing: “It’s f*cking racist!”

Ski: “It’s just a suggestion …”

The rope was removed. Nearby, a lanky British NCO began dressing down an ANA soldier who has parked his PKM machine gun next to the Marines’ shade tent. The NCO barked at an interpreter: “Tell him to unload it. You’re not supposed to have loaded weapons inside the base. Tell him to unload it NOW! Pull the slide back … .”

Despite the initial culture clash, the ANA and the Marines quickly settled into a routine. The ANA was supposed to take over security in the area, so the Marines spent the next two weeks going out with them on familiarization patrols and giving them some basic instruction. The idea was to create a more or less seamless transition.

Departure of the Marines from Garmsir, however, would clearly leave a void. The ANA unit that replaced the Marines had none of the logistics support or air power that the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit brought to Helmand Province. Their heaviest weapon was an SPG-9 recoilless rifle.

I spent some time with a group of ANA soldiers in their compound. With some coaxing from Dave, a British army captain who was part of the mentoring team, the Afghans aired a few complaints. Their food, they said, was inadequate. And several ANA soldiers said they were not fond of their new M16s, which required constant cleaning.

Dave said the plan to shift the ANA to more NATO-standard equipment was perhaps the wrong priority. “This equipment issue has now outstripped their training,” he said. “They are literally dumping this equipment on them and we are having to backtrack. It would be better if we could concentrate on the basics.” Another issue for the Afghans was their vehicles; they had no up-armored vehicles, only Ford Ranger pickup trucks that would be shredded if they hit a mine or a roadside bomb.

Said Sergeant Mohammad Nazir: “The US and the British have good vehicles. When they hit an IED, the American trucks will not be destroyed. When our vehicles hit an IED, they will be destroyed completely.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghanistan Diary: Unleash the Puppies of War!
By Nathan Hodge

During their deployment to Helmand Province, Marines of B Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment had few options for killing time between pulling guard shifts or walking patrol. They worked out on a ramshackle bench press; jumped rope in the dust; or played spades.

But the main focus of social life -- if you could call it that -- was a small pack of stray dogs (and a kitten or two) that shared the mud-brick compound.

Marines adopted the dogs after they started following them on foot patrols. According to several of the Marines, some of the mutts even took to walking point, sniffing out ahead for any signs of danger. The Marines rewarded the animals for loyalty by sharing their MREs and water. The thin, rangy dogs quickly fattened up on a diet of packaged spaghetti and meatballs or Szechuan chicken.

Everyone had their favorites. Kilo (pictured here), a, pampered, overfed puppy. Gross, who looked like a skinny lab or retriever. And there was my personal favorite, Shins. "You'll recognize him," said one Marine. "He's the ugliest dog in the world."

The good-natured Shins looked like he had been raised to be a fighting dog; his ears were brutally cropped. And sure enough, he was ugly: his fur was a mottled brown and his forelegs seemed to be bowed from rickets. Shins lolled happily in the dirt, enjoying his three squares a day.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not really much of a dog person. And this is DANGER ROOM, not Modern Dog Magazine. But the adopted animals were one of the things that made life bearable in an otherwise tedious -- and often dangerous -- place. And hell, one of the puppies even has a MySpace page.

http://www.myspace.com/operation_rescue_chunk

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Inside Afghanistan's Implosion
By Nathan Hodge

Last week, I posted a series of vignettes from my recent embed with the Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, the classic ‘soda straw’ view. But it’s important to return to the bigger picture -- and to Noah’s earlier question – exactly how screwed are we in Afghanistan?

Take a look at the recent headlines. Just over the past few days, the Taliban stopped civilian buses in Kandahar province and executed over two dozen riders. In Kabul, aid worker Gayle Williams was killed in a drive-by; Humayun Shah Asifi, a former presidential candidate and relative of the late king, was abducted in the center of town.

The most unsettling news, for me at least, was the report of a suicide attack that killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz province, once the most quiet and secure corner of Afghanistan. What the hell happened? Four years ago, I felt comfortable enough hiring a pickup truck to drive from Kabul to Kunduz. Today, I don’t think I would chance it.

In the fall and early winter of 2004, I traveled pretty widely outside the capital, usually by road. And Kabul felt, well, reasonably safe. You could walk everywhere, and with knowledge of a little Dari, flag down a taxi or visit a chaikhana. Not today: the foreigners are hunkered down inside their guesthouses.

Outside Kabul, the situation looks even more bleak. You hear regular reports of illegal roadblocks on the highways; attacks on police checkpoints; and constant ambushes. As the Financial Times reported this summer, supplies at some bases became dangerously low because of insurgent attacks on fuel convoys.

So, is the Taliban about to encircle Kabul? Joanna Nathan of the International Crisis Group recently published a perceptive article that suggests that, whether or not they control territory, the Taliban is winning the war of perceptions:

An insurgency is at its heart a battle of wills and staying power, not of military might. Insurgents in Afghanistan appreciate this and have created a sophisticated propaganda operation that both targets what is seen as weakening support back in foreign capitals and seeks to mold perceptions among the Afghan population.


Coalition forces have provoked a fair amount of public outrage in Afghanistan for their reliance on airstrikes. In parallel, Taliban have targeted journalists to control their message, Nathan argues:

All in all, the Taliban are successfully driving the news agenda and creating a perception of a movement far stronger and more omnipresent than it really is... And their methods to control the message go beyond those of your typical press office: Community leaders and journalists who might speak up are cowed with threats or worse.

While the Taliban use their media operation to highlight civilian casualties caused by foreign forces, they also deliberately target civilians -- as with the recent murder of three Western women aid workers and their Afghan colleague just an hour from Kabul.

As Nathan points out, many of the Taliban attacks are against “soft” (i.e., non-military) targets: aid workers, local officials, civilians who work for the coalition. These attacks have fewer consequences than attacking military patrols, and pay dividends in terms of headlines.

Still, the pessimism in Kabul was genuine. An Afghan acquaintance described to me how his family was scaling back their modest business plans. They rode out the Taliban years in Iran, but returned to start over after the collapse of the regime. "We aren’t investing in Afghanistan anymore," he said with resignation. "It’s too much uncertainty."

Ellie