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thedrifter
07-03-09, 07:04 AM
America's freedom fighters: Marines battle terrorism far from home this Fourth

Friday, July 3rd 2009, 4:00 AM

The lives of thousands of the bravest Americans are on the line, and the security of the world's most fertile breeding ground for terrorists hangs in the balance, as U.S. Marines press a momentous offensive against the Taliban.

This weekend, the contrast is stark and fitting. As we wave the flag, put mustard on hot dogs and embrace family, over in the Helmand River valley, under an angry Afghan sun, Americans who wear the flag and can embrace loved ones only in thought are jumping from helicopters.

While we oooh and ahhh at colors in the sky, real bombs burst in that air. Troops dodge small-arms fire and feel their eardrums quake in the wake of rocket-propelled grenades.

Early reports say they've met little resistance. But have no doubt: Lives will be lost - one Marine was killed in battle yesterday - as will limbs. In another part of Afghanistan, a soldier has been kidnapped.

We can label what's happening - it's part of the Afghan surge, we're told, it's evidence of a new strategy, it's the first big push by President Obama as commander in chief. But none of that helps us get a handle on the danger or the sweat or the blood.

This isn't war as brought to you by Hollywood. It's the messy, guerrilla kind of fight. Homemade explosives are hidden in housing compounds. Snipers lurk in alleyways. Enemies are in shadows and in broad daylight, in many cases looking like allies, and in any event wearing no uniforms.

This is the way things are in the Nawa and Garmser pockets of Helmand Province, where NATO forces have failed, where radical Islamists dream of making Americans die like dogs.

For three years, the British have tried to bring order to the place, but they never invested the manpower to push back the Taliban tide.

So that criminal gang has shut schools and spread fear.

Enter the Marines.

Until the weeds are pulled, nothing can grow. No Afghan government can provide the most basic of basics to its people.

If that cannot happen, we're back to square one. And square one is what brought us to Ground Zero.

Ellie