QuoteStalemate in Afghan ghost town shows task ahead
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press
NOW ZAD, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines patrol slowly along streets laced with land mines and lined with abandoned shops, clinics and homes. As night falls over this Afghan ghost town, the only sounds are the howling of dogs and the creaking of tin roofs in the wind.
Three years after its residents fled, the once bustling town of Now Zad is the scene of a stalemate between a company of newly arrived Marines and a band of Taliban fighters. The Americans have plenty of firepower. What they don't have is enough men to hold seized ground.
"We would just be mowing the weeds," said Capt. Zachary Martin of any move to drive out the Taliban.The deadlock shows how a shortage of troops has hindered the Afghan war and points to the challenges for the Obama administration as it sends 21,000 extra Marines and soldiers to the south to try to turn around a bogged down, eight-year conflict. The influx will bring U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to about 68,000 by late summer — roughly half the current level in Iraq, a smaller country than Afghanistan.
It's unclear if more troops will be deployed to this town in Helmand province, the heart of the Taliban insurgency and the opium poppy trade that funds it. For the meantime at least, it appears Now Zad is too valuable to abandon to the insurgents — but not valuable enough for an all-out offensive.
The 300 or so Marines in Now Zad regularly patrol areas close to the Taliban front lines, skirmishing with them and risking attacks from the area's biggest killer — IEDs. Over the last month, improvised explosive devices have killed one Marine and wounded seven. Four of the men — including the fatality — suffered double leg amputations.
"Welcome to Hell," reads one message spray-painted on a wall in the town's main base by British troops whom the Marines replaced last year."Good Luck USA," reads another.
Along with the new troops and military aircraft, Washington plans a corresponding surge in development projects to convince the largely impoverished Afghan population that the central government_ not the insurgents — offers the best hope for the future. The U.S. is also spending more on training the Afghan police and army so they can eventually take on the Taliban.
But with Now Zad's 10,000 to 35,000 residents long gone, there are no hearts and minds to woo here — even it were safe enough to build schools, clinics and roads. The town also has no local security forces, and no one can say when they will arrive.
"Even in our wildest dreams we are not going to have enough Marines and soldiers to be everywhere," said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of the first wave of 10,000 new troops pouring into Helmand and surrounding provinces. "That is why it is important to have the locals taking more responsibility, saying, 'This is my neighborhood and I'm going to have to defend it.'"
Like much of Afghanistan, Now Zad was relatively peaceful in the years following the U.S.-led invasion. Water pumps installed by the U.N. World Food Program are dotted around the town, and there is at least one health clinic funded by the European Union.
But in 2006 and 2007 — just when Washington was focused on sectarian bloodshed in Iraq — the Afghan insurgency stepped up a gear and Now Zad became the scene of fierce battles between NATO troops and the Taliban.
Now Zad remains so dangerous that this is the only Marine unit in Afghanistan that brings along two trauma doctors, as well as two armored vehicles used as ambulances and supplies of fresh blood.
Apart from one small stretch of paved road, the Marines patrol only behind an engineer who sweeps the ground with a detector. The men who follow scratch out a path in the sand with their foot to ensure those trailing them do not stray off course. Each carries at least one tourniquet.
"It's a hell of ride," said Lance Cpl. Aenoi Luangxay, a 20-year-old engineer on his first deployment. "Every step you think this could be my last," said Aenoi, who has found six bombs in the company's four weeks in the town.
Just after midnight recently, the medics were wakened by a familiar report: A patrol had hit an IED in town. Within five minutes, they put on their flak jackets and helmets and were in their vehicles leaving the base.
The bomb blew the legs off Cpl. Matthew Lembke as he walked to a building. Lembke, from Tualatin, Ore., was loaded onto the ambulance. On the trip to the helicopter landing zone, the medics tightened his tourniquets and gave him two units of blood along with antibiotics.
At one point, he stopped breathing. The medical team used equipment on board to pump air into his lungs.
"Our aim and intent is to give the guys the optimum chance of survival from the first minute," said the commander of the Shock Trauma Platoon, Sean Barbabella, of Chesapeake, Va. "If it was my son or brother out there, that is what I would want."
Lembke was in stable condition Monday at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
The men of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines in Now Zad know where to find their enemy — to the north of town, in a maze of compounds and tunnels that back onto lush pomegranate orchards.
The Marines are garrisoned in a base that occupies the town's former administrative center. They also have fortified observations posts on two hills. In one of them, named ANP hill after the Afghan police who presumably once had a post there, the men sleep in "hobbit holes" dug into the earth. The underground briefing room is partly held up by an aging Russian Howitzer gun.
Each day, the Marines aggressively patrol to limit the Taliban's freedom of movement. They keep a 24-hour watch on the battlefield using high-tech surveillance equipment and are able to fire mortar rounds at insurgents spotted planting bombs or gathering in numbers.
A recent daylong battle showed the massive difference in firepower between the two sides, as well as the tenacity of the Taliban. It took place close to "Pakistani Alley," so named because of one-time reports that fighters from across the border were deployed along the road.
The insurgents opened fire from behind high-walled compounds with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades against five armored vehicles; the Marines responded with machine gunfire and frequently called in airstrikes.
Mindful of the need to engage with what few locals remain in the area, every couple of days a small group of Marines and translators leave the base and walk a mile to a village south of Now Zad where some families who fled the town now stay.
They try to convince them that the Marines are there to help, remind them that Taliban militants plant bombs that kill innocents and discreetly try to gather intelligence. Many of the locals are suspicious and worried about Taliban retribution for talking with the visitors, who are besieged by children demanding candy and notebooks.
Capt. Martin got some encouraging news. One villager said he was a former soldier in the Afghan army and would be willing to fight the Taliban; another said he would like to vote in August elections, though with no local government in place that looks unlikely.
But later, one man accused coalition forces of killing 10 women and children in a bombing last year.
"I take it as a sign of success they are willing to talk to us," Zachary said. "Before, if you said the word Taliban, they ran away."
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F20090630%2Fcapt.76f67f8909c347e0bc06cba07015bac3.afghanistan_stalemate_adg101.jpg&hash=a9efbf7ed23afe1dbe1075cf1451dfab7a32e063)
In this photo taken Tuesday, June 23, 2009, U.S. Marine Capt. Zachary Martin, Golf Company commander of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines of the 2nd MEB patrols with a squad through the empty town of Now Zad in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Three years after its residents fled, the once bustling town of Now Zad is the scene of a stalemate between U.S. Marines and Taliban insurgents and an example of the challenges facing the U.S. administration even as it sends 21,000 extra Marines and soldiers to the south to try and turn around a bogged down, 8-year-long war. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
He should shave his moustache.
Quote from: Phillip V on July 01, 2009, 01:45:32 AM
He should shave his moustache.
It's a good porn-star mustache. Very manly.
Looks like Freddie Mercury in army gear.
Scary. What sort of anti-ghost munitions does the US have?
Quote from: Razgovory on July 01, 2009, 02:50:49 AM
Scary. What sort of anti-ghost munitions does the US have?
None since the IAEA outlawed nuclear-powered proton packs. God damn UN. :angry:
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
These guys are doing a very tough and dangerous job; they appear to be doing very well at it. Best of luck to them, all of them over there.
So Now Zab is more like Then Zab. :( When will Soon Zab arrive?
Elsewhere, the Marines are on the attack.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?hp
QuoteU.S. Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: July 1, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — Almost 4,000 United States Marines, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the volatile Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan early Thursday morning to try to take back the region from Taliban fighters whose control of poppy harvests and opium smuggling in Helmand provides major financing for the Afghan insurgency.
The Marine Expeditionary Brigade leading the operation represents a large number of the 21,000 additional troops that President Obama ordered to Afghanistan earlier this year amid rising violence and the Taliban's increasing domination in much of the country. The operation is billed as the first major push in southern Afghanistan by the newly bolstered American force.
Helmand is one of the deadliest provinces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have practiced a sleek, hit-and-run guerrilla warfare against the British forces who have been based there.
British troops in Helmand say they rarely get a clear shot at Taliban attackers, who ambush them with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. The explosive devices — some made with fertilizer distributed to Afghan farmers to wean them from opium production — are the most feared weapon. The Taliban favor ambushes in the morning and evening and do not often strike during the blazing afternoon heat.
In recent weeks some British troops have been setting up what are known as "blocking positions" on bridges over irrigation canals and at other locations, apparently to help stop the flow of insurgents during the main military operation and to establish greater security before the presidential election scheduled for August.
The British have had too few troops to conduct full-scale counterinsurgency operations and have often relied on heavy aerial weapons to attack suspected fighters and their hide-outs. The strategy has alienated much of the population because of the potential for civilian deaths.
Now, the Marines say their new mission, dubbed Operation Khanjar, will include more troops and resources than ever before, as well as a commitment by the troops to live and patrol near population centers to ensure that residents are protected. More than 600 Afghan soldiers and police officers are also involved.
"What makes Operation Khanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert, and the fact that where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," the Marine commander in Helmand Province, Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, said in a statement.
Eros Hoagland contributed reporting.
Fortunately, the death toll for Southerners is relatively light. We shouldent lose too many this time around to pay the upkeep of empire.
And here's to not being there myself!
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:34:54 PM
Fortunately, the death toll for Southerners is relatively light. We shouldent lose too many this time around to pay the upkeep of empire.
And here's to not being there myself!
Fuck you.
Yes, because my appreciation for a low death toll and not having to be there myself killing johnny foreigner who I have no quarrel with is so riotously offensive, yes?
That job does look like hard graft, and there are brave men doing it. I dont feel inclined to say its right or wrong, but I will say it isnt neccessary, and the lives lost, even as mercifully few as there are, are hard to justify. It's a professional army, so I cant squeal too loudly. I wish them well, and success in their endeavours, but above all they should probably be back home.
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:49:07 PM
Yes, because my appreciation for a low death toll and not having to be there myself killing johnny foreigner who I have no quarrel with is so riotously offensive, yes?
It's not for you to decide who you have a quarrel with.
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:49:07 PM
Fortunately, the death toll for Southerners is relatively light. We shouldent lose too many this time around to pay the upkeep of empire.
And here's to not being there myself!
Man, you're a cock sucking piece of trash, I hope you get hit by a bus.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 01, 2009, 09:57:27 PM
Man, you're a cock sucking piece of trash, I hope you get hit by a bus.
It's not like his viewpoint is all that offensive. 'Keep the troops home' has been the call of isolationists for the last half-century or so, ever since the 'No entangling alliances' bullshit fell apart.
Honestly a bit suprised at the reaction here. I dont see what is so fundamentally evil, insulting or offensive in not wanting the troops hurt. It's not as if I am wishing an IED catches them in the face, is it?
Although, tim, while your gallant and selfless support of American intervention from the safety of puerto rico is touching, the insults are a bit, well, insulting. A Bus went after my father and relegated him to a wheelchair for awhile, you know. The Bus is one of my family's natural predators in the wild.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 01, 2009, 09:57:27 PM
Man, you're a cock sucking piece of trash, I hope you get hit by a bus.
While this in no way makes up for you being Tim, this is perhaps the best post you have ever made.
I quoted the wrong Lettow post, I meant to quote the one that BB did. Fixed.
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 10:04:55 PM
Honestly a bit suprised at the reaction here. I dont see what is so fundamentally evil, insulting or offensive in not wanting the troops hurt. It's not as if I am wishing an IED catches them in the face, is it?
Personally, I'm offended by the moral cowardice of that viewpoint. The idea that their lives are more valuable than any cause that might be served by foreign adventurism is so weak-minded that it makes me want to have the entire human race liquidated.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 01, 2009, 09:57:27 PM
Man, you're a cock sucking
The world would probably be a less happier place if everyone thought cock sucking was gross.
Quote from: garbon on July 01, 2009, 10:32:11 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 01, 2009, 09:57:27 PM
Man, you're a cock sucking
The world would probably be a less happier place if everyone thought cock sucking was gross.
But also a more hygienic world with less throat cancer.
Quote from: citizen k on July 01, 2009, 10:39:22 PM
But also a more hygienic world with less throat cancer.
Maybe less throat cancer but I doubt it'd be more hygienic. People would just have to get off more often with other holes.
Quote from: Scipio on July 01, 2009, 06:40:52 AM
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
please explain in more details.
Quote from: viper37 on July 02, 2009, 08:13:23 AM
Quote from: Scipio on July 01, 2009, 06:40:52 AM
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
please explain in more details.
Is this true?
Yes, this is true, this man has no dick.
More bad news from Afghanistan
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.303rdbg.com%2Fpow-flag.jpg&hash=d5d107d9ad2d5178795c22098ca7f9c9744c7fba)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31703681/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/
QuoteAfghan insurgents capture U.S. soldier
GI 'walked off' after completing shift at combat outpost, officials say
NBC News and news services
updated 11:57 a.m. ET, Thurs., July 2, 2009
Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan after he walked off post with three Afghan counterparts, officials said Thursday.
U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier disappeared Tuesday.
"We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return," she said.
Mathias said the serviceman's identity was not being released to "protect the soldier's well-being."
The news broke as thousands of U.S. Marines launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan. The missing soldier was not part of that operation.
The soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown," a U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity.
It wasn't until Thursday that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as "believed captured." Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
Off duty?
NBC News reported that a representative of the Taliban had contacted the U.S. military in Afghanistan and provided details of the soldier's identity.
Initial reports indicated that the soldier was off duty at the time he went missing, having just completed a shift, the official said on condition of anonymity because details are still sketchy.
The missing man is an enlisted soldier, and his family has been notified.
There were conflicting reports about the circumstances surrounding the American's disappearance.
Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in the Mullakheil area of eastern Paktika province, where there is an American base.
However, NBC News reported that the Taliban had claimed to have captured three U.S. soldiers in the eastern province of Khost. That claim could not be verified.
Khost and Paktika are adjacent to each other and share a border with Pakistan.
Two U.S. defense sources said the soldier "just walked off" post with three Afghan counterparts after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base. He was assigned to a combat outpost, one of a number of smaller bases set up by foreign forces in Afghanistan, the officials said.
A myriad of insurgent groups operate in eastern Afghanistan, and the Taliban is only one of them.
The most important insurgent group operating in that area is known as Haqqani network and is led by Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings.
I dont like that either, although I didint root up an annoying graphic to express my support for a position like 'getting captured by muslims sucks'.
On the bright side, this -is- a professional army, and as such these are exactly the sort of people arab terrorists are supposed to run off with. (Is terrorist the right word? Time was, that line of profession would be called guerilla fighter..)
"walked off"? (https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv128%2Fnhstud1216%2Fsmilie%2Fdoh.gif&hash=ffef3ebc0cb0ca5ad4f1dc37e70901c8cde85d1f)
Quote from: Neil on July 01, 2009, 09:55:19 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:49:07 PM
Yes, because my appreciation for a low death toll and not having to be there myself killing johnny foreigner who I have no quarrel with is so riotously offensive, yes?
It's not for you to decide who you have a quarrel with.
Since the SOuth lost the war it certainly isn't.
Isolationism is a self-defeating proposition. What I don't like is sugar coating it wth a bunch of bullshit about humanitarianism. We are there to destroy our enemies. We have a definite interest in the Mesopotamian and Saudi regions because of the oil reserves there and the security concerns.
I am hopeful about the latest push of Americans into the South. Canadian Commanders have been saying for years that more forces in the area would make all the difference.
Quote from: crazy canuck on July 02, 2009, 05:12:37 PM
I am hopeful about the latest push of Americans into the South. Canadian Commanders have been saying for years that more forces in the area would make all the difference.
We all hope and pray that Lettow will be apprehended one day soon.
Quote from: Phillip V on July 02, 2009, 04:55:41 PM
"walked off"? (https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv128%2Fnhstud1216%2Fsmilie%2Fdoh.gif&hash=ffef3ebc0cb0ca5ad4f1dc37e70901c8cde85d1f)
Yeah....going off by one's self (and I am purposely not including the Afghans) at a combat outpost seems a little..."off".
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 02, 2009, 05:13:58 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on July 02, 2009, 05:12:37 PM
I am hopeful about the latest push of Americans into the South. Canadian Commanders have been saying for years that more forces in the area would make all the difference.
We all hope and pray that Lettow will be apprehended one day soon.
I hear there will be a general amnesty for the rebels. :( Hell, for all we know he is already making his way to South Africa to form the nucleus of the Draka.
According to my calculations, I shall go over there and spread America to the Middle East by Q3 2011 (Q4 2010 if lucky). :hug:
Quote from: Phillip V on July 02, 2009, 05:32:47 PM
According to my calculations, I shall go over there and spread America to the Middle East by Q3 2011 (Q4 2010 if lucky). :hug:
We really don't need to hear about your sex tourism.
Quote from: garbon on July 02, 2009, 05:35:02 PM
We really don't need to hear about your sex tourism.
Lots of potential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTotmw_-mY
Sorry, but I don't click on unsolicited youtube links.
Quote from: Phillip V on July 02, 2009, 04:55:41 PM
"walked off"? (https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv128%2Fnhstud1216%2Fsmilie%2Fdoh.gif&hash=ffef3ebc0cb0ca5ad4f1dc37e70901c8cde85d1f)
Maybe he defected.
I thought he was doing 150 years.
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 02, 2009, 05:10:23 PM
Quote from: Neil on July 01, 2009, 09:55:19 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:49:07 PM
Yes, because my appreciation for a low death toll and not having to be there myself killing johnny foreigner who I have no quarrel with is so riotously offensive, yes?
It's not for you to decide who you have a quarrel with.
Since the SOuth lost the war it certainly isn't.
Even if the Confederates had won the Civil War, he still wouldn't be allowed to make his own decisions. That's what leadership is for.
Quote from: Neil on July 02, 2009, 06:07:30 PM
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 02, 2009, 05:10:23 PM
Quote from: Neil on July 01, 2009, 09:55:19 PM
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 01, 2009, 09:49:07 PM
Yes, because my appreciation for a low death toll and not having to be there myself killing johnny foreigner who I have no quarrel with is so riotously offensive, yes?
It's not for you to decide who you have a quarrel with.
Since the SOuth lost the war it certainly isn't.
Even if the Confederates had won the Civil War, he still wouldn't be allowed to make his own decisions. That's what leadership is for.
It was unlikely that he would have been part of the elite rulling class. But we can't be sure. Its entirely possible that his great great grandfather was a Southern aristocrat, thus ensuring Lettow would Meow great influence in the South of today, had the war gone differently. And the crippling social and economic crisis' that would have reduced the COnfederacy to a 3rd world nation. Or nations. Texas would probably have broken off again, as is their want.
No Southern Aristocrats here. Huguenot middle class and irish sharecroppers.
Edit: it is a curious notion that, the confederacy having proven secession viable, the South or the remainder of yankeeland would have proceeded to fall apart. To be sure if anyone in the CSA seceded it would be the Texans, but people who make these claims ignore the galvanising experience of the war. The Southern identity came out of the war far stronger than it was going in, and the American identity did as well.
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 02, 2009, 08:10:55 PM
No Southern Aristocrats here. Huguenot middle class and irish sharecroppers.
And thus your ability to choose your quarrels is non-existant, even in your alternate universe.
The Southern Identity would have successfully propped up a nation that would undergo incredible shocks, as the large percentage of its population transitioned from property to freedmen, peacefully or otherwise.
Quote from: Lettow77 on July 02, 2009, 08:10:55 PM
No Southern Aristocrats here. Huguenot middle class and irish sharecroppers.
Edit: it is a curious notion that, the confederacy having proven secession viable, the South or the remainder of yankeeland would have proceeded to fall apart. To be sure if anyone in the CSA seceded it would be the Texans, but people who make these claims ignore the galvanising experience of the war. The Southern identity came out of the war far stronger than it was going in, and the American identity did as well.
That's too bad :(
Who were you at the old site Armyknife?
Quote from: viper37 on July 02, 2009, 08:13:23 AM
Quote from: Scipio on July 01, 2009, 06:40:52 AM
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
please explain in more details.
Line from Ghostbusters.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 02, 2009, 08:27:03 PM
Who were you at the old site Armyknife?
I think he's fresh meat.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 02, 2009, 09:21:36 PM
Quote from: viper37 on July 02, 2009, 08:13:23 AM
Quote from: Scipio on July 01, 2009, 06:40:52 AM
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
please explain in more details.
Line from Ghostbusters.
Think the 3rd one will be any good?
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 02, 2009, 09:33:36 PM
Think the 3rd one will be any good?
It could. The cast is not quite in Grumpy Old Men territory yet.
Quote from: Armyknife on July 02, 2009, 08:24:46 PM
Dang, the Welsh Guards just lost their commanding officer:
:cry:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesonline.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F00583%2FRupert-Thorneloe_583734a.jpg&hash=b3e187bb5c173fa24adddeb01b63bc724c024451)
Wags, I certaintly agree, but it seems almost non-sequiter to say it. Did you have any context?
I'll be rewatching this in a few minutes!!
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 02, 2009, 09:21:36 PM
Quote from: viper37 on July 02, 2009, 08:13:23 AM
Quote from: Scipio on July 01, 2009, 06:40:52 AM
Everything was going fine until dickless over there shut off the containment unit.
please explain in more details.
Line from Ghostbusters.
I should go there, dammit.