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10th Mountain Division
As Afghan War Lengthens, Fresh Troops Deploy
By David Wood - Politics DailyFORT POLK, Louisiana -- In the dwindling days before it deploys to combat in Afghanistan, these things are occupying the minds of 2-30 Infantry: the beer-can grip, the care and feeding of mules, and the eye shield. Since the men of the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment got home from Iraq 19 months ago to steamy Fort Polk, it's been a constant push of training, including a month of mock combat in the bitter February cold of Wyoming to prepare them for the Afghan winter. They've done battle drills day and night, in small groups and large; sharpened their skills at compass navigation through ...
In the Fight for Afghanistan, the Taliban Have the Advantage of Time
By David Wood - Politics DailyFARYAB PROVINCE, Northern Afghanistan -- Just after dawn on July 23, teams of American soldiers, Afghan security forces and Norwegian combat advisers closed in along goat trails on the mountain hamlet of Maydanak, a remote Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan. As U.S. troops held the 7,000-foot-high ridgelines, the Afghans descended to clear the village, and began taking fire. The heated, nine-hour battle that ensued, and its aftermath, captures the nagging problem the Obama administration faces here and across Afghanistan. On the battlefield, the enemy can be outfought. As the U.S. ...
A Hot War Rages in the 'Peaceful' North of Afghanistan
By David Wood - Politics DailyKUNDUZ, Northern Afghanistan -- The battle was fierce and went on for hours. Blazing sun hammered American infantrymen and Afghan police wading thigh-deep across rice paddies. Mortar shells burst above them, puncturing the air and water with steel shrapnel. Volleys of machine-gun and small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades skimmed the surface, fired by Taliban fighters, dug in behind low earthen walls. This is the supposedly peaceful north of Afghanistan, largely bypassed as Gen. David Petraeus, the top allied commander, concentrates his forces against the Taliban stronghold of ...
Can the Afghan Army Get Trained Fast Enough?
By not in system - AOL NewsKABUL, Afghanistan -- With a full-throated roar, 2,000 proud new Afghan soldiers swung across a parade ground in an enthusiastic if imprecise goose-step formation. The latest graduates of the Afghan army's basic training course, they will soon head off to fight the Taliban, as their commanding general announced, "in the name of Almighty Allah.'' ...
Afghanistan Journal: Local Troop Training Fast-Tracked as U.S. Drawdown Looms
By David Wood - Politics DailyKABUL, Afghanistan -- With a full-throated roar, 2,000 proud new Afghan soldiers swung across a parade ground in an enthusiastic if imprecise goose-step formation. The latest graduates of the Afghan army's basic training course, they will soon head off to fight the Taliban, as their commanding general announced, "in the name of Almighty Allah.'' These new troops, smartly outfitted with American combat boots, uniforms and M-16 rifles, are the result of a determined push by the U.S. and allied command to "surge'' more Afghans into in a stalemated war in which American and European troops are ...
Army Private Charged in Leak of Deadly Helicopter Attack Video
By Tom Diemer - Politics DailyAn Army private has been charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, accused of leaking a video of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 12 people, including civilians, in July 2007. Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, was detained in Kuwait in May and now faces an indictment for allegedly transferring classified information, including the video and more than 150,000 State Department cables, by downloading the information to his computer, the New York Times said Tuesday. The video wound up on the whistleblower website, Wikileaks.org, where it was edited and made public under ...
Afghan Veterans Combat Stress -- With a Game of Paintball
By David Wood - Politics DailyFORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Brandon Turbeville, a 22-year-old Army specialist, lay in tall grass with his weapon, peering into the thickets where the enemy was approaching. He was patient. He breathed carefully. He waited, wanting to kill. The sun beat down and his scalp sweated and itched under his helmet and when he finally saw shapes moving behind a screen of saplings, he aimed carefully and fired, again and again. The battle ran hot. Then he ran out of ammunition and the enemy, whooping and hollering and firing from the hip, gleefully overran his unit's position. Turbeville sheepishly stood up ...
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