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U.S. Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban

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  • #31
    FKKK Not one person says thanks to my pics posted

    I've taken the time to post such nice pics, once again, that sooo many WABBITs have viewed (even if they didn't post on this thread) but not one "thanks Mobbme"

    I think people are starting to take me for granted, I might go on a picture strike

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    • #32
      Originally posted by Mobbme View Post
      I've taken the time to post such nice pics, once again, that sooo many WABBITs have viewed (even if they didn't post on this thread) but not one "thanks Mobbme"

      I think people are starting to take me for granted, I might go on a picture strike
      I thought the pictures were great. Better if you can find Putin sunbathing in speedos...;)
      "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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      • #33
        Originally posted by Mobbme View Post
        Great photo.
        Aut vincere aut mori

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        • #34
          Why is this battle so tough? Click into the link to read more.

          US troops in Afghanistan face tough battle: Making 'clear, hold, and build' work

          In Wardak Province, the counterinsurgency model has been difficult to implement, though US forces have already seen some success in the first phase of the effort.

          8 July [CSMonitor] As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the growing violence, they are relying on the "clear, hold, build" model of counterinsurgency. The US hopes a surge of soldiers will help them clear areas of Taliban insurgents, maintain a lasting presence in those areas to keep militants from returning, and then bring development to attract popular support.

          But soldiers in Wardak Province say that the model has been difficult to implement in here. In particular, they say they are caught in a vicious circle: To win over the locals, the troops must bring development, security, and economic prospects. To do this, they have to diminish the presence of the insurgency. But this, in turn, requires that the troops win support of the population.

          US forces have already made some progress in the first phase of the strategy. The stretch of the Kabul-Kandahar highway that runs through Wardak, once a magnet for insurgents, has been free of Taliban checkpoints for months. The guerrilla presence along the route had gotten so bad that fuel convoys suffered almost daily attacks. ....

          "The main highway is much safer now," says Roshanak Wardak, a member of parliament from Sayadabad district of Wardak. "It used to be extremely dangerous, but now the Taliban have been pushed off it."

          But the clearing phase of the strategy may be the easiest. Soldiers say they will need patiently to build rapport, something that might take months or years, if at all.

          "We just have to earn their trust," says Staff Sgt. Adam Kapchus of the 10th Mountain Division. "We need to support clinics and support their economy." ....

          Despite such patrols, the troops generally don't have enough contact with the locals to convince them that they are here for their good, says Habibullah Rafeh, policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences. Most of the troops live in small, heavily fortified outposts near urban centers. Most Afghans, however, live in rural areas – only 0.5 percent of Wardak's population is urban, for example. ...

          To meet such challenges, the new commander of US forces in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is pushing for an approach that has troops living among the communities they are meant to protect. Soldiers will live in smaller outposts, embedded amid the local population — a tactic that some credit with helping improve the situation in Iraq. ...
          Last edited by Merlin; 09 Jul 09,, 14:55.

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          • #35
            This Arab News article has interesting insights about winning the war against the Talibans in Afghanistan.

            Afghan imbroglio
            10 July [ArabNews] Every time US planes bomb what they think are Taleban hide-outs in Afghanistan, they kill women and children. It infuriates Afghans and strengthens their opposition to the 70,000 foreign troops being in the country, some 58,000 of them from NATO and allied states. But it works the other way around too. When Taleban forces plan an ambush to kill NATO forces and they kill local people including children instead, as happened on Thursday in a massive bomb blast on the highway south of Kabul, the anger and revulsion is turned on it.

            There will be many who see in Thursday’s blast and the surge in violence that has occurred in the past few weeks across the country, further proof that no matter how many troops the US and its allies send to Afghanistan, they are not going to win. That is wishful thinking; it ignores the deep animosity most Afghans have for the Taleban. In any event, the notion that Afghanistan has always been a graveyard for foreign armies is a myth, based largely on the experience of the Soviets in the 1980s. ....

            The NATO-led forces and the Americans in particular now understand very well the need to keep civilian deaths to an absolute minimum. The new coalition commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has spoken publicly about it several times. Unfortunately, war is not a surgical operation that adheres to rules. Things go wrong. Whether Gen. McChrystal’s intentions succeed therefore remains to be seen. The same goes for the planned troop surge. It has worked in Iraq, but Afghanistan is not Iraq. The terrain is different, so is the political situation.

            For example, support for the Taleban in troubled Helmand province is primarily about opposition to central government diktat. In any event, it is weakening. The two main tribes there now appear to want to see the Taleban crushed. In the longer term, the working with the tribes, as was the case in Iraq, will be far more effective in ensuring peace and security in Afghanistan than military muscle. .....

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            • #36
              Surely those Paras should have their weapons, webbing and body armour closer to hand?

              On a serious note, Britain is taking heavy casualties - 15 killed in the past 10 days, 8 of them in the last 24 hours. KIA include a Lieutenant Colonel. Hopefully the increased troop numbers mean that this push will have at least some results at the end of the summer.
              HD Ready?

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              • #37
                Originally posted by Mobbme View Post
                I've taken the time to post such nice pics, once again, that sooo many WABBITs have viewed (even if they didn't post on this thread) but not one "thanks Mobbme"

                I think people are starting to take me for granted, I might go on a picture strike
                No No! Let me be the first to thank you! The tracer pic is beautiful. Keep em coming!
                Cow is the only animal that not only inhales oxygen, but also exhales it.
                -Rekha Arya, Former Minister of Animal Husbandry

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by Tronic View Post
                  No No! Let me be the first to thank you! The tracer pic is beautiful. Keep em coming!
                  Thanks bro :). That picture is awesome. I want to enlarge that and POSTER it!

                  These were probably my most exciting pics I've posted. It makes Afghanistan look beautiful; silly me thought it was all sand n sh$t.

                  Gunnut's my buddy, so he HAS to like me pics :P

                  SilentSam single's out one pic, but whatever, better to have one compliment than none :)

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