Earning Afghans' Trust The 'Big Challenge' For U.S.

[unhappycamper]

Earning Afghans' Trust The 'Big Challenge' For U.S.
by Tom Bowman
October 28, 2010

In Afghanistan, soldiers from the "Strike" Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division are continuing their monthlong sweep for Taliban fighters in an area called the "Green Zone." It's a 10-mile stretch of orchards and fields along the Arghandab River, northwest of the city Kandahar.

The unit, Headquarters Company, is trying to secure Afghan villages and win the support of locals in a territory the Taliban left riddled with roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings.

An hour before dawn on a recent morning, headlights from armored vehicles illuminate the soldiers during roll call at Combat Outpost Ashoque. The outpost is little more than a one-story concrete building surrounded by sandbags and razor wire.

Across the gravel parking lot, Afghan soldiers are assembling, too. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ted Maust is working with a translator to get them ready, but there is confusion about how many Afghans will come on today's mission alongside the 50 Americans.

The armored convoy departs the outpost, and heads west on one of the few asphalt roads in the country. The Americans call it Route One.



unhappycamper comment: Boy, this sure does sound like the search & destroy missions we used to run in Vietnam. (We also had a Route One.)