The fight in AFG is an important fight. Afghanistan has been called, "The destroyer of empires". I feel we (the US) do not fit the empire catergory. For one, we are not ther to make it our own. We are there to root out terrorist and restore the balance of power in hopes to bring or give the afghani people a chance at freedom "True freedom"
One where one is not forced to wear a beard and enjoy the truly simple things in life, like waatching a Soccer game on TV with a few friends without worry of being whipped and jailed or worse. I have served in this AO and love the people. I have served in this AO and hate the Taliban. So as I gander at this report I can see the enemy is using less military grade eplosives and going towards ANFO and HMEs. Which could mean two things.
1) The enemy is low on military grade explosives either do to 8+ years of use (they were using them on each other long before we arrived) Or we have done a good job in findind the caches and destorying their ability to move large amoouts of resouces into the country.
2) The enemy is holding back on using military grade explosives for reason of their own. Like again stock pilling their weapons untill their are more US/NATO troops in country.
But in either case as one of these soldiers we are filled with a deep resolve to finish what we have started and give something greater back to the Afghan people. Our country is so quick to respond to deasters in other countries i.e Haiti. POTUS has stated you (Haiti) will not be forsaken. We are not at war with the Afghan people we are at war with the people who hurt and oppress them and supported the attackers of 9-11 by harboring/trainning them in the lawless areas of that country. Afghanistan should not be forsaken as had been before. We need to finish the job and give the fine people of Aghanistan the chance we have given so many others.
De Oppresso Liber (Free the Oppressed)

Thank you for your message ... one from the heart of a lion ... and for your very personal insight from the front lines. It is with deep gratitude that I thank you and all our extraordinary soldiers for your undying courage and resolve. I pray that all NATO nations will support, and with great vigor, this war against the very purest of evil running rampant from one end of the earth to the other.

For a minute there I thought I was back in combat!

Just in

Special Forces Assassins Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan
Sunday, February 07, 2010


American and British troops poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination.

Military sources said special forces had been infiltrating the town on "kinetic" missions — jargon for armed attacks. "Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force," one said.

At the British base of Camp Bastion and the adjoining Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. Marine base, troops and munitions have been airlifted in by night to avoid enemy rockets. It is clear that international forces are on the brink of a big battle. All Saturday morning, the thud-thud-thud of heavy machine guns and the crump of mortars filled the air.

In a break from traditional military secrecy, American, British and Afghan commanders have announced that Marjah, the last town in Helmand under Taliban control, will be attacked.

Operation Moshtarak (“Together”) will be by far the largest offensive since General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, instigated his counter-insurgency strategy, backed by President Obama’s 30,000-troop "surge."

About 1,000 Taliban, mostly Afghans but with some foreign fighters in their ranks, are believed to be in Marjah, an opium centre and local headquarters for bomb-making and sending out homicide bombers.

Military sources described the use of publicity as a psychological tactic to intimidate the Taliban into laying down their weapons or fleeing.