National Geographic Channel presents: Inside the Green Berets

In a remote outpost in south-central Afghanistan known as Firebase Cobra, a group of Americans stand in the breach between the rule of law and the rule of terror. They are Green Berets, part of an elite division of the U.S. Army Special Forces, charged with protecting local civilians from the wrath of the Taliban. These elite soldiers navigate an unforgiving landscape, never certain from one minute to the next if they will make it back to the base alive.

For this film, the Pentagon waived their 48-hour limitation on embedded media and allowed the National Geographic Channel to chronicle the lives of these war-hardened Americans for ten days. But their window will be tragically cut short by the costliest IED (improvised explosive device) explosion so far in the war in Afghanistan—killing two soldiers, wounding five others and injuring the NGC crew.

It was not a "feel bad" show at all. It presented the Green Berets in a very positive light, especially in regards to how they are trying to "win hearts and minds" and work with the locals against the Taliban. At one point, a ton of tribal elders showed up asking for help - that spoke volumes about our mission over there.

National Geographic also showed video of the Taliban in the pre-9/11 days executing men and women in the soccer stadiums.

I have great respect for the Special Forces and I think their mission in Afghanistan is improtant however, I thought this show portrayed some of the team members, specifically the assistant team leader, as kind of “hillbilly-ish” His comment about rather fighting 100 men face to face instead of suffering cowardly IED attacks seemed odd. It’s guerilla warfare and they’re supposed to be guerilla warfare experts. If the tables were turned would he not instruct a smaller guerilla force fighting a large national force to use IED’s, boobytraps, etc. to win a fight? It’s not about honor or fairness, its about winning by outlasting your enemy and taking out his will to fight.

Also, I think that even though NG might be a liberal organization with an agenda, there was something going on with those tribal elders. We were only privy to a small part of the conversation and while the SF troops implied that they were there because they were tired of the Taliban, it was never actually translated that they wanted to get rid of the Taliban. They only said the fighting between the two forces was a problem. The SF troops also played up how much danger the elders would be in if the Taliban knew they were there. Well, did all the spotters that were mentioned in the begining of the program take the day off? I was made to believe that the base and its troop movements were being monitored at all times.

Overall, I didn’t see the SF troops doing anything a regular Army unit couldn’t do except grow a beard. Then again we only saw a short period of time in their mission.

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