Posted on 09/29/2007 7:39:20 AM PDT by SandRat
About this story: Doug Grindle is a freelance journalist who has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to report on the war. He writes occasionally for the Arizona Daily Star.
Combat Outpost Najil, Laghman Province, Afghanistan — About a dozen soldiers from the Arizona National Guard's 1-158th Infantry Battalion sit on a long ridgeline as a loud pop echoes from across the valley behind them.
They gaze at a hillside rising 1,500 feet in front of them, its steep sides a jumble of fallen rock, massive boulders and sparse scrub. They've spent the last hour clearing the lower slopes of the hillside of its usual mix of goats, sheep, cattle and attendant herdsmen, foraging high up this arid Afghan valley.
Thirty seconds later, a mortar round lands thunderously against the hillside in front of the soldiers, the sound of the blast booming over the ridgeline and back across the valley toward its firing point, the soldiers' home base, Combat Outpost Najil.
The mortar team is practicing for the day it might be needed.
Insurgents have been known to sneak onto this hillside as well as another one behind the base and lob mortars and rockets at the soldiers living in the camp. The mortar rounds exploding this September day are meant to dissuade them.
"If I was a bad guy I wouldn't want to be up there," says Spc. Jake Smith, 21, a three-year Guard member and Tucson native.
The soldiers here climb these hills regularly. They say the firing helps, and during the past month, the insurgent attacks, never frequent, have died away to almost nothing.
A few rounds later, the show is over. The soldiers head back to base, again skirting the nearby village of Dumlam on the way home. It is not a particularly hospitable place. Soldiers say some villages in this area are friendly. Some are not.
"It varies from village to village," Smith says. "You can usually tell if the people are waving at you if they like you or not. If the kids aren't waving at you, it's probably not a good place."
Soldiers say most villagers are simple farmers who don't want to be involved in the war. But some take money from insurgents to attack the U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers who share this base.
The soldiers face a mix of insurgents. Some are Taliban, some al-Qaida and some are part of the HIG (the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin), a local fundamentalist group. The locals themselves are the most numerous of the attackers, say the soldiers, and are hired by the month or by the mission.
It's a confusing mix, made more confusing by the environment. Insurgents don't wear uniforms, and it's difficult to tell who is who in the villages. "They are not distinct," says 1st Sgt. Scott Flint, 36, of Tucson. "We could be talking to insurgents on a daily basis and not know it."
The 1-158th is responsible for security in Laghman Province, in northeastern Afghanistan, and Najil is at the northwestern extreme of that area, high up the Alishang Valley. A few miles farther north, there are plenty of insurgents hiding out, soldiers say. But there are too few troops to clean them out.
The battalion commander, Lt. Col. Alberto Gonzalez, says he's concentrating on building up the Afghan forces so they can tackle the problem.
"Ultimately, it's their country and their responsibility to get into these areas and provide the security people need to support their government," he says.
The coalition also is relying on another strategy.
A kilometer or so beyond Dumlam, the soldiers are paying for a construction project by the river. The soldiers also are paying to widen the road from the provincial capital, Methar Lam, toward Najil.
They're using this formula elsewhere in the province, too. The Americans and the Afghan government are pushing almost 40 projects in this province, including roads, schools, wells, micro-hydroelectric plants and water control barriers used to channel the rivers. The idea is to persuade the locals not to take insurgent money individually, but instead side with the government, which is improving the overall economy.
"It's not a temporary fix," Flint says. "It's a permanent solution to the locals making a living."
Soldiers say the insurgents are wary of destroying these projects because the work is supported by large numbers of villagers. Roads bring progress quickly and are wildly popular in a place where many villages are accessible only by narrow tracks. But schools, while also very popular, are more vulnerable due to the Taliban's opposition to the education of girls.
"It's a gamble," Flint said. "If they destroy it, will they lose support in the village?"
A major problem with the development strategy is that the projects take time to complete. U.S. engineers in Methar Lam say it can take two years or more to build a major road. And the Afghan government has not historically done much for the villagers, so there is little history of centrally sponsored good works to back up the government's message of development.
For now, soldiers will continue to support the dual strategy. Security forces will try to keep insurgents at bay. Meanwhile, economic development hopefully will bring the masses to the government's side and deny the insurgents the safe havens they need to continue to fight.
Soldiers say the war in Laghman Province isn't likely to end soon, though.
Interesting. Sounds like the Army has to make up rules as it goes along. Brave guys.
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