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KABUL -- The Taliban distributed a new video Friday of a U.S. soldier who was captured this summer in Afghanistan, with an offer to release him in a prisoner exchange.A spokesman for the international forces here denounced the video, but declined to comment on the possibility of an exchange or on efforts to rescue the captive.Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, an airborne infantryman from Ketchum, Idaho, was seized by Taliban-aligned militants on June 30. The military says he is the only American soldier who has been captured by insurgent forces during the war here.

The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan. Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30.

In the 19th century, Indian armies twice crossed the Hindu Kush, hoping to stitch together the patchwork political authority of the territory in the service of their British masters. Over a century later, the sovereign republic of India once more has a renewed presence in what was once its mountainous buffer from the Tsarist, and then Soviet, giant to the north. A year ago, Indians completed the construction of Afghanistan's new parliament building and, to compound the symbolism, provided training to the legislators who would make the country's laws. Over a billion dollars in aid and investment, multiple consulates, and...

Each year at Christmas, we remember our troops, far from home, standing be tween us and the latest Herods out to slaughter the innocents. As a former soldier, my thoughts are with the "ground pounders" out there, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Fort Hood, Texas. The challenges they face are immeasurably greater than those we faced in the black-boot, Cold War Army. But we all have our special memories. I recall Christmases in the 1st Battalion of the 46th Infantry, in Germany, three decades ago. Our Army was far poorer then, without the lavish support we provide today.

The inadequacy of Barack Obama’s Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy stems from the exigencies of the calendar of the next presidential elections in America, writes Kanwal Sibal The striking thing about Barack Obama’s new policy initiative on Afghanistan and Pakistan announced on December 1 is how little in it is actually new. It re-states the problem in known terms and the proposed way forward treads old ground. This is surprising, as the president spent an enormous amount of time to examine his options, to the point of being accused of dithering, and knew that the implications of the new course he...

KABUL (AP) - The Taliban released Friday a video purporting to show a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

BY 9 in the morning, the bazaar on a rocky island in the Panj River was a frenetic scene of haggling and theatrics. Afghan traders in long tunics and vests hawked teas, toiletries and rubber slippers. Turbaned fortune tellers bent over ornate Persian texts, predicting futures for the price of a dollar. Tajik women bargained over resplendent bolts of fabric. All were mingling this bright Saturday at a weekly market held throughout the year and, in one form or another, for thousands of years here in the Wakhan Valley, which divides Tajikistan and Afghanistan. “Mousetraps, mousetraps, mousetraps, oooowww!” crooned a...

12/24/2009 - KABUL, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- I started this year's holiday season off right; waking up Thanksgiving morning in a tin building with 200 Army Soldiers at a combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan. I'm an Airman, journalist and photographer deployed to the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Kabul. My two-week mission was to document and tell the story of the Afghan National Security Forces. I visited many locations including battalion headquarters and combat outposts. I witnessed everything I expected, and then some. I went out anticipating combat patrols and handing out supplies. Check. I went out anticipating the...

12/24/2009 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Several female servicemembers had a unique experience Dec. 17 when they traveled by Army convoy to Forward Operating Base Lion located in the Panjshir valley to meet with local Afghan women. Troops at FOB Lion instruct the women on different agricultural projects that can provide additional income for their families to include growing saffron, a spice widely used in Middle-Eastern dishes. Staff Sgt. Danielle Sempter, a medic from Swansborough, N.C. and deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, says that she views the interaction as very rewarding. "It means a lot to be able...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 2009 – In this season of giving, America has not forgotten her troops or their mission overseas. Thousands have contributed their time, energy -- and Beanie Babies -- to help Marines gain the respect and confidence of the Afghan population. Members of the Marine Aviation Officer's Spouses Club and the Marine Officer's Spouses Clubof Washington, D.C. collected more than 70,000 Beanie Babies for Marines to distribute to children throughout Afghanistan. The Beanie Babies, stored at Marine Barracks Washington, will be heading to their final destination when the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps makes a special visit...

KABUL, Dec. 24, 2009 – Afghan and international security forces in Afghanistan detained numerous suspected militants and seized weapons stockpiles in various operations today, military officials reported. A combined Afghan-international force detained several suspected militants in Helmand province while searching for a Taliban commander linked to a murder and intimidation campaign. The force went to a compound north of the village of Ser Banader in the Garmsir district after intelligence experts confirmed militant activity in the area. Despite receiving hostile fire when they approached, the servicemembers searched the compound and detained the militants. A combined force captured a suspected Taliban...

PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 2009 – Over mountainous terrain, a pair of UH-47 Chinook helicopters glided through the cold air to the remote village of Shaykh Ali in Afghanistan’s Parwan province Dec. 19, carrying nearly 45 Task Force Cyclone team members. Army 1st Lt. Brian Waddy speaks with Shaykh Ali villagers in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, Dec. 19, 2009, as part of a mission to better serve and contribute to people in the area. U.S. Army photo by Spc. William E. Henry  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Their mission: to speak with district leaders, police and villagers about how...

There is no shortage of "expert advice" on what we should do in Afghanistan in light of the shortcomings of the Karzai government. Several writers argue that the best way to fight the Taliban is to support and strengthen the traditional tribal system by dealing with individual tribes rather than working to build a national police force and army. While this might offer a short-term advantage over a more comprehensive "nation building" strategy, this approach proved disastrous in both Iraq and Vietnam.

Canadian soldier killed by improvised explosive device CEFCOM NR 09.032 - December 23, 2009 OTTAWA — One Canadian soldier and one soldier of the Afghan National Army (ANA) were killed by an improvised explosive device that detonated during a joint foot patrol near the village of Nakhonay in Panjwaii District, about 25 km southwest of Kandahar City, on December 23, 2009. The explosion also injured an Afghan interpreter. Killed in action was Lieutenant Andrew Richard Nuttall, from the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (1 PPCLI), based in Edmonton, Alberta, serving as a member of the 1 PPCLI Battle...

History speaks of a Pax Romana, a Pax Britannica, and a Pax Americana - but no other namable eras of sustained peace, for the simple reason cited by Henry Kissinger: nothing maintains peace except hegemony and the balance of power. The balancing act always fails, though, as it did in Europe in 1914, and as it will in Central and South Asia precisely a century later. The result will be suppurating instability in the region during the next two years and a slow but deadly drift toward great-power animosity. Those who wanted an end to US hegemony will get what...

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan I Signs of rebirth are growing in this former Taliban stronghold in Helmand province just days after U.S. Marines stormed it in a ground-and-airborne assault that caught its Taliban occupiers by surprise. In the once deserted bazaar area in the western portion of town, hundreds of men from nearby villages defy Taliban threats and clear debris from fighting in exchange for pay from U.S. troops. In the district center next to the main U.S. military base, more than 100 children attend ad hoc classes in reading and writing. The classes, initially started by Afghan-American interpreters working with...

KABUL, Dec. 23, 2009 – Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan killed or detained numerous militants today in various operations, military officials reported. In an operation led by the Afghan general directorate of special operations, several known instigators of a kidnapping group were detained. The Afghan force, supported by International Security Assistance Force troops, detained the men after a search in Police District 5 of the Afghan capital. The suspects are linked to kidnappings in and around the city. In other operations, a combined Afghan-international force in Paktia killed several militants, including a Taliban commander responsible for several bombing attacks....

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2009 – On a rugged mountaintop bordering Pakistan, less than two miles from Northern Waziristan, sits Combat Outpost Chergotah in Afghanistan’s Khost province. Army mortar men from the Indiana National Guard provide 120 mm mortar-fire support to soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team at Combat Outpost Chergotah in the Terezayi district of Afghanistan’s Khost province, Dec. 4, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by bStaff Sgt. Stephen J. Otero  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Here, U.S. Army soldiers work with Afghan border policemen to sustain border security and maintain peace among...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2009 – As our families and friends back home celebrate the holidays, those of us on the ground in Afghanistan are continuing the fight against extremism. Because our enemy is relentless, we must also be as relentless. We know that in war, there are no holidays. For the “Houn’ Dawgs” of the Missouri National Guard’s 203rd Engineer Battalion, to which I am attached, our operational tempo will remain high. Our combat logistics personnel will still be out on Afghanistan’s dangerous roads, delivering critically needed fuel and other supplies to regional forward and combat...

Blog: "Report: Taliban, Not Government, Collecting Payments For Electricity Bills From Consumers In Helmand Province" SNIPPET: "The Taliban militants, not the Afghan government, are collecting payments from consumers of electricity generated from the Kajaki hydroelectric power project in the country’s southern Helmand province, according to an Afghan news website." SNIPPET: "Haji Mullah Sharafuddin, the administrative head of the Kajaki district, the Taliban have been usurping the state’s right to receive income from the huge dam in the form of bills in the Kajaki, Sangin and Zamindar districts." SNIPPET: "The Kajaki dam generates 32 megawatts of electricity, supplied not only to...

Time magazine may think U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 2009’s “Person of the Year,” but Time is wrong: 2009 was dominated by Barack Obama, even though it wasn’t a great year for him. Obama’s human frailties surfaced. Words, not deeds, are his forte. Critics and fans tended to agree that, so far, his presidency is one of great intentions (if not great expectations). He’s good at saying what he’d like to do, but has difficulty doing (or being able to do) very much. Cheerleaders confuse rhetoric with results. Obama is the most accessible president in recent times. He’s...

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 22, 2009 – It may not be Mom’s home cooking, but the Defense Logistics Agency is making sure deployed troops eat a meal that tastes just as good. Thousands of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan won’t be able to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones. But that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy some of their favorite holiday foods, such as ham, sweet potatoes and pies and cakes. As in years past, DLA will bring a bit of the holidays to deployed U.S. troops as they dine on a traditional holiday meal. “It is important that we...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2009 – Defense Department officials today identified 6,000 servicemembers to deploy in 2010 as part of President Barack Obama’s order to increase the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan. About 3,400 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team are headed to Afghanistan in early summer, according to a statement released by the Pentagon. The soldiers are based out of Fort Campbell, Ky. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also approved deployment orders for about 2,600 support forces who will begin deploying to various locations at staggered times in the spring. The president announced Dec. 1 that the...

One of the critical components of President Obama's new Afghan strategy is an effort to persuade large groups of Taliban to change sides. The U.S. military is already looking for opportunities to motivate mid- and low-level Taliban to lay down arms. The premise: Many Taliban have joined up because of lack of jobs or services, or tribal conflicts. If these grievances are addressed, tribal elders might be willing to stop fighting. "Reintegration is hugely important, incredibly important," the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, told me in an interview. One of the purposes of the U.S. troop surge is...

As part of his push to win over the people of Afghanistan, top US Gen. Stanley McChrystal in July abolished air attacks in all but the most dire of circumstances. But that ban is having all kinds of ugly and unexpected consequences. US troops are paying a tough price for it. Consider the running firefight that Echo Company of the 2nd Batallion, 8th Marines faced in the town of Mian Poshteh in late August. For 36 hours, the local Taliban did everything they could to kill the Marines of Echo Company. The militants planted improvised bombs. They fired mortar rounds...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

By MARTHA IRVINE and NAFEESA SYEED (AP) – 1 hour ago ALEXANDRIA, Va. — There was a book left in a Pakistani hotel room where several young men from Virginia suspected of trying to join Taliban forces stayed. Called "The Pact," that book tells the true story of three boys from a rough neighborhood and broken homes who bond and eventually help one another through medical and dental school. "This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds," reads one snippet on the back of the book. It is also a story with...

Predator UAV tracks car full of Talibunnies...hilarity ensues....

KABUL - The Taliban have announced they will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring group said Wednesday.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY PLANE, Dec. 20, 2009 – Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said his trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq has given him an opportunity to assess changes in strategy and meet the men and women who will carry out that strategy. Security specialists accompany U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he tours the market place in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, Dec. 19, 2009. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Overall, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said...

A CBS news report filed by Kimberly Dozier states that U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met in Kandahar with five Afghan tribal elders. Pulling out his notebook, the admiral asked the Afghans what they need. Apparently the new fashionable counterinsurgency introductory question is "What do you need?" rather than "Are you fighting on our side?" or "Are we winning?" (snip) To use Dozier's own words, the most striking comments made to Mullen by the Afghan elders was "Stop fighting for us." "You must understand our culture," one said. "It's insulting for you...

Afghanistan, World's Longest War Has Only Just Begun Politics / Afghanistan Dec 20, 2009 - 07:22 AM By: Rick_Rozoff The higher number of Defense Department contractors, 160,000, added to over 100,000 troops - with the likely prospect of both numbers climbing yet more - will result in over a quarter of a million U.S. personnel serving under the Pentagon and NATO. The latter has 42,000 non-U.S. troops fighting under its command currently and pledges of 8,000 more to date, with thousands in addition to be conscripted after the London conference on Afghanistan next month. Approximately 35,000 U.S. soldiers are also...

The uniform of the British Army is to be changed for the first time in almost 40 years. The new Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) will replace the traditional four colour woodland uniform known as No.8: Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM). Forces in Afghanistan will start to get the new uniforms in March next year, with the whole army upgraded by 2011. MTP is designed for a wide range of environments, including the volatile "green zone" of Helmand province. British troops in Afghanistan currently use a mix of desert camouflage and temperate DPM, depending on which area they are operating in. There are...

Polish soldier killed in Afghanistan Associated Press 2009-12-19 11:58 PM A Polish soldier has been killed in fighting with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Dariusz Kacperczyk, an armed forces spokesman, says Private Michal Kolek was shot Saturday after he and other soldiers were called in to support a Polish patrol that was attacked in central Ghazni province. The death of the 22-year-old Kolek brings to 16 the number of Polish troops who have been killed in Afghanistan since their mission started in 2002. Poland is to reinforce its contingent of some 2,000 troops in Ghazni in March by adding...

For the first time, three Al-Qaeda operatives have been arrested and charged with drug trafficking as a means of raising funds to support their terrorist activities. The international terror group has increasingly been turning to this form of activity, although its spread to Africa is a new twist in the pattern, according to evidence gathered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The agency has long been concerned about the group’s ties to the heroin trade in Afghanistan – but according to DEA director Michele Leonhart, the current case reveals a “direct link” between the terror group and drug traffickers...

BEIJING - With 30,000 more United States troops on their way to Afghanistan, it is growing clearer that they will not suffice and that larger challenges loom. Afghanistan is also increasingly developing into a political proxy war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which backed the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s and offered a safe haven and breeding ground to the Taliban in the 1990s, is now looking askance at the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, which it sees as pro-India. Conversely, India has fond memories of the time when Kabul was firmly under Moscow's hands and...

WASHINGTON – Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan have hacked into live video feeds from Predator drones, a key weapon in a Pentagon spy system that serves as the military's eyes in the sky for surveillance and intelligence collection. Though militants could see the video, there is no evidence they were able to jam the electronic signals from the unmanned aerial craft or take control of the vehicles, a senior defense official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence issues. Obtaining the video feeds can provide insurgents with critical information about what the military may be targeting,...

Fort Mill, SC (WBTV) – In this season of giving, retail giant Lowe's Home Improvement donated $25,000 to help bring 200 soldiers home for the holidays. The company's generosity is making it possible for Pierson Young's husband to be there for their baby girl, Addison's first Christmas. "We're very excited," said Young. "When he left last time, she wasn't holding her head up on her own and now she can almost sit by herself," she said. "And all these new things we get to share with Daddy. Milestones that I was afraid he was going to miss--but is now going...

ABOARD AN AIR FORCE C-17, Dec. 18, 2009 – Results, not talk, are what’s important in Afghanistan now, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today while en route to Iraq after visiting Afghanistan. U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, greets villagers on a market walk in Mata Khan in Afghanistan's Paktika province, Dec. 15, 2009. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Mullen spoke to reporters traveling with him soon after leaving Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. He had spent...

NAWA, Afghanistan, Dec. 18, 2009 – An irrigation ditch bisects the main thoroughfare of this town in Helmand province, and shops line each side of the street. U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to villagers during a market walk in Nawa, Afghanistan, Dec. 17, 2009. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The shops sell everything from fresh vegetables to livestock to snack foods and transistor radios. The town looks like nothing special, but it is. The chairman of the Joint...

KABUL, Dec. 18, 2009 – The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is sending a team to work with Afghan officials in assessing reports of civilian casualties as a result of an operation in the Shah Wali Kot district of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province yesterday. Initial operational reports indicate that men were planting a bomb next to the road. After firing on the men from a helicopter, ISAF forces discovered civilians in a car adjacent to the site, officials said. In a written statement, ISAF officials said the command goes to great lengths to avoid, and deeply regrets, any harm to civilians....

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 18, 2009 – Getting through downtown Asadabad, Afghanistan, has become easier for hundreds of Afghan families, thanks to two and a half miles of new roads that were completed Dec. 13. Local workers cleaning the streets in Asadabad, Afghanistan, watch a provincial reconstruction team patrol conduct a final quality-assurance check on a new road through the provincial capital of Kunar province prior to a dedication ceremony, Dec. 13, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Boisvert  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Provincial reconstruction team engineers completed their final quality-assurance check just before a...

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier traveled with Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, through Kandahar Helmand Provinces in Afghanistan. She filed this dispatch after landing in Basra, her first trip back since Memorial Day 2006. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As we flew in to Forward Operating Base Frontenac, the terrain was mountainous — jagged hills cropping up suddenly in the middle of southern Afghanistan's lunar rocky landscape. But the day — the whole trip — was like a flashback to Iraq. There was Admiral Mike Mullen speaking to the troops, telling them their new strategy is to protect the population, just...

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration's decision to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 18 months after the start of the surge has already begun to bear fruit, but perhaps not in a way that was intended. The strongest Taliban warrior in Afghanistan, Siraj Haqqani, whose fighters pose the biggest threat to U.S. forces, remains protected by Pakistan in a sanctuary in North Waziristan. Jane Perlez of The New York Times reports that requests by the United States to crack down on the Afghan Haqqani Taliban have been rebuffed because Pakistan views it as contrary to its long-term interests...

Barack Hussein Obama has achieved so much in such a short time that there is very little left for him to aim for now. Unless, of course, they decide to anoint him as god. Don’t be surprised if they do so. There are plenty of parallels in history where the reigning superpower of the world decided to declare its ruler a god. Romans used to do so with their Caesars. But this divine status was invariably conferred after the ruler had won a major war. Technically speaking Obama would have to wait till he has won in Afghanistan. Since Obama...

Date: Wed, November 11, 2009 3:20 pm. From the Sand Pit. It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles. (snip)

12/17/2009 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Hundreds of Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines gathered here Dec. 15, to enjoy a United Service Organizations' Holiday Troop Visit tour featuring country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus, tennis pro Anna Kournikova, acclaimed comedian Dave Attell and legendary tennis coach and inspirational speaker Nick Bollettieri. The celebrities are joining The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen and his wife, Deborah Mullen, for an USO-sponsored holiday troop visit as part of a 13-show whirlwind tour to boost the troops' spirits during the holiday season. Mr. Atell, known for his...

NAWA, Afghanistan, Dec. 17, 2009 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited Patrol Base Jaker here today to tour the base and the Nawa district center and spend time with Marines and sailors assigned here. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to Marines and sailors with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, during a visit to Patrol Base Jaker in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Dec. 17, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen accompanied Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Lawrence D....

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2009 – The demonstrated bravery and resolve of the nearly 3,000 Canadian forces serving in Afghanistan reflects the commitment necessary to achieve success there, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said in the Canadian capital yesterday. Canadian forces’ efforts in mentoring Afghan security forces and their work in infrastructure development projects in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province are greatly appreciated, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute in Ottawa. “The courage and determination of Canadian forces are an inspiration to our coalition,” McChrystal said, noting that Canada, with about...

NAWA, Afghanistan, Dec. 17, 2009 – Sayed Alim stood on the firing line, a Marine by his side and M-16 service rifle in his hand. When the whistle blasted, the Afghan National Army soldier quickly spun to his left and delivered two rounds without hesitation, nearly center into a 12-inch circle drawn on a silhouette target. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. John B. Kavanaugh explains to an Afghan soldier how his firing stance can affect his balance and accuracy near Forward Operating Base Geronimo in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Dec. 14, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill  (Click photo for...