Embattled US troops take cynical view of progress in Afghanistan

[IndianaGreen]

Embattled US troops take cynical view of progress in Afghanistan

Reintegration will be high on London agenda – but that might be hard for some to swallow, not least the US soldiers in field

Jon Boone in Bala Murghab
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 January 2010 20.54 GMT

It was meant to be a routine patrol. But when a group of 28 American paratroopers and Afghan soldiers found themselves pinned down by the Taliban it almost ended in a bloodbath.

As many as 90 insurgents almost completely surrounded the platoon from the 82nd Airborne as they walked across open ground. With machine gun and sniper fire coming from almost all sides, the only place to hide was a ditch a foot deep.

Enemy rounds ripped into piled mud sending dust into their eyes. The insurgents trained their fire on anything that came into view – kit, radios and helmets.

"We need help now!" Kell Anderson, the platoon's leader, bellowed into his radio, going on to warn that they were fast running out of ammunition and about to take casualties.

Unable to clearly identify the insurgents' firing positions, the men could not call in mortars and had to wait for a pair of aircraft to arrive and perform swooping gun runs to provide cover for the men to dash to safety, rounds hitting the ground between their feet.

None of this happened in the southern badlands of Afghanistan where the Taliban are exacting a seemingly relentless death toll from mostly US and UK forces, but in Bala Murghab, in Badghis province in the far north-west.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/27/us-soldiers-afghanistan