Two years ago the U.S. military “surged” tens of thousands of extra troops to Iraq, and dispersed them into neighborhood patrol bases to protect the Iraqi population from insurgent attacks — a move widely credited with turning around that conflict. Today we’re surging in Afghanistan, sending some 20,000 troops to reinforce flagging U.S.-NATO operations. It’s a last-ditch attempt to salvage an eight-year-old war we thought we’d already won.
War Is Boring is surging right alongside U.S. troops. For Afghanistan’s August presidential election, WIB correspondent Jason Reich embedded in eastern Afghanistan with U.S. troops, filing dispatches on governance, security, Afghan security force training and combat — with more stories on the way. In October, WIB founder David Axe will follow up on Jason’s reporting, during his own month-long embed with U.S. forces.
WIB readers ponied up several hundred dollars to support Jason’s work. We still need your help. War correspondence is expensive. The cost of air fare, lodging and equipment for David’s phase will come to around $4,000 — all of which must come out of our pockets. To help defray these expenses, we are soliciting donations via the Paypal button at left.
In recent years, our loyal readers have helped underwrite David’s work in Africa and Latin America. We know times are tough, but we’re asking you to dig deep, once again, to make possible our expanded coverage of the Afghanistan conflict. A dollar, five dollars, a hundred — anything you can spare. In exchange, we promise to provide, on this blog, some of the best, most balanced coverage of the war, anywhere.
(Photo: Jason Reich)
Related posts:
- Reich in Afghanistan: Afghan Gun Fun
- Reich in Afghanistan: Wardak Chopper Porn
- Reich in Afghanistan: Afghan Cop Training
- World Politics Review: Remembering a Fallen Soldier
- Reich in Afghanistan: Deadlier IEDs, or Just Cheaper Ones?
- Voice of America: Implementing “Smart Power” in Afghanistan Poses Challenge for U.S.
- The Washington Times: Afghan War Under-Resourced
Awesome, Ill throw a few bucks to that. In the us military so not that many bucks
How will you make sure that their reporting isn’t just reporting on U.S. and NATO propaganda and official “news” ?
And:
By comparing what we hear and what we see, is how.
Sounds good.
Will the reporting include interviews with local populations? If so, how will the language gap be bridged?
And:
Yes, we will speak to locals, using professional interpreters. I have worked in Afghanistan before, so I know where to find them.
Sounds good.
just check the wind current, douse the plants with some gasoline, light a flare, and run…
You will see insurgents pissed off in the morning, so don’t be there then…when you report back in on the scorch and burn!
One of my older comments no doubt.
Make sure and review all the links. These are the hotspots of insurgency now. The recent Pak Mititary raid in Waziristan turned up a mosque where the kidnap and ransom victims went. The Pak taliban have been smuggling them locally to that mosque and also through buner from this area near s helmand. There have been very heavy reports in this region of kidnappings tracing several years back and also acts of sabatoge against NATO forces here. My thoughts are if they are not transporting kidnapped persons back to waziristan there may be a local mullah here that is going undetected that may need to be rooted out and his weapons caches seized. This region may also have its own capacity of a kidnapping center similar tot he mosque in waziristan. If that is discovered we may shed some light on the operation from here pinpointed on the maps to waziristan to the Buner pass area and then to the pak taliban mosque miles fromt here.
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http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march292009/afghan_deaths_3-29-08.php
One area that is likely to receive scrutiny from the new commander is the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have for several years been locked in an intense battle that has produced more American casualties than just about any region of the country.
Senior U.S. officials in eastern Afghanistan say most of the hard-core insurgents battling American troops there are Korengalis who receive weapons, training and money from al-Qaeda and Taliban facilitators, crossing the porous border from Pakistan. In recent months, U.S. commanders have debated whether to increase the American force in the Korengal Valley in an effort to rout the insurgents, or simply leave the isolated area. A third option is to hold force levels in the area steady.
quqnoos.com – 3 Killed, 8 Wounded in Helmand Bike Blast – RestoreMay 3, 2009 … Afghan Interior Ministry said explosives made in a bicycle blew up in Girishk District, in a crowded bazaar, close to a police station. …
quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2954&Itemid=48 – Cached – Similar -
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UNHCR | Refworld | Double suicide strike on Afghan police kills five – Restore… each riding on a motorcycle, blew themselves up near a group of police who had just parked their vehicles in the Girishk district of Helmand Province, …
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,RFERL,,AFG,4562d8cf2,4a099425c,0.html – Similar -
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Reuters AlertNet – Suicide attack on NATO force kills 3 Afghans – RestoreThe attacker was in a car, but failed to hit the convoy which was travelling in the Girishk district of Helmand province, one of the areas where Taliban …
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL54536.htm – Cached – Similar -
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Search for “Girishk” – Restore – Jun 14One of the raids by NATO hit houses in the Girishk district of Helmand province on Thursday evening, killing up toMore… (World News) …
digg.com/search?section=all&s=Girishk – Cached – Similar -
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Double suicide strike on Afghan police kills five | Reuters – RestoreMay 10, 2009 … police who had just parked their vehicles in the Girishk district of Helmand province, Assadullah Sherzad, provincial police chief said. …
in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINISL41545720090510 – Cached – Similar -
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Keyword: desecration – RestoreAbdul Manaf, Girishk’s district governor, said 150 people had demonstrated in the town, but that there had been no desecration of the holy book and Taliban. …
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/desecration/index – Cached – Similar -
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Two U.S. Navy Officers Killed by Insurgent Posing as Afghan … – RestoreMar 29, 2009 … They were attacked by Afghan and international troops in Girishk district, which is 530 km (330 miles) southwest of Kabul, on Saturday, …
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march292009/afghan_deaths_3-29-08.php – Cached – Similar -
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The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 06/16/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
Got it. Thanks!
Are american reporters allowed in South Waziristan? If they were, would they even go?
Waddaya think? New turk or too dangerous to go there?
[...] With more U.S. troops arriving, to reinforce NATO in the south, expect more creative logistics, like this. I’ll be in the region, myself, in September. We’re accepting donations for that trip. [...]
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are usually closed to foreigners due to security concerns
[...] It took a year of lobbying, but the NATO force dedicated to deterring and interdicting pirates off the Somali coast has finally approved my request to embark on one of its warships. The offer for a four-day embark this month came just days ago, after I’d already accepted an embed with U.S. forces in Afghanistan for October. All my resources are currently devoted to Afghanistan, so if I’m also going to join NATO for an African pirate adventure, I need your help. [...]
[...] Es existiert jedoch noch einen zweiten Grund, weshalb voraussichtlich zwischen Oktober und November deutschsprachige Artikel wieder etwas auf dem Blog überwiegen werden: David Axe wird für einen Monat als eingebetteter Journalist mit den US-Streitkräften in Afghanistan verweilen und wird deshalb in dieser Zeit keine Artikel auf offiziere.ch posten können. Übrigens sucht er zur Begleichung der Kosten noch Gönner. Ich wünsche ihm auf seinem Trip viel Erfolg, dass er im November gesund zurückkehrt und uns aus erster Hand von seinen Erlebnissen berichten kann. [...]