War Is Boring

Oklahoma U.S. Rep. Mike Reynolds, a Republican, introduced a bill to reinstate the anti-gay Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy for Oklahoma Guardsmen — a move that House Speaker Kris Steele promptly killed.

In this video by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Charles Crail, watch a contractor-flown Caribou supply plane — flying low among the mountains — drop pallets on a remote outpost in Paktika province. At the end, listen to the soldier praise the pilots.

Afghan security forces will take over as U.S.-led international troops gradually withdraw from Afghanistan through 2014. At least that’s the plan. Poor leadership could undermine Afghan efforts to secure their own country. “There’s a gross lack of leadership in Afghanistan,” says “Tom,” a U.S. Army Special Forces officer assigned to train Afghan police in Laghman province, east of Kabul.

LAGHMAN, Afghanistan — Coalition forces here have been hit hard in the past year. Bombings and gun battles have killed more than a dozen U.S. troops and wounded around 100 from Task Force Thunderbird, built around the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade.

LAGHMAN, Afghanistan — The American Special Forces officer was having what one colleague says was the worst day of his war tour. And that was before the Soviet-made anti-personnel mine packed with 700 ball bearings exploded at his feet.

U.S. and Romanian Special Forces train Afghan special police in Laghman, Afghanistan, in February 2012.

U.S. Special Forces and commandos from other nations are slated to remain in Afghanistan even after the coalition’s more than 100,000 conventional troops withdraw by the end of 2014. One of the Special Forces’ major responsibilities is training and leading Afghan police forces, widely seen as the first line of defense against Taliban infiltration.

A snapshot of supply efforts at one remote coalition outpost in eastern Afghanistan illustrates the war’s daunting logistical challenges and the potential shortfalls once foreign troops withdraw in 2014.

by DAVID AXE Off and on for a decade, the Afghan government and its allies in the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (IASF) have tried to convince Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons and rejoin mainstream society. But so-called “reintegration” has proved difficult, to say the least. Across Afghanistan, government authorities have reported only a handful [...]

Meeting with elders Ghulam Moidin and Mullah Anwar in Marzak, Afghanistan, January 2012.

U.S. Army MPs and Alpha 2-28 Infantry conduct police recruitment and deliver medical care in Marzak, Paktika, Afghanistan, in January 2012.

U.S. Army troops in Marzak, Afghanistan, attend a shura with locals, build a base and conduct live-fire training.