When I was a kid I used to watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on television. In it, their nemesis, the Shredder, had a subterranean vehicle that drilled through bedrock and dirt to get places. That’s kinda what the Marine Corps’ newest piece of equipment looks like. It’s a modified M1A2 Abrams tank that shoots out line charges to clear IEDs, mines, and other obstacles. Check out the picture after the jump.

ABV!!!

So this thing is badass. Let’s talk stats. First off, it weighs probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 tons, and utilizes the same 1500 horsepower Honeywell AGT gas turbine engine. This baby eats diesel, regular, and jet fuel. It is equipped with a mine plow, with what looks like pincers that extend out from it. Sweet. The square tiles on the front and sides are Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles. Essentially, the explode outward with impact, negating the effects of any explosive charges, tank rounds, or RPGs. Of course it is equipped with the same depth of depleted uranium and classified armor systems as the M1 Abrams.

On the back of the crew cab we notice quite the improvements. I figure this is where they keep the line charge. Now, this is no APOBS (Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System), Bangalore Torpedo, or line charge you might think of. This is a powerhouse 1,750 pounds of C4 explosive. Watch out.

So on December 3rd it shot its first line charge in the city of Now Zad, Helmand province, Afghanistan. Operated by combat engineers, not tank companies, it cleared a path through the city in no time. Marines of 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion dubbed it: “The Shredder”. Reports on the ground said Taliban radios were heard relaying the message, “Get out! The big boom is coming!”

The moral and psychological impact on the Taliban was significant. They all but left Now Zad and are now believed to be held up in Marjah. Marjah, as relayed in a previous post, is an epicenter for drug smuggling activity as well. The problem now is that the souther end of Helmand province has few citizens, and even fewer Marines. They are spread far and thin, too thin to actively prevent Taliban reinforcements from infiltrating the country through Pakistan’s far western border. The surge will have to deploy troops to this region, even though it will leave less troops for the population centers farther north. The border region is going to become a strategic position, for sure.

If the Taliban were able to reinforce Marjah, we might see some tough battles lasting for some time. I have faith in our Marine Corps, though. They’ll get the job done.

Semper Fi, Marines. I want an ABV for Christmas.

A Taliban militant with Afghan poppy farmers in Nawa district, Helmand province, April 2008.

In one year, Afghanistan produces enough poppies to satisfy 92% of the world’s demand for opium and heroin, according to the UNODC. The U.S. and United Nations reports that the Taliban pays up to $500 million a year for farmers to produce and smuggle opium out of the country. The illicit production of this crop provides the money that the Taliban uses to fight the United States, the legitimate Afghan government, and its allies.

Insurgent fighters are paid more than twice what Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and Afghan National Police (ANP) are paid. Plus, the Taliban outsources IED detonation and rocket attacks. Indigent villagers are paid up to $200 US to set off an IED against American troops, plus extra for any troops that are killed. For a family that earns an average of $300 per year, it’s hard to resist. Poppy cultivation is just another form of earning money for these civilians, and while a labor intensive crop, the average farmer earns $6500 producing opium, and is able to provide jobs for other villagers and students throughout the summer months.

What do you do? If I were in the same situation, I would think about my family, supporting and providing for them, perhaps making enough to send my kids to school, or even to another country. For sure, many of us would be producing opium in the same circumstances. However, it causes massive problems. Up to %30 of new recruits for the ANA and ANP are turned down because of opium addiction. The money from exporting opium and producing heroin goes directly to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and it’s significant.

The world market for heroin alone is about $65 billion a year.

The center of Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation? Helmand province, where 9,000 more Marines are scheduled to deploy before Christmas as part of President Obama’s new war plan. The Obama administration feels that previous narcotics counter-measures, which focused on eradication, burning of crops, drove many farmers and influential tribal leaders into supporting the insurgency. Now, the U.S and Britain have taken a more indirect approach aimed at interdicting smugglers on routes into Pakistan and Iran.

The Afghan government is sponsoring a program aimed at farmers to produce other crops, especially wheat. The U.S. and British governments are underwriting and subsidizing the program. In the Nawa district of Helmand province, an estimated 4,800 farmers are estimated to take part in the program where they will receive seed and fertilizer at a highly discounted price.

The U.S. military believes that a town called Nawa, in Helmand as well, has become an epicenter of narco-trafficking and insurgency. The surge is aimed at dismantling the entire narco-terrorist system in helmand province, as well as disrupting and destroying Taliban influence in the area. With Nawa out of the picture, opium cultivation will become extremely less profitable.

These are not bad people, they are just like us. In hard times, they strive to support their family, and unfortunately, they are supporting the Taliban, the extremists, and the insurgency, not because they support the ideology, but because it’s their only option.

The MV-22 Osprey doing something badass!

The Marine Corps is wasting no time raising an offensive against the Taliban. Early Friday morning 3rd Bn 4th Marines launched an aerial raid with a reconnaissance battalion from Task Force Raider.  All in all, about 1,000 Marines and Afghan soldiers launched the operation called “Cobra’s Anger” into the northern end of Now Zad Valley, in Helmand province. And that’s not all.They were dropped deep into enemy territory in CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters and MV-22 Osprey. This is the first combat air assault by the Ospreys in a unit larger than platoons. Already the Marines have recovered over 400 pounds of demolitions and several arms caches. By Friday evening (Afghanistan time), they had recovered about 700 land mines and IEDs in an area named “IED alley”, according to the Associated Press. The mission’s goal is to disrupt Taliban supply lines and sever their communication. Now Zad has been the scene of intense fighting over the last eight months or so, with a hard front being located just a few hundred meters north of the Marine’s base Camp Leatherneck.

Now Zad’s inhhabitants, which used to number close to 30,000, have left the town a barren wasteland, causing British troops to christen the place “Apocalypse Now-Zad” when they left the area early last summer.

This MV-22 Osprey is badass. I first saw them in December, 2004 in the USMC Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. They were testing these bad boys in inclement weather. I had the chance to watch a pair of them take off, almost get blown off my feet by the rotorwash, and then be amazed when as soon as I looked up they were almost over the horizon. They take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane. It’s impressive. Speed, surprise, and violence of action.

It sounds like the Taliban have a hard core presence in the area, and an offensive is just what they need right now to rally support for Obama’s planned troop increase.

Semper Fi, Marines. Waste no time getting to business.

President Obama's speech at West Point 12-1-2009

Last night President Obama committed 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan, with the plan to bolster and accelerate the training of Afghan National Army soldiers and police forces. His intent is to hand over security to Afghan troops. The “exit-strategy” for July 2011 is an incentive to train the troops in time for the effective pull out date.

Let’s talk the war in Afghanistan. I deployed there in 2005 with 2nd Bn 3rd Marines. We deployed to Kunar province, on the border with Pakistan. Asadabad, to be exact. While there, we took part in Operation Red Wings, to find a local insurgent leader Ahmad Shah. A Navy SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team consisting of four men were inserted to track Shah. They were ambushed, and the militants shot down an MH47 Chinook that came in for support, killing all 16 on board. It was the greatest loss of life in one incident in special forces history.

My battalion struck back, with Fox Company, and my platoon, at the tip of the spear. We battled hundreds of militants for six days, resulting in an amazing victory that cleared the way for the first Afghan parliamentary elections since 1966. This battle is recounted in the book Victory Point by Ed Darack. It also gives a great history of the land of Afghanistan, the Pashtun people, and the command and control situation on the ground.

Let’s fast forward to 2009. On the Boston.com website, there is a photo blog. On it, just recently, there are pictures of soldiers in battle in Afghanistan. Specifically, the very first photo, is in the Pech River valley of Kunar province. This is a mere 7 miles from where the Navy SEALs were shot down, and perhaps a mere 10 miles form where we routed Ahmad Shah’s force of nearly 300 men. I’ve been to this very same valley. In fact, I’ve taken cover behind some of the same berms seen in this very photograph, in a Taliban ambush four years ago. December, 2005, actually. Almost exactly four years ago. Pictures 21 and 22 are also of the same area. I’d recognize it in any picture. It is the area right before the mouth of the Korengal valley.

A few miles into the valley are distant villages, terraced farming, and Taliban. Lots and lots of Taliban. We fought up there four years ago, and here are some more pictures. All were taken recently.

My intent here is not to present war porn. It’s to make a point. We haven’t gained any ground in Afghanistan. We’re fighting on the same land that we’ve been on for years. The war had already started when I joined the Marine Corps. I took my bite of history, maybe a little more than I could chew, and the war is still going on almost two years after I got out. My unit has lost 45 men over the course of its deployments. Best friends, husbands, sons, leaders, mentors. A battalion commander with four children. A company commander. Lieutenants, sergeants, privates.

I have no problem with waging war. In fact, we were really good at it. But I feel that it is now at a standstill. How long will we fight insurgent forces on the same ground? Osama bin Laden isn’t in Afghanistan. Taliban leaders aren’t in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda leaders aren’t in Afghanistan. They’ll fight us there however long we stay in Afghanistan. This much I know.

Now let’s talk the physical toll of waging war in the Hindu Kush. American forces must carry their own water, food, body armor, ammunition, and supplies everwhere they go. In many cases, our packs weighed close to 120-140 pounds. Each. Personally, I carried 20 bottles of water, 14 M16 magazines, a 200-round  can of 7.62mm machine gun ammo, a PRC-119 radio with 4 extra batteries, a PAS-13 medium thermal weapons sight, night vision goggles, extra batteries, and five MREs. Body armor weighs about 35 pounds on average. That’s a lot of weight.

Taliban fighters circa 2008

Let’s examine what the Taliban carry. Not a lot. Weapons and some canteens. They can drink the river water. We can’t. They can eat the local food. We can, but a lot of times we get dysentery. Dysentery is not nice. You vomit and diarrhea profusely, have hot sweats and cold chills. On top of that, you can even hallucinate you get so sick. Believe me. I’ve had it. Drinking the local water makes you combat ineffective, unless you take it with lots of iodine. Iodine takes about 30 minutes to sterilize water, so if you’re overheating, that’s too long.

The Taliban outmaneuver us. They can move a lot faster, pick the time and place of battle, and generally keep the upper hand until air support arrives. Then we waste them. hundreds of them. Yet the next time you climb back up into that valley, there’s the ever-present Taliban, still outmaneuvering, still ambushing, still fighting.

I strongly believe that this war is a just war. We were attacked on our own land and innocent people died because they were American. I fought in Afghanistan, I fought in Iraq. Yet, there seems to be this idea that we have to kill everyone, or get them to surrender, for the war to be over. We as a society are polarized on the subject.

Here’s my take:

I agree with President Obama’s plan. We need a final push to get the Afghan military and police forces to critical mass, and then we need to redeploy back to the States. We cannot maintain a troop force in Afghanistan indefinitely. Extremism cannot be defeated. It is cross-cultural, it doesn’t recognize borders, and it doesn’t play by the rules. They will be out there as long as there are differing ideologies and religions. History tells us this. A war against terrorism is like the war against drugs. Eradication cannot be achieved. There will always be fresh recruits on both sides to fuel the conflict. It is immoral to continue funding a war with our resources and the blood of our young men that cannot see a peaceful resolution.

Its been a long, hard road, and it’s time to end it. One last push, America. One last push.

Last year on a trip to the local pistol range, The Shootist, I was approached by a woman with a clipboard and a producer. I signed off on a waiver and was told there were hidden cameras all over the place. Well, little over a year and a half afterward, and an old Marine buddy calls up from Quantico to tell me I’m on Showtime.

Specifically, episodes 5 and 6. I haven’t seen it yet, and had I known anything would have turned up out of it, I would have plugged the book! Dammit! There goes free marketing, huh? Anyways, check it out if you get the chance.

Lock ‘n’ Load on Showtime

I’m proud to announce that I will have an article published in the spring issue of Open Minds Quarterly. It is about the war, drinking, the aftermath, and what happens to a man who sees a lot of combat. I am really looking forward to having something to add to my short resume of writing experience, so stay tuned and I will update everyone on my email list about the article.