How Bad Do You Want It? 82nd Airborne Takes New Approach to Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan

In the Nawa district of southern Afghanistan's Ghazni Province, villagers are so poor that they cannot clothe themselves in the winter. Their children are so sick that in the best case scenario, they are merely blind. And every time the struggling government tries to help them by supplying blankets, notebooks, or medical supplies, the Taliban emerges and yanks that aid away.

In remote regions such as these, the Taliban retains both unfettered power and a determination to fight outside influence. So the 82nd Airborne has begun visiting village after village, offering basic medical care and attempting to persuade residents to resist the Taliban's brutality. By demonstrating their intent not to shoot, but to offer help, the Army hopes to win the villagers to their cause and, hopefully, improve security enough to begin building much-needed infrastructure.

It's a fine idea, said the villagers, but how could it be done? I'd ask the same. "We would like to support the coalition forces, but if we do that the Taliban will come at night and cut off our heads," worried one villager. Said another, "I know we are supposed to stand up against the Taliban, but we are poor people. We do not have the ability to do that." The lieutenant leading this particular conversation, held town-hall style in a village mosque, took a tough-love approach. "'The truth is that you have the ability to make a change,' he said. 'You are just not willing to do it.'"

While I applaud the Army's choice to address problems in the region by rallying villagers, rather than occupying their villages, in this case I'm not sure the boot-camp approach is really the right one.

The villagers may in fact possess the strength to fight off the Taliban, they probably need help to do so. It's hard to mount an effective resistance against a well-fed and better-armed power when you can't even protect yourself from the weather—will and motivation don't really factor into that decision.

Still, these visits seem like a good first step, and certainly represent a more effective approach than the one so often taken in Iraq. Here's hoping that this isn't the last these villagers see of the medics, the aid, or the 82nd Airborne.

—Casey Miner

Comments

Dateline: Winter of December 1777-78, Valley Forge

New York's Gouverneur Morris of the Continental Congress states "An army of skeletons appeared before our eyes naked, starved, sick and discouraged."

The Marquis de Lafayette wrote: "The unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything; they had neither coats nor hats, nor shirts, nor shoes. Their feet and their legs froze until they were black, and it was often necessary to amputate them."

These are the indelible images of suffering and endurance associated with Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78.

Dateline: Mother Jones, 2007

Newly self-appointed Pseudo-General Casey Miner states that "It's hard to mount an effective resistance against a well-fed and better-armed power when you can't even protect yourself from the weather — will and motivation don't really factor into that decision."

More News At 11:

Follow our intrepid Pseudo-General Casey Miner when he answers the questions:

Should our volunteer soldiers simply unvolunteer?

Should the good people of Afghanistan simply surrender because of hardship?

Follow the timeline when our Newly self-appointed Pseudo-General Casey Miner states "I'm not sure the boot-camp approach is really the right one."

Really?

James L. Smith
Austin, TX
formerly,
82nd Airborne
101st Airborne, RVN, 1967-69

Posted by: James L. Smith on 12/12/07 at 3:39 PM Respond

Why is it that only Americans are supposed to face hardship, death, and sorrow?

Whenever anyone else has the same problems that we might have or have had in our history, we are supposed to curl up into fuzzy little balls and feel sorry for them ... and then send our young citizens to fight and die for them as a penalty for being born "more fortunate" than they are.

What demagogic, despicable ******** !!!

Your comments are right-on, citizen James L. Smith

And thank YOU for your service.

Posted by: dNova on 12/12/07 at 6:09 PM Respond