Word: afghanistan
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October has been a haunted month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, it became the deadliest month of the eight-year war when the death of eight more U.S. troops took the month's death toll to 53. But the military is hoping that the deployment, since October, of the first lighter and more agile Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs) on Afghan soil can help reduce the casualty count. Yet, as the Taliban develops increasingly deadly weapons - with Iran's help, according to U.S. intelligence - the U.S. is changing over to vehicles lighter than those...
...Unlike Iraq, with its broad and flat highways, Afghanistan has relatively few roads, many of which pass through narrow mountain passes and over relatively weak bridges. "It can be pretty tough to maneuver," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops in South Korea last week. "I've talked to troops that have gotten stuck in places that they didn't expect to get stuck in." (See a video of the soldier's experience in Afghanistan and Iraq...
...That why the Pentagon has ordered more than 5,000 of the M-ATVs (called "baby MRAPs" by some) for its Afghanistan forces. These vehicles and their V-shaped hulls are designed to deflect the blasts of roadside bombs, which have become the Taliban's weapon of choice. Such improvised explosive devices killed only a single U.S. soldier in 2003 but have killed more than 100 so far this year, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. deaths...
...eight U.S. troops killed Tuesday had been aboard 20-ton Stryker vehicles that hit IEDs. That's about the same weight as many MRAPs in Iraq, and several tons heavier than those now being delivered to Afghanistan (various classes of each vehicle make weight comparisons tricky). The MRAP program, championed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, has won praise from soldiers for the protection the vehicles offer them from roadside bombs. There are some 12,000 MRAPs in Iraq, and 3,600 of the original MRAPs in Afghanistan, up from almost none last year. The U.S. has spent nearly $30 billion...
...adult and free from his father, Omar talks about starting a worldwide peace movement. But having spent much of his life in the wilds of Afghanistan, his ideas about how the world works are hazy. The U.S. government is unlikely to start a dialogue with Osama bin Laden, as he suggests. Another idea, a horse race across North Africa, seems more appropriate. Perhaps a world where people are kinder to animals will be one where they are kinder to one another...