Word: colonels
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...year since 9/11, the war against terrorism has also had some clear victories. In Afghanistan itself, says Lieut. Colonel David Gray, director of operations for the 10th Mountain Division, "we have certainly defeated if not destroyed the al-Qaeda network as it existed before the war." Military and intelligence analysts agree that the combined power of Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan has been reduced to not much more than several hundred men, none of them assembled in large groups. Another few hundred al-Qaeda fighters are thought to be across the border in Pakistan...
This was a beautiful house," says Khalil Rahman Nasimi, standing in the ruins that were once his home. "It was the house of a colonel"?his former rank in the Northern Alliance?"the house of an important man." Around him are mere remains: the suggestion of walls, the barest hint of an orderly life. Khoshal Khan A, a street in western Kabul, was once prestigious real estate. Now it is rubble. The street was destroyed during the Afghan civil wars that raged from 1992 to 1996. Khalil and his family fled after the first rocket hit and a succession...
...army's American trainers. With 700,000 Afghan civilians--out of a population of 27 million--believed to be armed, new recruits have plenty of experience at target practice. Getting guns for practice, however, is another matter. "Believe it or not, we have difficulty getting weapons here," says Lieut. Colonel Kevin McDonnel, commander of the American special-forces battalion tasked with training the nucleus of the army. The privates often have to settle for weapons simulation. During practice, they yell "Bang!" instead of firing blanks. As TIME has reported, U.S. troops have raided Afghan villages hoarding Taliban weapons...
...left behind in Afghanistan. But a more benign task entrusted to U.S. special forces stationed in Kabul--training the fledgling Afghan national army--is also proving dangerous. Funds for the endeavor are scarce, and weapons and ammunition are "not the quality you'd want at Fort Benning," says Lieut. Colonel Kevin McDonnell, who is responsible for the training. The Green Berets have resorted to tossing rocks to teach grenade handling and scrounging al-Qaeda and Taliban leftovers. Sometimes the troops launch risky operations in recalcitrant villages, engaging in fire fights to capture dusty caches of arms...
...extinction. Perhaps this is because his career died without Elvis himself actually expiring, and collective memory has woven into the fabric of myth the striking spectacle of a man living beyond his life. Elvis reached the peak of his fame at the age of 23 in 1958, the year Colonel Tom Parker, his business manager, encouraged the world-famous singer to enter the Army. Parker figured that in the interim, the record companies would sell out their stock of Elvis' recordings, and that the King could write his own ticket when he returned, in both the recording and the film...