Word: helmand
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...explicitly enjoined force leaders "to scrutinize and limit the use of force like close air support against residential compounds and other locations likely to produce civilian casualties." In truth, the new policy was already being applied: on July 2, nearly 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan troops stormed into Helmand province in southern Afghanistan aboard helicopters and armored vehicles. But within hours, the Marines issued a statement declaring they had "not used artillery, and no bombs have been dropped from aircraft" in the offensive's opening thrust. You know a war has turned topsy-turvy when U.S. Marines brag about...
...tactics and command (McChrystal was brought in to replace Army General David McKiernan, who had led ISAF since June 2008) was necessitated by a grim truth. The war in Afghanistan is not going well. The Taliban, funded in large measure by the opium trade, which is centered in Helmand, now controls wide swaths of Afghanistan. Over the past four months, a recent U.N. report says, the number of "assassinations, abductions, incidents of intimidation and the direct targeting of aid workers" has been higher than last year. Increasing numbers of foreign fighters - "most likely affiliated with al-Qaeda" - are fighting alongside...
...would you define success? What we are trying to do is change the dynamics in the area where we are operating. The current operations that you are hearing about in the Helmand River valley are aimed at areas that are major population centers. They were also areas under Taliban control. They are also a nexus of the poppy trade. So if you describe the Helmand River valley as the breadbasket of the poppy trade and where the Taliban gets a lot of resources and support, what we are trying to do is take the area away from...
...Helmand op was in the works long before you arrived. Did you just rubber-stamp it, or did you change it? I actually don't have a rubber stamp. I have to get one. I went down and sat down with the RC South commander, and I didn't put specific changes to timelines or where forces were going, but we talked a lot about the coin intent and the purposes of the operation and the importance of the hold and build - we can clear anywhere we want, but holding and building are hard - so ensuring that the ANSF [Afghan...
...release on Helmand op - no indirect fire, no bombardments? Where did this come from? I don't know if they are reading my mind, but they are certainly following my intent. If you think about going into an area to protect the population, if you go into an area and no shots are fired but you achieve control, the population is going to feel a lot better. On the other hand, if you come in and you destroy buildings, homes, you may take the ground, but the population is left impoverished - they may have suffered casualties among their civilians...