These sand bagged halls, these Pashto scrawled walls

(The following entries are from a month spent in Wardak Province with 2nd Platoon, Able Co. of 2-503rd. There wasn't any internet access to post this stuff.  These are the notes.)


(Photo: Waiting in the hallway after a rocket attack.)

7-10
These sand bagged halls, these Pashto scrawled walls and chalkboards tagged with what looks like a sand Arabic. The sputtering 3 K generator that only powered the LT’s room at first. The 20 K generator that lit up every haphazardly wired room for one night. Then the Field Artillery guys blew their 30 K by not oiling it enough or something, so they reclaimed their 20 K generator and stuck 2nd and 3rd Platoon again with the 3 K.

(Photo: Pvt. King working on the 3 K.)
This time Private King, a red headed skinny kid who doesn’t look a day over 16, and our master electrician, was able to deliver the 3 K power to most of the rooms. This morning it appeared that the 3 K was again out. It’s top was popped as if it was just pooped or needed serious maintenance from King. There he was in his soiled ACU’s, digging at some sprocket with a wrench.

7-12
Went on a patrol towards Antennae hill, looking for a cave that reportedly held a weapons cache. On the dune buggying way, riding over soft hills, and into steeper ditches, the ANA (Afghan soldiers) had a flat. I watched them turn the tire jack using a loaded .50 Caliber round. The cave turned out to be a shallow ditch with no weapons cache. Over the hill a school appeared that no one knew about. It was the furthest south any patrol had been towards an area where the insurgent rockets come from. The HCT (Intelligence collecting team) went about cultivating sources with the school's headmaster, who supposedly told the children to move away from the U.S. troops as the Taliban might start firing.

(Photo: Sighting into the draw by Antenna Hill.)

A few hours after we got back to base a rocket came screaming in. I watched some of the faces after it hit. A 107 rocket blast and shrapnel not 30 feet away from the Hesco's of 2nd and 3rd Platoon’s barracks. Shrapnel bit into the Hesco’s on the outside, showing the purpose of double barriers.

7-14
The smoke of cigarettes is already in the hallway. The rocket landed not more than two minutes ago. Outside. A yell of incoming from the platoon down the other side of the hall and the crash. Now the whirl and boom. The second crash, the louder one, the one that makes us scrunch down into our helmets. All the heads peer out the other end of the hall. There’s a guy running across the open sand. “That dumb a--,” the LT says.

Sgt. Dawson has his blue rubber gloves on. Going out to inspect the blast site. The smoke stained sand and the two foot crater, the metal rocket tube bananna peeled at one end. The pieces of shrapnel scattered around. Another afternoon at Jagahtu. Two rockets blast in. No one hurt. But is it a matter of time? The last rocket, yesterday, I think, or was it the day before, landed twenty five feet or so from the Hesco’d barracks. Shrapnel sliced fist sized holes into the cardboard covered sand.

(Photo: Rocket shrapnel in a box.)

7-17
Security meeting: ANA (Afghan Army) Commander, ANP (Police), Able Company Commanding Officer meet in a bi-weekly security coordination meeting at the ANP office-

CO (Captain Joseph Snowden) - One of the biggest problems is there’s no sub-governor here. It’s been requested for a long time. The idea is to hold a shura of all the local elders to elect a sub-governor. The shura can be anywhere the elders feel comfortable.

(Photo: Lt. Hill surrounded by children from a school the U.S. didn't know existed.)

ANP- The people won’t come to the FOB (Jagahtu base). 80 percent of the people are scared of the enemy. 20 percent don’t want to come to the district center (also on base).

CO- A lot of people support Nangali (a local power broker and former governor). He has a wide area of influence and can even talk to those who work with the Taliban. We all know there are different levels of fighters. He could bring in the fighters who fight just to get paid.

ANP- Even if he comes in, can you trust him?

ANA- Currently he’s a bad guy. We can’t trust him.

CO- If he’s willing to work with the govt. it doesn’t mean we can trust him, it may mean he can make it peaceful.

ANP- When he was in the government he took gov’t. weapons and caused a lot of casualties.

CO- I don’t trust anyone not fighting with me, certainly not politicians. But we have to take small steps. If we can get them to stop shooting for even a short time, we’ll have a chance to make projects to get people, on the side of the gov’t.

ANP- We can’t trust him. It’s not up to us to elect him. The provincial governor also has to say yes to the appointment.

ANA- All the people in the district are under control of Nangali.

(Photo: remains of a 107 rocket tube.)

CO- He has to prove our trust if he becomes sub-governor. What I don’t want is someone to come in who has no influence on the people. Then he’s no better than the Taliban shadow governor.

ANA- I’m a hundred percent sure whenever he comes in he’ll be under control of Nangali.

ANP- There’s not that much fear. Only one side of the district is under control of Nangali.

CO- If he can make an area peaceful, we need to find a way to make that work. We won’t let him have a militia.

ANP- He will come in with a force of arms.

(Photo: Sgt. 1st Class Monroe offers an ANA soldier a handshake after a patrol.)

CO- The ANA and ANP are the only ones allowed to be security. No one will change that.

ANP- He can’t do bad things in front of the coalition. But he can with the people and ANP. I promise if he comes here, I will resign. I’ve know him for a long time. He’s a completely bad guy.

CO- There are men like Nangali in every district of Afghanistan. Hundreds of men in power have fought each other. At some point we’ve got to figure out who can make this area peaceful.

In Kunar, it was Haji Jan Dad, a Safi Elder. He had more power than anyone else. At some point we had to work with him. He had more influence over people than we had.

He fought against the Soviets, Taliban, but also worked with the Taliban operations in Pakistan. I knew this, but he had the influence and we had to work with him to keep some places safe. They’re both warlords, but we have to find a way to use them.

NDS (intelligence) officer- He was governor under the Taliban. Now a lot of people go to him to resolve problems.

CO- I need to talk to him face to face to propose this.

(Photo: Pvt. Lewis patrols through the bazaar just outside Able's outpost.)

ANP- I give you the face of the ANP. He’s not a good person. He will ask for money and he accepts robbing and stealing money.

All the people of local villages gave us a signed document of trust to work with us. If you want Nangali to be sub-gov. they have to sign.

CO- I agree. We’ll have people vote and the provincial governor will say yes or no. The people will say who is the person to be sub-gov.

ANP- He’s against me because he wants to destroy my country.

CO- The thing is we need to be willing to work with who the Shura reflects.

ANP- He has to promise to disarm all people, those supporting enemy rifles.

CO- Of course, there’s only one ANP and one ANA. He has to be elected by Shura of the elders from all over Jagahtu. He has to sign an oath to work with the gov’t.

ANP (laughing)- If this is the only hope to provide the people with security.

NDS (Afghan intelligence)- He’s the only guy who can influence this area.

CO- I’ll try to get in touch with him. Our Platoon Leaders will bring the idea of elders to a Shura.

ANP- Our ANP will also take people’s suggestions when out on patrol.

CO- We’ll put a message on the radio for a district Shura to elect a sub-gov. The whole process will take about a month and a half. We need to build a very good plan.

(Photo: 3rd Squad patrolling through a wheat field.)

7-21 Yesterday, unsuccessfully interviewing several villagers about the need for a sub-governor, chalk it up to an  interpreter with rudimentary English and elders who will always tell the Americans what they think they want to hear, while asking to have your Leatherman off your vest. In the bazaar a shop keeper said we should talk to his elder about this and walked away as if scared to be seen talking to Americans.

Here on base it seems as if there is plenty of enemy activity outside and very slow planning to stop it.  But it's also nearly impossible to spin up a patrol on short notice given all the levels of approval from battalion.  NDS (Afghan intelligence) reported that there were two major Taliban gatherings for funerals and four Pakistani mullahs preaching-anti American rhetoric in all the district mosques. Clearly the U.S. is losing the psy ops war here so far. The NDS guy also said that 5% of the locals were for the Americans, 25% for the Taliban and 70% on the fence or more likely to support the Taliban because they have uninhibited access and control when American patrols aren't around.


The answer here is obviously getting out to the community, for security first and then projects. 

“Without help in Afghanistan, no one can be your friend,” the NDS (Afghan intelligence) said.

 In other words if Able Co. stalls on getting out the projects, they can’t win over the local populace, but the Catch-22 is they can't roll out projects until there's enough security to protect the construction, like the much wanted main road, and an agreement by all the elders that the project should start.

(Photo: Specialist Stevens through the woods.)
If they shoot rockets U.S. Artillery cannot normally shoot back from base because the fighters deliberately shoot from near village populations.  Specialized scanners don't even spot them emplacing the launchers. The local Taliban knows what they’re doing and know U.S. tactics.  This everyone agrees. The NDS guy even agreed that the Talibs  knew that the U.S. forces knew the Talibs had gathered for the funeral. It is pretty much assumed they have spies on the base.

 “If you see them carrying rockets on the scope, hit them!” the NDS guy said.  Of course the soldiers agreed but said they can't spot them in time.

It’s getting harder to chalk it up to just paranoia. The first rockets in six days, paid a screaming visit today. This one was the closest yet to the two platoon hard shelter. How can the soldiers not think that Taliban have them dialed in?  But their new digs are hardened and reinforced.  Mostly they laugh after the rockets come in.  Still no one wants to be caught out in certain areas at certain times of the day.

“You can only drink so much chia,” a U.S. intel gatherer said. “At some point you got to knock out some of the bad guys for the people to trust you can change things.”

7-25 Capt. Snowden called Nangali, the power broker or warlord depending on your perspective. Nangali asked about the road. Capt. Snowden said the road project will take months and that he wanted to meet with him first to start the process of working together. Nangali said he wanted to form a Jirga first and then meet with the Capt. It seems he’s wary of when the ANA tried to arrest him last time he came on base.

Some information came in the evening from a Taliban source. This was the same source that provided intel that 1st Platoon was going to be attacked just before they were ambushed in a Northern village this afternoon. An ANA soldier was either hit by enemy mortar shrapnel or by his own soldiers who were reported to be spraying their AK-47s wildly.

(Photo: ANA soldier waiting under a tree.)

Lt. Nick Idemiller of 1st Platoon went to the ANP building and gathered the ANA commander as well. "We have intel of 10 Taliban who were involved in today's attack hiding in a Mosque. We’re 85 percent sure they’re there. I want to challenge you to go after these guys who wounded one of your guys," Idemiller said.

 The ANA and ANP said that they would be spotted going out the gate, that the intel was already an hour late, that they had their own intel. All valid reasons why they might not be successful in catching them, especially with night approaching, but also flimsy excuses. If every U.S. patrol hesitated based on the enemy knowing they were coming, what with the armored vehicles and heavily armed Americans walking, it seems a U.S. patrol would never go anywhere off base.

“They’re f---ing pussies,” a U.S. law enforcement advisor said in frustration.  The reality is this happens all the time.

“Hey, I challenged them to go out there and get the guys who wounded their guy,” Lt. Idemiller said. “They didn’t take it,” he shook his head.

To be fair, the ANA lost five men to a huge IED explosion close to the Bazaar in June.  They definitely want to catch the Taliban who killed their men and don't trust even the elders who have associations with them.  Able Company will definitely conduct operations to push out what they call their security bubble from their base.  This means platoon or company level operations to try to seize more rockets and the men who shoot them.  They will be sweating on patrols, dune buggying to avoid IEDs, while officers like Capt. Snowden and a very competent intelligence team tries to figure out the right combination of persuasions and deals to bring in a governor from the area who has real influence.  The next few months will tell.

There's an opportunity as the first U.S. unit here, to shape a strong government that can turn the Taliban influence using projects that help the local people, Capt. Snowden said.