In Helmand, a model for success?
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post
Before a battalion of U.S. Marines swooped into this dusty farming community along the Helmand River in early July, almost every stall in the bazaar had been padlocked, as had the school and the health clinic. Thousands of residents had fled. Government officials and municipal services were nonexistent. Taliban fighters swaggered about with impunity, setting up checkpoints and seeding the roads with bombs. ...
[Submitted On: 10/30/2009]
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It’s a counter-insurgency, stupid
Golnar Motevalli, Reuters
On a recent embed with U.S. Marines in a remote spot of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, the Taliban, or Taliban-linked insurgents, seemed so elusive and invisible that it was easy to doubt whether they actually existed....
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Despite High-Tech Help, Marines Confront IED Threat
Tom Bowman, National Public Radio
When Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson's Marines were preparing to launch a major offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province early in the summer, he put improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, at the top of the list of what to expect....
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