Last night, TWI’s Spencer Ackerman appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC to discuss President Bush’s “magical mystery tour,” as he calls it — a last-ditch effort to shore up his questionable legacy. It’s a great segment, and a motion picture must be worth about a billion words, so More…
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan – Gauging the perceptions of Afghans isn’t just for the professionals of the Human Terrain Teams. On a trip through the Zormat bazaar and the nearby farm villages of Salehkhil and Meshwal, opinions varied, but two basic themes emerged: security is poor and the More…
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan — This just in from the Pentagon. That troop boost, totaling 5,700 soldiers, is on its way to Afghanistan in the fall:
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan – A friend emailed me to say that all my journalism is for naught if I don’t report what 1st Platoon Hooligans are listening to these days. While I don’t concede the point, I did put the question to the platoon as they waited — in More…
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – Early in the late Michael Bhatia’s December 2007 report on Paktika Province — which I referred to in “Through Afghan Eyes” — he gives an overview of what previous studies have found about conditions in the province.
It’s a stark picture of what More…
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – This is by far the darkest FOB I’ve ever been on.
By 7 p.m., it’s pitch black out here, and to leave a lighted area like the dining facility results in a few seconds of total blindness.
Salerno does not accommodate you with any More…
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – Spartan compared to Bagram, Salerno is a large, no-nonsense base about 12 miles from the Pakistan “border” — more on that later — that houses Task Force Curahee.
Curahee is largely comprised of the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division from More…
BETWEEN BAGRAM AIR FIELD AND FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – When I arrived at Bagram, a public-affairs officer named Chuck asked me what I thought of Afghanistan, notwithstanding the fact that all I had seen so far was Kabul. I told him that the place reminded me of the More…
As part of my continuing quest to one-up Laura McGann — you guys have been reading her great Alaska stuff, right? — I’ve got an announcement. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane heading for Afghanistan. I’ll be near the Pakistan border with U.S. troops, trying to More…
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