Striker brigade does Afghan counterinsurgency

NY Times:

...

The battalion was originally ordered to Iraq, and its soldiers and commanders studied Iraqi culture and customs, and its linguists honed their Arabic. But in February, new orders came down: the unit was going to southern Afghanistan instead.

The counterinsurgency training the battalion had conducted was still valid, but the cultural focus — so important in winning over the population in a counterinsurgency — shifted to Afghanistan. The best linguists took a crash course in Pashto.

Deploying to the Taliban’s cultural and historical center, battalion commanders knew they would be tested early. Indeed, the battalion encountered 300 enemy contacts — makeshift bombs, mortar attacks, small arms fire — in its first 100 days, battling in the sparse, open desert of the Shahwali Kot District, as well as the dense fruit orchards and vineyards of Arghandab District.

“They were well entrenched and well supplied,” said Capt. Luke Bushatz, 26, of Marion, Ohio, whose company commander was killed by a roadside bomb three weeks after the soldiers arrived. “We knew we were in for a fight.”

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By late October, Colonel Neumann said the momentum began to change. The battalion effectively cut off many of the insurgents’ supply routes. Some of the militant leaders slipped back into Pakistan to meet with senior Taliban leaders and plot their spring campaign.

Most important, villagers began to feel more confident about the American presence and provide more tips on hidden bombs and weapons caches. But fear of Taliban intimidation runs deep. (Emphasis added.)

Colonel Neumann said if one of his patrols greeted a farmer in his field, the man would look in every direction before speaking to the soldiers. Approaching Afghans in the busy marketplace for information is pointless, he said.

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The highlighted portion shows the effect of a good counterinsurgency operation. This will have a dynamic cascading effect as more troops are brought to the battle space and we create a better force to space ratio that will cut off enemy movement to contact and retreat.

The story also mentions the coming Marine operation in Marjat that will follow the buildup of additional forces in Helmand province neat current operations in Nawa. Marjat has become an important Taliban base since they from the Marine operations in Nawa.