Afghan AirAssault Script
It’s 2 am and the men of the 71st Cavalry Shadow Troop clamber into Chinook helicopters to begin Operation Toofan, which is Pashtu for Tornado.
The 80 plus cavalrymen are being air-dropped into unknown territory in southern Kandahar where they will conduct a COIN or counter-insurgency operation whose goal is to draw locals away from the Taliban and into the fold of the Afghan government.
At daybreak, second platoon leaves the ditch where they’ve taken cover for the night.
Within minutes they come into contact with a group of Kuchi nomads.
Major Douglas Baker:
“The camels look very good. They look big and strong.”
Although armed to the teeth, Shadow Troop’s mission is not to search out and destroy the Taliban. Instead, their mission is to court the locals by offering building projects and jobs while at the same time mapping the different tribes and collecting biometric data for future intelligence.
The troop commander, Major Douglas Baker
Major Douglas Baker:
“It’s an air assault but it’s focused on the COIN fight, pretty much getting in and amongst the populations, separating the population from the insurgency. So, not exactly a doctrinal type mission but it’s the type of mission that’s going to win this thing.”
This is the complexity of the Counter Insurgency strategy that the US and NATO are using to fight the Taliban. Soldiers, highly trained in the art of war, are being used as frontline anthropologists and PR men, mapping out the intricacies of remote Afghan tribes and convincing them to shun the insurgents and to participate in their own national government.
Major Baker again
Major Douglas Baker:
“In days past it was, you know, how many tanks are on the objective or how many bad guys are here. Now it’s “what tribe are these people. How many people live in a village and what do they do.”
Local Malik:
“The people in that area are from the Barekzai tribe and the people over there are Achekzai.”
The day progresses slowly as the soldiers move from village to village meeting local elders and documenting the local tribes.
The place they’ve been dropped into is so remote that the last foreigners in the area were the Russians 30 years ago.
Lieutenant Mike Thompson:
“We’re in the middle of the open barren wasteland. It’s pretty awesome.”
In the evening the soldiers continue to their night objective. Second Platoon heads out to the Dowry River where they spend the night observing smuggling routes, gathering intelligence on how the Taliban brings weapons and fighters from Pakistan into Kandahar.
At 8 the next morning, second platoon reaches the final village of Anbar Welli.
Lt. Alex Lomnasey a Canadian soldier attached to the American unit introduces himself to Abdul Ghafar, the village elder.
Lieutenant Alex Lomnasey:
“So that’s why we’re down here. We’re down here because everywhere else in Kandahar Province a lot of it has been covered. This is one of the few places that hasn’t been, so we’re coming down to introduce ourselves and see what issues there are down here.”
While he promises the village projects, jobs, and security, US soldiers outside are using state-of-the-art technology to enter biometric data for all the military aged men. Retina scans, fingerprints, and photographs.
They say this data will be used by the Department of Defense to match suspects against a series of terrorism watch-lists.
The 36 hour mission now complete, the soldiers are picked up by the helicopters.
As they are ferried back to their base, Major Baker reflects on the importance of this kind of counter-insurgency fight.
Major Douglas Baker:
“After the Russians left there was the vacuum and that allowed the Taliban and the militant Islamic factions to take root here. If we don't get these guys to stand on their feet it’s going to happen again.”
Produced and Directed By Sebastian Meyer