Nato battles divided by Afghan river focus 06/12/2010

Nato battles divided by Afghan river

focus 06/12/2010 NAKHONAY — Wading across a shallow Afghan river, American soldiers suddenly hear a burst of gunfire coming from behind, where they just met their Canadian comrades near a mud-brick village. An Afghan soldier had shot dead a suspected insurgent near a hill where the Western allies sat huddled from a dust storm to coordinate their war effort against the Taliban outside southern Afghanistan’s capital city Kandahar. As the United States rolls out 30,000 more troops across Afghanistan and builds a campaign to secure Kandahar, billed the most decisive operation of the nine-year war, the nature of the fight differs from district to district. While Americans say they are mostly “kissing babies and shaking hands” under Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s counter-insurgency strategy to win hearts and minds, Canadians talk of daily firefights, ambushes and weapons caches. The stark contrast was exposed when US soldiers of 1st squadron, 71st cavalry regiment trekked two kilometers (a mile) across wheat fields and the narrow Tarnak river, to confer with the Canadians. “It’s been pretty hectic, we’ve had a few shootouts,” said one Canadian soldier. “We’ve been led into a couple of ambushes... we’re getting hit every day,” said another. Until the Americans arrived in April under President Barack Obama’s “surge,” two districts bordering Kandahar city to the south — Panjwayi and Dand — were under the mandate alone of Canada’s more than 2,800-strong force.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100612com3.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL What chutzpah! FRONTLINE Reality bites focus Nato battles divided by Afghan river