Northern "Hotspot"

Wanted to tell you a few things about this country and an area that is particularly f'd up right now. I have been to this area, as a matter of fact I spent a month there, so I have experienced it firsthand. At any given point in time there is going to be a "Hotspot" somewhere is this country. This place is usually rural and doesn't have a very big U.S. presence. There are of course a few other factors that can add to it's appeal for the Talib. Usually a strong Talib leader in the area or particularly ignorant and overly zelous local Elders. Small vicories in the local region also adds it it appeal. If you have all of these factors in one area the Talib begins to mass their forces and reinforce the area. They know all they have to do is wait. We will not tolerate a strong hold and it will only be a matter of time until we go in and crush it. The real victims in all of this are the people who live in that area. As the number of Talib in the area increase it is up to the people to feed and house them whether they want to or not. The Talib are bullies which really does help our "winning hearts and minds" campaign, nobody likes a bully.

Now we get to our current "Hotspot" up north. All of the factors are there. It is very remote. There are no paved roads leading into this area. The closest airfield is a 5 hour drive away. It is in a fairly mountainous area. There is a strong Talib leader in the area. He has had recent success against the Afghan Forces that are up there and has complete freedom of movement in the area. The local government is corrupt and defers to the Talib in just about all matters. The people are uneducated with most of the families not even having electricity or running water. The number of Talib continues to increase and they are being very obvious in the fortification of the area for the upcoming fight.

Unfortunately the things that make this area so inviting to the Talib makes it very inhospitable for us. One of the huge things is the lack of an Airfield. This means all supplies have to be airdropped or trucked in. The trucking option is the least prefferred as it has become almost impossible to get a driver brave enough to make the trip and when they do they want quite a bit of money and quite a bit of protection. That leaves the Air drops. This is very time consuming for the military. Building a pallet to be dropped from an airplane is not an easy process and you will usually only get about 5 or 6 pallets on one aircraft. The remoteness also plays a factor in medical evacuations (MEDEVAC). We have limitations on the type of operations we can conduct if we do not have a medical facility readily available. I personally am grateful for these limitations. I don't want to wind up bleeding out waiting to get to a hospital in 2009. Therefore in order for us to conduct combat operations we have to have a field hospital setup at our location. Not alot of surgeons are chomping at the bit to go to such a place. Just for us to get to this location it is a 2 day drive over unpaved roads through a few hostile areas with a very large and tempting convoy.

So they can continue to dig in. Tell each other how kick ass they are for the small victories and when the time is right we will rain down on them forcing them to find another village to bully. It's coming and coming soon.

"Those unfamiliar with history are doomed to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility"

M