With the Infantry in Afghanistan

The New York Times continues to offer insightful and frontline coverage of the mission in Afghanistan. I haven't seen anything as good elsewhere.

In Bleak Afghan Outpost, Troops Slog On

By C. J. CHIVERS
The New York Times
Published: May 13, 2009

KORANGAL OUTPOST, Afghanistan — The helicopters landed in blackness before the moon rose. The infantry company rushed out and through waist-high vegetation and into forests on an Afghan ridge.

Americans patrol each day from their Korangal base.
Over the next 40 hours, more than 100 soldiers from the First Battalion, 26th Infantry, swept Sautalu Sar, the mountain where members of the Navy Seals were surrounded in battle in 2005. They were looking for weapons caches and insurgents.

They labored uphill through snow until daybreak, when the company broke into smaller patrols above 9,200 feet. They descended the next night through gullies and shin-deep mud and staggered back to their outpost without having yet slept.

All the while, the insurgents watched. Why fight the Americans when the Americans were ready and strong?

Read the whole piece here.