Sangin Then, and Now
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2 February 2011
During the summer of 2009, the British were fighting hard for Sangin. They were always outnumbered by Taliban and terrain. Casualties were high.
Today, US Marines are paying in blood for the very same ground because, in part, they gave up a miniscule speck of Afghanistan, and then paid to retake it. But by other reports, Marines also are fighting very aggressively and seem to be destabilizing the Taliban in that crucial area.
There is much to be learned by first reading my dispatch from summer of 2009: “Bad Medicine on Pharmacy Road,” and then watching the current BBC documentary: “The Battle for Bomb Alley.”
The tiny stretch that was then called “Pharmacy Road” is now called “Bomb Alley,” though it was just as deadly in 2009.
By reading my dispatch closely, and then focusing on the BBC documentary, you’ll notice familiar sights in this tiny speck of land, and familiar names. Little has changed other than that Marines spilled blood regaining what the British had already fought for. That is a shame. The good news is that the Marines seem to be winning.
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Comments
It's sad to think of all that was lost during the 2 Rifles tour, It was during this period that I lost My friend SSGT Oz Smidt (Team leader of Rainbow 6) , who you met and photographed during your embed, and if I know Oz, he would have regailed you with his sharp whit.
Unfortunately, those lessons which should have been learned haven't and yet again ISAF (in particular US Marines) are relearning those lessons.
In Afganistan, once you remove the security you create a vacuum, one that Terry Taliban is only too willing to fill. So yet again, we find ourselves trying to remove a ruthless, determined and deceptively versatile foe.
Once they are kicked back this time, lets hope that the powers that be don't rush to hand it back to them.
RIP Oz
Keep up the good work Michael
You were in a great EOD unit. It's still hard for me to believe what you men were doing. Incredible work brother. Really incredible.
Oz is one of those Soldiers who just jumped out of space, it seemed like, and you could never forget him. He had me laughing quite a lot, even while you guys kept going straight at those bombs on Pharmacy Road. That BBC report says you did about 30 or so bombs that day, as I recall, and that seems realistic as per my memory. And Oz's wife, so incredibly brave. I hope she is doing well.
I hope our paths cross again, but this time with no bombs.
It isn't often that you find a writer that can speak from the grass roots level and "tell it like it is", for although those that have gone before you have tried to convey the day to day, they do so in the knowledge that their time on the embed is like a boys own adventure and as a result (through no fault of their own) end up being a little patronising.
Your dispatches, which I have been following for a couple of years now have kept me in touch with the "Real Afgan" warts and all, and consoled me through a particularly dark time following Oz's death.
so give it some thought, I'm up for a copy or two
Regards
Mark
Have actually done enough work with enough British units that this would be possible. With a British publisher, would likely be willing.
Must think about it.
Talk later,
Michael
I love your commentaries just think sometimes war is so crazy and the price too high!
Thankfully the most dangerous thing I do now is write Health, Safety, Environmental or Quality plans or the odd risk assessment. (life as a civvie I'm afraid). But at least I can look St Peter in the Eye on judgement day and say in all honesty, I think I made a difference. It's whether he'll overlook my other misdemeanors that is in question.....
By the way
Mines a Guiness!
Ah well, as they say it's better to burn up than to fade away!
Besides, old soldiers never die, they just go to hell and regroup.
Laters
M
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