U.S. troops call Afghan region 'Vietnam without napalm'

[unhappycamper]

U.S. troops call Afghan region 'Vietnam without napalm'
By Hal Bernton | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

JELAWUR, Afghanistan — The men of Bravo Company have a bitter description for the irrigated swath of land along the Arghandab River where 10 members of their battalion have been killed and 30 have been wounded since the beginning of August.

"Like Vietnam without the napalm," said Spc. Nicholas Gojekian, 21, of Katy, Texas.

A prime agricultural area of vineyards and pomegranate orchards, the 18-miles of valley that the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment patrols includes Taliban insurgents, booby traps and buried explosives. The troops call the area the "green zone," but unlike Iraq, where it's a fortified area in the heart of Baghdad, this green zone can be a hellish place.

The soldiers have one of the toughest tasks in Afghanistan: improving security and winning the support of villagers in an area where the Taliban have been gaining power.

The battalion arrived in southern Afghanistan this summer as part of a brigade of more than 3,800 soldiers from Fort Lewis, Wash. The unit took its heaviest losses in August, when it had the highest casualties in what was the deadliest month so far in America's eight-year war here.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/76330.html

[Bandit]

1. Right, like a 21 year old has a clue what Vietnam was like.

How many leaches did he pick off himself this morning I wonder. We were engaged against the third largest army in the world at the time and now we are battling civilians..

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Maybe the underlying sentiment was, "It's hell here," in which case it

would be like Viet Nam?

[enuegii]

2. Wonder how many tours that 21 year-old has done already...

[lpbk2713]

4. No need for Agent Orange either.

:eyes:

[Winterblues]

5. I can remember cheering after a very close napalm strike..

Singed my eyebrows but I am still alive because of it...

[unhappycamper]

6. Have you ever seen any Arc Lights up close?

Those puppies were pretty impressive also.

[Winterblues]

7. Depends upon what you mean by close

I watched arc lights almost every night but they were way off on the horizon. Probably ten to twenty miles away. Mostly off into North Vietnam.. There is a reason they were called arc lights....

[unhappycamper]

8. When I was in Cambodia, we had Arc Lights coming w/i 2 to 3 miles of our base camp.

Your chest would thump when they came in.