The Battle for Marjah Page #5

their freedom of movement,

they'll become irrelevant,

and they'll just dissipate.

They'll become irrelevant.

We're gonna move back

to the marketplace

and beef up security

and help out. Copy.

Clear copy. When you get here,

we'll work through the details.

Over.

Any of you guys seen Maclean?

You here for this meeting?

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

You got the civil affairs guy?

I got Gunny "D."

Burwa. Yeah.

- Yeah, is he here?

- No. He didn't come with us.

'Cause he's the guy who's

actually handling the payment.

Okay.

So 17 total.

There were 17 people in the house

and four were killed.

- Four?

- Four were killed, yeah.

We're going to talk to the guy.

Right.

You're looking at the definition

of innocent people.

There's no question about it.

You know, little girls.

I mean, there's just no way

to rationalize

that this was in any way

a good thing or justified.

It's just...

It's just a terrible feeling

and a terrible sight.

I was waiting for you to call me

to come out

and to take me to a safe place

I don't know what happened.

Somebody fired...

Something happened.

One family is almost finished.

There's only one child left,

and the other family got two injured.

There are four deceased.

Check.

Tell him I'm very sorry,

and I can feel his pain.

I know what he's going through.

We're really sorry

for what happened yesterday.

It pains us all here

to know what you must be

going through right now

with the loss that you just suffered.

There's not...

There's nothing we can do

to bring back your loss.

What we can do is try to help you out

by giving you

the very least that we can

with a payment for your losses.

So...

...what I'll do now

is I'll present him

with the condolence payment.

And, like I said,

it's the absolute least that we can do

because, obviously, there's...

You can't bring back someone you love.

Again, I'm deeply sorry.

Yalma, this is for you,

for your losses.

You know, the U.S. Marines,

the citizens of Afghanistan,

and the government of Afghanistan

together can achieve great things

to make Afghanistan a safer and

more prosperous place for all.

I've been told this by Afghans before.

"I don't mind Marines.

I don't mind Taliban.

I just want everyone to leave me

alone and lead my...

I want to lead my life," you know.

And I think

there's something to be said

for that point of view.

And, certainly,

if you've lost family members,

I couldn't stand in front of you

and tell you otherwise,

and that's...

it's not really my place.

I don't know.

If I was in his shoes...

It's almost like there's

two entirely different levels.

There's the political level,

and then there's the level

on the ground.

I'm not quite sure I've entirely

reconciled them for myself

right now.

I don't know.

Yeah. Here we go.

So NATO has staked a

lot on this operation in Marjah.

How is it defining success?

This whole Marjah offensive

is all about bringing governance,

as General McChrystal has said,

"government in a box."

Bring in what they're calling

"government in a box"

and show the locals that

the central Afghan government

can try to take over operations.

We need more troops,

training, and assistance,

and that's why we are increasing

our efforts

to train Afghan security forces.

It is slower and harder

than we anticipated.

I do not want to underestimate

or understate the challenge.

Very important test case

to find out if the new

U.S. strategy will work.

We refurbished the whole mosque,

put their fancy minarets up there.

And you've got to see Gunny "D" Park,

which is what they call it.

We keep trying to change

the name. They won't let us.

We're trying to get it

to "Freedom Park."

But they redid this whole...

All the walls on the outside

of this mosque.

Yeah, here's the park.

We're pretty proud of this right here.

As you can tell, the benches are

a little slanted right there,

but we're working on that.

Because these people

aren't used to benches here,

so...

Assalamu alaikum.

'Cause we're trying to create

a little local economy here

around the bazaar,

that eventually it becomes

self-sufficient.

So we start out with,

you know, cash for work

and quick-impact projects

to get the bazaar clean

and to get it functioning again.

And then that injects money

into the bazaar.

That's kind of the overall plan.

Working good so far.

He was the guy that was f***ing

telling all the rest of them

What to do.

Our exit strategy.

This turns into the police,

then we go to the next village,

turn it into the police,

and then we go home.

Is he currently in good health?

Yes.

The reality is is that six months ago,

I'm sure some of these guys

were Taliban.

We'll see what happens.

Holy crap!

- Holy sh*t.

- F***ing rifle.

Barely missed!

I'd say that just barely missed, huh?

That whistled past.

Definitely the most difficult

tour I've done.

And...

You know,

in order for me to do my job,

I have to have some loyalty and faith.

But the Taliban are still here

and we still are taking casualties,

you know, every couple of days...

Well, not every couple of days.

Once a week, once every two weeks,

you know, somebody gets shot

in the arm or shot in the leg

or, you know...

So it's...it wears on you.

And it wears on the Marines.

These people, I don't...

They're not like Americans how...

There's no way you can trust them.

They let the Taliban beat them.

But if it comes to one of us

saying the wrong phrase

or anything to these people,

they just lose their lid,

you know, 'cause we're Americans

and "that Taliban was from

the same tribe as me," you know.

It's ridiculous.

It's a mind f***.

It's frustrating,

and that's a losing ballgame.

You know, Marines don't fight wars.

Marines fight battles.

And I think, you know,

Marjah is an example of that.

You know, the war on terror

or whatever happens here,

you know, in the next months,

in the next year,

whatever this place was like

before we got here,

whatever impact we had here,

we had our operation order

and we fought the battle.

And the other stuff,

I think, will drive you crazy.

We are pressing forward

in Afghanistan...

...from Marjah to Kandahar.

So make no mistake.

We have a clear goal.

This is the area that we stopped

trying to control out that way.

It kind of...

Our area of control fades a little bit

as soon as you get about a click

away from here.

It gradually gets worse.

But this is the edge

of where we're really actively

trying to secure the area.

Literally right there, that road.

This is probably one of

the most hostile places

in Afghanistan still.

Might as well be a different country.

Yep.

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