In the comments on the post about the British sniper, some kind user dropped a link to the blog sectorsos. It’s by a Russian guy serving in the U.S. Army who is currently in Afghanistan. Interestingly, he writes that his father, while serving in the Soviet Army, was stationed there too, back in ’79. Posts like this, for example: So, we were supposed to have a standard peaceful preliminary mission. (Preliminary peace mission.) Join up with 2nd Platoon and a unit of the ANA (Afghan National Army) on the outskirts of the village, go into the village together, and talk to the village elders. Let them know that we’re here, that we’re always nearby, patrolling the area, find out whether anything is bothering them, and so on. Basically, just talk to people. We also had a few gifts with us—the Quran and prayer rugs—to hand out to the locals. We were told that most of the people in this village are pretty poor, so poor they can’t even afford to buy a Quran or a prayer rug. So we often hand out gifts like that, and lots of other things too, basically to suck up to the locals. Or, as they say here, "Win Hearts and Minds." So we met up on the edge of the village, unloaded near a little stream, and headed toward the village on foot. One of the Afghan soldiers started calling for the village elders over a loudspeaker. Normally, on any other mission, by that point there’d already be a crowd of kids running around us, and people would come out peacefully to meet us. Yesterday not a single living soul came up to us. That made us a little uneasy. ... When the shooting stopped, and all you could hear was the Apache’s heavy machine gun, I remember just sliding down the wall and almost crying with relief. I sat there for about ten minutes until one of my guys ran up to me and asked if I was okay. I said yeah, everything was fine. Then he asked me, where’s all that blood coming from?... What blood?... Long story short, I don’t know how, but part of the top of my left ear was torn off—or rather not the top, the lower part of the ear (forgot what it’s called). *Over the course of the whole fight, we detained 15 militants, and there were six dead in the village. How many were killed in the mountains, and how many got away, still isn’t known. The investigation in the village is still ongoing. *.... He also posts videos. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5h1ODQtim8 Very interesting, and it doesn’t look fake. Recommended to anyone interested.
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