2-508 PIR AFGHANISTAN 2009-2010

THE MORNING CALL
By David Zucchino
TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS

   KUHAT, Afghanistan --- From a rocky knoll 600 feet above the lush Arghandab Valley, the war in Afghanistan looks deceptively peaceful.
   On a recent Friday at dawn, Afghan girls stooped to milk cows in mud compounds. Farmers trudged across fields, carrying scythes for wheat. Boys flew kites of tattered plastic.
   Peering through the morning haze from his perch atop Observation Post Kuhat, Army Spc. Victor Smyrnow paid scant attention to the scene below. He was scanning the valley for signs of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
   Four soldiers in his battalion were wounded by three blasts the day before, and more patrols were heading into the valley.
   The U.S. military says that elsewhere in Kandahar province it is combining security sweeps with development projects and attempts to bolster local Afghan governance. This counterinsurgency strategy is designed to wrest control of Kandahar from the Taliban before U.S. troops begin withdrawing next summer
  . But in Kuhat, a few miles west of Kandahar city in the fertile Arghandab Valley, soldiers are focused on survival. This is roadside bomb country, with the highest concentration in Afghanistan, local commanders say.
   ' "Development? Oh, no, we're not at the development stage yet," Smyrnow said. Roadside bombs "are the main thing we're working on around here."
   If anything, the 2nd Platoon barely has the manpower to protect itself, much less practice the finer points of the counterinsurgency strategy promoted by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
   "We don't even tell the ANA (Afghan national army) in advance where we're going, just for our own safety," said 1st Lt. Jordan Ritenour, 24, who commands the platoon.
   The 2nd Platoon at Combat Outpost Kuhat has found more than 45 roadside bombs since arriving in late December. Just last month, a young specialist lost his leg in an explosion.

   Six members of the U.S. battalion that left here in the fall were killed in the village, the highest casualty rate in Afghanistan, largely because of roadside bombs.
   A particularly vicious explosive greeted the incoming battalion. Three bombs of seven strung together in a so-called daisy chain exploded as a patrol hiked to clear the village school of a suspected Taliban weapons cache.
   A company commander and an explosives expert were killed. A platoon leader lost a leg. Three other soldiers also were wounded. The bombs were packed with ball bearings that ripped into the men at supersonic speeds.
   Smyrnow, 24, was blown off his feet. His observation post partner, Spc. Jacob Lind, was knocked unconscious.
  . "The guys who make these IEDs have it down pat. They're good," Lind, 20, said as the two young soldiers described the attack, still fresh in their minds more than five months later. "Even their tripwires have tripwires."
   The deadly experiences have intensified the efforts atop the hill. Day and night, troops scan the valley with high-powered binoculars and night-vision equipment, looking for anyone who might be carrying, burying or wiring a bomb.
   When patrols, venture out, the men on the hill warn them of any suspicious people or movements on the paths ahead. If they need to provide cover fire, they have a .50-caliber machine gun, a medium-range machine gun 'and other weapons.
   Kuhat's most powerful village elder professes to support the platoon, Ritenour said, "but mostly out of self-interest."
   The 2nd Platoon has provided coveted construction jobs to villagers, who built and maintain the combat outpost. It has repaired wells and handed out school supplies, food and water. The platoon medic has treated villagers.
   After nearly nine years of war, that is the extent of development aid in Kuhat. The Taliban hold sway here at the moment, but the platoon will consider its tour successful if it gets the bomb situation under control.before another U.S. unit takes over in August.
   "We've set up the new guys for success," Smyrnow said. If the platoon can significantly reduce roadside bombs, he said, development projects might finally begin in earnest under the new unit.

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