Taking Down Taliban Spotters in Kandahar
BY Herschel Smith
13 years, 9 months ago
Jim Foley gives us an interesting video journal report from Kandahar.
Jim appears conflicted, but listening to the justification at or around 7:00 minutes and following, the shooting seems justified. At any rate, spotters are both difficult to detect and deadly for U.S. troops. I have previously covered aggressive Marine Corps tactics concerning enemy spotters, and the approach taken in this engagement seems no different than that of the Corps in Helmand and Anbar.
On another front, while I understand the reflexive behavior to be sympathetic to the local Afghans, something about this translator bothers me. The translator with the Marines in Sangin seems more in line with what you would want out of someone performing this service.
Ben Anderson with the Marines and Jim Foley with the Army have given us good video coverage of the engagements, and they are both well worth the study time.
