‘Band-Aid on a bullet wound’: What America’s new war looks like in Afghanistan’s most violent province
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff October 16 at 4:54 PM
Soldiers secure a landing zone near Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan on Oct 4. 2016. (Photo by Thomas Gibbons-Neff/ The Washington Post)
CAMP SHORAB, Afghanistan — Earlier this month, a small district center just south of this desolate U.S. base came under attack from Taliban militants who threatened to overrun the local police. Frantic calls arrived from Afghan officials: They needed air support.
In a U.S. command center, a steel hut of plywood walls and a dozen video monitors piping in drone feeds and satellite imagery, soldiers began directing aircraft to the area. Redhanded 53, the call sign for a gun-metal-gray twin-engine propeller plane loaded with sensors, arrived overhead just in time to watch a truck loaded with explosives slam into the main police station.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/10/16/band-aid-on-a-bullet-wound-what-americas-new-war-looks-like-in-afghanistans-most-violent-province/
