![]() ![]() ![]() Joe Snowden’s plan that morning on March 26, 2010, was simple in concept. He’d take his Task Force Rock-drawn from the U.S. Army’s Italy-based 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment-and would drive into the Chowkay Valley to a government building to have a quick meeting with local leaders who should be waiting when the Americans arrived. The Chowkay was a dangerous place-a hideout for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hizbul Islam and assorted criminal gangs. But extending Kabul’s-and Washington’s-authority into the valley was critical to U.S. It was in places like Chowkay that the Taliban could wait out the U.S. For decades, if necessary.įor the militants, waiting might mean lying low and not fighting. That reluctance might give the Americans a chance to get into the valley, shake some hands, sip some tea and maybe inspire some patriotism in the locals. One the Americans lost almost immediately. We were only a few miles along the valley road when radio intercept teams tuned into the Taliban’s channels and overheard them discussing plans for an ambush. Caught out in the open, Task Force Rock’s soldiers dove out of their vehicles and sought cover among the boulders.Īnd so did their embedded reporter. I crouched behind a rock, jotting notes and snapping photos as the mission went to hell. But if their own radio exchanges were any indication, they were getting ready to. And they had the high ground.Īn Air Force airman attached to the task force tried to call in an F-15 from Bagram air base to, at the very least, perform a low pass and maybe startle the Taliban into pulling back. But the mountains blocked the airman’s radio signal. Help arrived in the form of two Army Kiowa scout helicopters. They buzzed into the valley, at times actually flying below our position on the steep slope.Ī Kiowa helicopter flies over U.S. troops in the Chowkay Valley in March 2010. Pulling up at the last second to avoid hitting the Chowkay’s boulders and trees, the two-man ‘copters fired white-hot phosphorous rockets. Under the cover of the Kiowas, we sprinted back to the trucks and sped out of the valley. “I can’t believe we didn’t get shot at,” one trooper mused. The Taliban beat back a combined-arms American task force without even pulling a trigger. Snowden would have to reschedule his meeting.ĭid any militants die in the ‘copter attacks? Impossible to say. But it’s clear the Taliban endured in the Chowkay Valley. ![]() Militants seized control of Kunar last weekend as part of their swift, and successful, countrywide offensive. “The fierceness you find in the fighters here is due to the terrain,” Air Force tech sergeant Phoebus Lazaridis, a forward air controller with 2nd Battalion, said in 2010. But it’s equally possible the Taliban are a rougher breed of person, regardless of the province, district or valley a particular group of fighters calls home. Or if not tougher, at least more patient-and more capable of sustaining a credible military force over the long term in difficult conditions. When the Taliban launched their final offensive this summer, Afghan security forces-trained by the United States and its allies over decades at a cost of tens of billions of dollars-melted away. Like the militants in the Chowkay that day 11 years ago, they too often failed to fire a shot. The difference is, the Taliban achieved victory without expending a single round of ammunition. All the Afghan army got was defeat.The US forces began collecting biometric data of Afghan locals in 2010 to document terrorists and help track insurgents. However, the plan soon began covering locals too, who were helping the forces gather intel, and soon, HIIDE became a tool to identify them as well. According to a recent NPR report, the Pentagon aimed to cover as many as 80 percent of the local population in its database. While the US forces remained on Afghan soil, HIIDE was also used to screen thousands of locals and to vet personnel wishing to work at US embassies and consulates, The Intercept reported. Now that the Taliban forces have access to these tools, they can simply repurpose them to identify who worked with the US forces and in what capacities. ![]()
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