Restrepo - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

MikeWaters · 03-28-2011, 03:34 PM

Just watched this film last night. It is a documentary co-directed by Sebastian Junger who is best known for writing the book "The Perfect Storm".

He and his co-director stayed with a platoon in the Korengal valley in Afghanistan for about 15 minutes. It's an award-winning documentary and puts you right into the middle of one of the worst places in Afghanistan.

It is very good.

Some thoughts that occurred to me during the film:

1. It's hard as hell to fight when you don't know who or where your enemy is. It seems like our guys were always reacting to things, getting fired upon, ambushed. Never really on the offensive. Going on patrol, or staying in the OP, and waiting to be attacked. It seemed like they had no intelligence to conduct operations.

2. All the Afghan men, well almost all of them, that the soldiers encountered were old. Where were the younger men? Who knows. But my best guess is sitting in the hills firing on the Americans. What incentive did these poor villagers have to cooperate with the Americans? None. If they cooperate with the Americans they are dead men. If they cooperate with the Taliban, well, it's not like the Americans are going to line up and shoot their families.

3. One of the big moments for this platoon is when they risked their necks to create a new forward outpost (OP Restrepo, after their fallen buddy, Restrepo). Digging out in one night while being attacked. They talked about it being a turning point in the war. And then later you are told that OP Restrepo is only 800 meters away from the old OP! In one year, an advance of 800 meters! Now, I know that's a gross oversimplification, but it goes to the point of how apparently ineffective we are in combatting an insurgency that has the cooperation of the populace. One gets the impression that our soldiers live in much more fear than the Taliban in Korengal valley.

4. The movie was somewhat depressing in that I kept thinking "what is the point of this?" "Does this really have any chance of success?" The big goal in the Korengal Valley was to oust the Taliban, build a road, and allow for economic expansion which will win hearts and minds. You see these squalid poor people living in stone huts and can't help but wonder what in the world kind of economic expansion are we talking about here? It's like we are trying to do nation building with dirt farmers that are attacking us. It's a ludicrous proposition.

If we pull out of Afghanistan, it's going to be much worse for the Afghan people. For a number of reasons, but the two most important ones are this: 1. they will be under the murderous Taliban. and 2. The US will respond to the Taliban/OBL via hell raining down from the sky. And it's going to be much less discriminatory, and the result is going to be some kind of collective punishment. In other words, civilians will pay the price of proximity to the enemy.

03-28-2011, 03:34 PM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Restrepo Just watched this film last night. It is a documentary co-directed by Sebastian Junger who is best known for writing the book "The Perfect Storm". He and his co-director stayed with a platoon in the Korengal valley in Afghanistan for about 15 minutes. It's an award-winning documentary and puts you right into the middle of one of the worst places in Afghanistan. It is very good. Some thoughts that occurred to me during the film: 1. It's hard as hell to fight when you don't know who or where your enemy is. It seems like our guys were always reacting to things, getting fired upon, ambushed. Never really on the offensive. Going on patrol, or staying in the OP, and waiting to be attacked. It seemed like they had no intelligence to conduct operations. 2. All the Afghan men, well almost all of them, that the soldiers encountered were old. Where were the younger men? Who knows. But my best guess is sitting in the hills firing on the Americans. What incentive did these poor villagers have to cooperate with the Americans? None. If they cooperate with the Americans they are dead men. If they cooperate with the Taliban, well, it's not like the Americans are going to line up and shoot their families. 3. One of the big moments for this platoon is when they risked their necks to create a new forward outpost (OP Restrepo, after their fallen buddy, Restrepo). Digging out in one night while being attacked. They talked about it being a turning point in the war. And then later you are told that OP Restrepo is only 800 meters away from the old OP! In one year, an advance of 800 meters! Now, I know that's a gross oversimplification, but it goes to the point of how apparently ineffective we are in combatting an insurgency that has the cooperation of the populace. One gets the impression that our soldiers live in much more fear than the Taliban in Korengal valley. 4. The movie was somewhat depressing in that I kept thinking "what is the point of this?" "Does this really have any chance of success?" The big goal in the Korengal Valley was to oust the Taliban, build a road, and allow for economic expansion which will win hearts and minds. You see these squalid poor people living in stone huts and can't help but wonder what in the world kind of economic expansion are we talking about here? It's like we are trying to do nation building with dirt farmers that are attacking us. It's a ludicrous proposition. If we pull out of Afghanistan, it's going to be much worse for the Afghan people. For a number of reasons, but the two most important ones are this: 1. they will be under the murderous Taliban. and 2. The US will respond to the Taliban/OBL via hell raining down from the sky. And it's going to be much less discriminatory, and the result is going to be some kind of collective punishment. In other words, civilians will pay the price of proximity to the enemy.