Call them "snap HVCPs"...
My good friend from Fox News Greg Palkot has landed an embed with US Special Forces in Zabul province Afghanistan and posted some awesome video of their operations.
ZABUL, AFGHANISTAN Special Force teams have been in Afghanistan ever since the days after 9/11. Now more than ever, they’re at the “ tip of the spear,” in places like Zabul province in the southeast, where the Taliban is…“everywhere.”
“Whether it’s two or three local Taliban or foreign Taliban,” the “Major” (that’s all he goes by for this report due to security reasons) said, “It’s safe to assume they’re in every village.”
The “Major,” the commander of a company of Special Force A-Teams, says the new US counter-insurgency strategy is all about what the Special Forces have been doing here. Green Berets are involved in civil affairs programs in various Zabul villages, supporting schools, manning clinics, building bridges.
One of them shows an interesting new tactic they're using to nab bad guys infiltrating from Pakistan and moving insurgents around in the wide open spaces and unmarked roads of Afghanistan's south. Watching the video, it looks as if the SF is executing what I'd like to call "snap helicopter vehicle check points" (they call them helicopter-vehicle interdictions)...like a scene from Blackhawk down the operators scope out a suspicious vehicle from high up and swoop in on them with a flock of Blackhawks, running from the crew compartments with weapons drawn.
Talk about a psych job! You're just meandering along with your six madrassa buddies hanging for dear life onto the back of your Honda motorbike for your Jihad University graduation party and with the sun at their back, a bunch of bearded spacemen come swooping down to rain on your parade. Seems like an expensive way to nab a few blocks of C4 and some wayward suicide bomber-wannabes from NoVa, but maybe it's all a game of perception.
Also, on the gear front...Seeing a lot of Multicam, ACU and old-style three color desert camo mixed around. Also, looks like the beard restrictions have gone out the window. And the host of weaponry these guys are carrying? Was that an LWRC 6.8 PDW I saw on that second takedown?
Thanks to an anonymous tipper for the links.
-- Christian