Codel Davis 20 Feb 2004 Bagram Air Force Base We left the hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan via convoy for the airport. Once again we flew on a C-130 this time to Bagram Air Force Base in the country of Afghanistan. We were met by General Austin of the 10th Mountain Division. This has primarily been a stability operation. The formation of provisional reconstruction teams placed at various locations in the country allows stability to follow. This becomes a permissive civil/military operation. The United Nations is divided the country of Afghanistan into unique regions. These regions are based primarily on demographic factions as well as educational levels, economic levels, religious considerations and tribal history. The country itself is 250,000 square miles and comprises some of the most rugged terrain on the planet. The recent completion of the first half of what is known as the “ring road," has allowed the introduction of commerce into areas where none has previously existed. Currently, the travel time from Bagram to Kabul, which is a 30 mi. distance, is approximately 1 1/2 hours. Travel time from Kabul to Kandahar, which is 289 mi., is 8 hours. Taliban Of the Coalition militants, there are primarily three groups of involvement. The first is the Taliban and remnants of their old regime. Their obvious goal is to reassert themselves as the ruling regime of the country after the Coalition forces withdraw. They primarily target district level leadership and nongovernmental operations. They cannot tolerate competition for influence with our popular support. There are full-time active-duty fighters within their ranks, but they also have countless supporters of the war facilitators. They frequently resort to intimidation and violence to gain support. Their numbers may swell or diminish with local conditions. Al Qaeda The second group is comprised of the Al Qaeda group. Their goal is to reestablish freedom of movement, and freedom of operations and training. Their primarily targets are the United States and Coalition forces. Because they are confronting us more in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have suffered because of relatively thin resources. We stand to further lose credibility and funding. Currently, across the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, small groups link-up with proxy fighters. They will continue to be a main target of Coalition forces, and with the reduction in number of foreign fighters there will become a more heavy influence to recruit and train and organize. Many these activities are likely going on during the winter months. There may be an increase of activity after the snow melts from the mountain passes in the spring. Warlords The third group is under the control of an Afghan warlord. The group, collectively, is known as the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin or HIG and is primarily located in the capital region. They are all about power and will fight anyone for control of Afghanistan. Currently, they target the Islamic transformational government of Afghanistan and Coalition forces. Previously they have fought the Soviets and, in fact, they fought the Taliban at one time. The battle plan is convoluted and the battleground complex. Regional differences are the problem. The border is not well defined and there is inconsistent tribal recognition of the border with Pakistan. To them, the border is only a political line not an actual physical barrier. Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily armed countries in the world, except for its police force. Following the briefing by General Austin, we boarded a helicopter for a flight along the new Afghanistan Highway. While flying over this area, one could not help but be struck by the overwhelming poverty of the area. Additionally, there were the hulks of burned-out Soviet military equipment left lying around. The road itself is a two-lane blacktop which lacks a center stripe in most locations. It was noted however that there were several new gasoline stations, and what likely represented the Afghanistan equivalent of a convenience store. The road itself was heavily traveled by both cars and trucks. There is no vehicle registration in Afghanistan and their currently are no enforceable traffic laws. Clearly this degree of civil order will need to follow quickly on the heels of an improved transportation system. After returning to the air base we toured the nine clearing operation contained within the airfield. In addition to the heavily armed, Afghanistan he is the most heavily mined country in the world. We were presented with a variety of techniques to clear areas of active mines. This ranged from the rather painstaking labor intensive work of mine probing, to relatively large-scale operations that involved armored heavy equipment. This work remains tedious and dangerous but is critical in reestablishing civil society in the country of Afghanistan. Currently, the majority of the injuries that occur as a result of mine blasts occur in children who wander into mined areas, or find an unexploded device which they mistake for a toy. We again were permitted to have dinner with the troops, and General Austin spent additional time addressing the gathering. I was impressed by the amount of time that he devoted to making certain that our trip was profitable from the standpoint of educational experience as well as showing his band that the United States Congress was truly interested in the work that they were doing. I had a brief chance to talk to Dr. Richard Stone who is the medical commander of all of the hospitals in Eastern Afghanistan. His group truly does represent a multinational collection of physicians and medical personnel. We currently are treating approximately 25% of American and Coalition injuries and 75% of their work is performed on Afghanistan nationals. The return to Islamabad on the C-130 was this time unremarkable. No flares were deployed during our flight. We arrived at the airfield in Islamabad to transfer to the US military plane which was to return us to Andrews Air Force Base and home again.