US mountain troops feel the heat in a ‘forgotten war’

[maddezmom]

BERMEL, Eastern Afghanistan: As winter grips Afghanistan's mountain border with Pakistan, US troops and Taliban and other insurgents are winding down after a year of fierce but inconclusive fighting in a barren swathe of Central Asia where everything is still to win.

The first December snow brought a lull in the constant skirmishes, roadside bomb and suicide attacks and rocket strikes against the Bermel base by the border with Pakistan, where soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division will ship out next month after a gruelling twelve- month tour.

"It's been tough," said Sergeant Chris Cowan, whose company fought numerous engagements since deploying last February as part of a 1,000-troop contingent at five bases in the eastern province of Paktika. "We try to do our job, do the right thing and get all the guys out alive."

More than two dozen soldiers suffered wounds and they are uniformly amazed that they lost only one man, Corporal Jeremiah Cole, who died in a landmine blast in August.

more:http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=123229&version=1&template_id=41&parent_id=23

[wakeme2008]

1. IMHO sorry guys but I would not make any plans on coming

home soon. IMHO, your replacements will be going to Iraq for the "surge". :grr:

[WePurrsevere]

2. Hopefully they won't have to stay there longer and all will make it home safe to their families

and friends. The fact that Afghanistan is called the forgotten war ticks me off to no end. Although I didn't agree with the way we went in there basically attacking the whole country to supposedly get to Osama as we did, our dropping the ball to go after the paper tiger "WMD" and Saddam (OIL) (based on LIES) was criminally incompetent and wrong. :grr:

Thank you for posting this. The 10th Mountain Division is from Fort Drum near Watertown. NY. We live about an hour from there and have many families of the troops from there living around the area so I tend to watch for news on this Division.