North County Times October 06, 2010
MILITARY: Local troops enter 10th year of war in Afghanistan
By Mark Walker
The war in Afghanistan enters its 10th year Thursday with no end in sight, despite a surge of U.S. forces that has more than 10,000 Camp Pendleton and other local Marines and sailors fighting the anti-government Taliban and al-Qaida.
Jenn Blatter's husband, Camp Pendleton Marine combat cameraman Cpl. Daniel Blatter, is among them, serving his first combat tour.
"I think because I was in the Army and worked in casualty affairs for a while it makes me even more frightened," Blatter said Wednesday. "I'm very proud of him and I know what he's doing, but it sucks because my husband is gone and he is in danger."
At least 113 Camp Pendleton troops have been killed in the south-central Asian conflict, according to Pentagon casualty reports.
On Thursday, a Camp Pendleton commander leading the Marine Corps forces in southern and western Afghan provinces, Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, will provide an overview of the war launched in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks masterminded by Osama Bin Laden from Afghanistan. Mills is back at the base for a change of command ceremony and will soon return to Afghanistan.
The next year could be the most telling, as President Obama has vowed to begin reducing U.S. troops in July.
While some say there are signs of improvement, repeated deployments are placing unprecedented stress on military families and leading to more suicides and increasing cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
And despite Obama's vow, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, recently said Marines could remain in Afghanistan for at least five more years.
'Hodgepodge'
As public skepticism over the war continues to build, Rep. Duncan Hunter argues there are positive developments.
What had been a seeming "hodgepodge" of missions, strategy and leadership has now come into focus with experienced commanders, more troops and a clear mandate to hold areas cleared of the anti-government forces, he said.
Among the leaders is former Camp Pendleton Gen. James Mattis, who helped lead the invasion of Afghanistan and now heads U.S. Central Command.
"We've finally got the right equipment and the right leadership in place," Hunter said. "We're finally getting somewhere and seeing a coherent strategy."
Hunter, R-El Cajon, is a Marine reservist who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan before being elected to Congress two years ago and appointed to the House Armed Services Committee.
One of the paths to success, Hunter said, is forging more alliances with tribal powers that rule much of the country. That's what helped turned the tide in Iraq.
A group that doesn't believe the war is going well, San Diego Veterans for Peace, is hosting an "Arlington West Memorial" from 8 a.m. to sunset on Saturday on the front lawn area of the USS Midway Museum in downtown San Diego.
The memorial will display crosses and symbols of other major religions to honor those killed in the Afghanistan conflict.
One measure
Hunter and John Pike, head of the Washington-based GlobalSecurity.org that monitors worldwide military issues, say the war has been a success when viewed as limiting terror attacks after 2001.
"Five years up to Sept. 11, al-Qaida would have a spectacular attack every year or two," Pike said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "These involved dozens of people on multiple continents and we don't see that anymore, so evidently we are safer."
"I think you can talk about success in those terms every day after we invaded Afghanistan," Hunter said. "We're keeping the bad guys on the run in Afghanistan, Yemen and other parts of Africa, and that has stopped them from being able to form another base to attack us from."
Keeping Pakistan stable and preventing its nuclear arsenal from slipping into the hands of terrorists also is a victory for the U.S. and NATO, he said.
The fact that Bin Laden hasn't been caught and continues to deliver audio messages from what authorities speculate are tribal regions of Pakistan isn't that surprising, Pike said.
"We have people on the FBI's Most Wanted list in a country with a friendly police presence, and we still can't catch people," he said. "There are simply areas of Pakistan that we're just not able to get into."
Other impacts
The war has had a profound economic effect in this region, where direct military spending tops more than $17 billion a year, including more than $5 billion on manufacturing and $4 billion in professional and technical services, according to the San Diego Military Advisory Council.
But the constant cycle of deployments has stressed troops and their families economically and psychologically.
Groups such as Operation Homefront report increasing pleas for financial help from young military families.
"There's a perpetual need," said Jay Anderson, a retired Marine colonel who heads Operation Homefront's San Diego chapter.
In May, the chapter had 81 applications for assistance. The number was 106 in June, 119 in July and 138 in August.
The war also continues to generate a high rate of troop suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Marine Corps suicides have gone up every year since 2003, with a record 52 reported last year. Military health officials say about one-fifth to one-quarter of all combat troops develop post-traumatic stress.
"Where we saw some progress in Iraq, we don't see that in Afghanistan, where the population is largely against us," said Bill Rider of the Oceanside counseling group American Combat Veterans of War. "For the warriors that serve there, it manifests itself after they come home in the form of a moral injury, when they start to believe they were duped into fighting a war that has little chance of success."
Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-740-3529.
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