From what I've gleaned from various papers, websites etc, that ^ is a very accurate summation of the situation.

Demo's point however is still very relevant. The objective must be to set up a western-sympathetic government with enough resolve and means to keep the nutjobs in the north in check. Whether they will ever be able to do that is the big question, and the longer our guys stay there the longer they are target practice and provide a rallying point to the opposition which the Islamists will use to recruit from among the nationalists and train their own out of country jihadis.

Originally Posted by Julian_Boolean

And there was me thinking it was about cutting down the supply of heroin to the US and UK.

On the radio news this morning, joint forces have destroyed a stockpile of heroin with est street value of £50m.

One of the effects of our 'liberation' was that the Taliban, for all their faults, strongly disapproved of drugs. With them gone the hill farmers and warlords have returned to their historic crop production, seeing as they have no other means of making a living.

There's a guy from Swindon trying to encourage tehm to grow pomegranates rather than poppies. Apparently that was their traditional crop...


Tackling The Heroin Menace With Pomegranates

BBC NEWS | England | Pomegranates over poppies

Originally Posted by Jewell

Certainly different from the e-mails I get from the Stan.

IIRC most of your mates are 'Royal'. This chap isn't, but he is Cdo trained and works with the brigade, albeit as a percy. I don't see why the experiences your mates are having would be vastly different tbh. Fair enough if they are though, post some up, would probably be interesting for the folks here to get a different perspective.

Originally Posted by Jewell

IEDs, man they suck bad, would hate to go that way.

Quite. Are you 'Royal' now btw? I vaguely remember a convo I had with you saying you were joining up with the intention of getting to CTC-RM asap but that you hadn't yet. If so, fair play, if not yet, good luck, mate of mine (ex para reg) has just gone through and found it 'emotional', although by all accounts he passed with flying colours.

Originally Posted by Pax

First time I spotted this thread. I'm always in many minds about what I think about our presence in Afghanistan.

But either way, in isolation, I like these bits of info as to what's actually going on on the ground there. I dislike the lack of quality info from the media(operational secrecy issues notwithstanding), considering our army is in a real conflict situation and taking casualties. Please keep it up Balbas, if you get more .

Aye, I may well do chap. I have to be a little careful about what I post though. I could get myself/others in trouble if I posted some of the stuff I get sent

I was actually supposed to start nearly a year ago...I started then left as my old man passed leaving me to sort everything as everyone else was busy.

Sorted things,cleared head etc, had some fun now ball rolling again.

This is by far the easiest job to apply for and has taken me the longest to start....very irritating. Waiting for minor Op on lower back, 3 weeks for stitches to come out which is another pain as I didn't expect to have it and was supposed to start last week.
fuck my luck.

Originally Posted by Jewell

I was actually supposed to start nearly a year ago...I started then left as my old man passed leaving me to sort everything as everyone else was busy.

Sorted things,cleared head etc, had some fun now ball rolling again.

This is by far the easiest job to apply for and has taken me the longest to start....very irritating. Waiting for minor Op on lower back, 3 weeks for stitches to come out which is another pain as I didn't expect to have it and was supposed to start last week.
fuck my luck.

Good luck to you then. Best get the back sorted properly before you get in IMO, from what I've heard any injuries you're already carrying will just get worse when you're there and you won't want to be back trooped.

Good luck though, it's an awesome achievment to get the green lid.

No one calls it 'the stan', in the same way that no one calls Iraq the 'sandbox'.

Well at least they didn't, although now everyone and his dog has been there they've probably even 'chavved' that as well.

Originally Posted by icarus1859

No one calls it 'the stan', in the same way that no one calls Iraq the 'sandbox'.

Well at least they didn't, although now everyone and his dog has been there they've probably even 'chavved' that as well.

never heard of the sandbox.

Ive heard the Stan used a fuck load of times before tho.

Just had another email from my mate who is nearing the end of his tour. Won't post the whole thing for a variety of reasons, but there are some interesting (to me anyway) extracts below

Originally Posted by balbas' mate

A new type of IED was found during a route clearance near KJI. The ‘spider’ remote device has not been seen before in the KJI AO. Pakistani fighters are known to be operating in the area.

Discussed at the coordinating meeting for the vigil and repatriation arrangements for the 3 casualties from 1 Rifles killed last week on Route 1. The device was a command wire IED concealed in a culvert underneath the road. There had not been an attack along the road since Sept 08. 200kg of HME were detonated by a wire 475mt long. 2 pressure plate IEDs were layed along the wire to deter/kill any IED clearance teams. On the same day a Royal Marine died in hospital in the UK after being flown home the previous week.

The Iranians have been said to have supplied SA14 anti-aircraft missile systems to the TB. No evidence has been found to suggest that it’s been deployed in Helmand.

A lad from the GMLRS battery was flown back to UK after becoming ill. The symptoms looked a lot like a bad hangover. Anyone caught drinking is fined £2000 and RTU’d (sent home).

Fined for being drunk? So there are no stand down periods where a section or fire team can let their hair down?

You mean to say that the tommies don't go out of their firebase for a kick around with the TB?

War...It's just not cricket.

Thats sucks for being fined big time and sent home....

Surprise the Iranians being mentioned again, fuckers.

My mate told how about 30 Marines got into "contact" with the Iranians at the border "by accident"....video footage is insane, obviously not on the internet.

Originally Posted by Jewell

My mate told how about 30 Marines got into "contact" with the Iranians at the border "by accident"....video footage is insane, obviously not on the internet.

I might have accidentally done that too once upon a time.