Jackson Jambalaya

Iraq has calmed down so much that Michael Yon, the leading journalist covering Iraq, recently moved to Afghanistan to cover that war. His reporting has been top notch as he has spent most of the last 4 years in theater, unlike other reporters who drop in for one week tours while roughing it in the Green Zone. He is a writer and former soldier who understands his subject matter very well and pulls no punches in his remarks. This dispatch tells the story of a recent mission to deliver a turbine to a hydroelectric damn in Afghanistan:

"When I was briefed on the top-secret mission before it was launched, I thought : “Good grief. I might have to report on the failure of one of the largest and most important missions of the entire war.”
After seven years, the war in Afghanistan has morphed from a breathtaking expedition of a handful of special operators—often on horseback—to a sort of lethal day-to-day business. Morale is high among American, Aussie, British and Canadian soldiers. Dozens of other nations are contributing to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, including the French, Italians and Estonians, but I have not seen enough of them to be able to judge their morale. The French recently lost ten soldiers in a Taliban ambush, and many in that country are talking about pulling out, although President Nicolas Sarkozy is standing firm. Other countries, like Germany, have strict rules of engagement that essentially preclude them from joining in combat. The Poles and Danes are strong allies and good soldiers, as they were in Iraq. Yet the bulk of the fighting against the Taliban is done by the Anglosphere (U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia), and, of course, the Afghans.
Among the English-speaking troops, there seems to be a sense of mission. American and British officers with experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere—leaders whose opinions I greatly value—do not think we are losing here in Afghanistan. Yes, they will acknowledge that the situation is deteriorating, but they still believe we are making progress. And it’s hard to disagree with them (though I do), given the blow that ISAF forces just delivered to the Taliban. ...
The top-secret mission was to deliver a new turbine to the Kajaki Dam. The second-largest hydro-electric dam in Afghanistan, Kajaki is designed to operate three turbines, and was originally built with American money in 1953 to provide electricity to Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. But that was another era of the Great Game. Only two out of three turbines were installed, and they fell apart when the Soviet Union pulled out from Afghanistan in 1989......
Since the American-led invasion in 2001, only one turbine was working. The mission’s goal was to drag a second turbine up treacherous roads, and put it online. The operation was of a magnitude large enough to warrant its own name: Operation Oqab Tsuka: Pashto for “Eagle’s Summit.” Some of the younger soldiers, when they heard about the plan to drive a giant convoy straight through Taliban territory, had another name for it: “Operation Suicide.”
In an increasingly successful attempt to discredit the Afghan government and the ISAF, enemy forces have been attacking infrastructure including bridges, power, communications, and dams.
Far up road 611 in Helmand Province, there has been much fighting at Kajaki. If another turbine could be brought online, and power lines stretched from generator to consumer, wide swaths of the population would have electricity. This would not only help the Afghan people, but also support the government, and spur the economy. ....
Success! The convoy made it, and all the components arrived safely. There were no combat casualties, but one soldier had his pelvis crushed when a vehicle he was working beneath fell on top of him. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t fighting. Anywhere from 200 to 250 Taliban were killed trying to take out the convoy. With more hard and dangerous work, and a couple more years, the turbine will begin pushing electricity to more than a million Afghans..."

Read the rest of the dispatch, Where Eagles Dare (scroll down)
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/