Last summer I got stuck in Kabul, Afghanistan, for several days while desperately trying to get out to the Dutch battlegroup near Tarin Kowt. Getting around in Afghanistan isn't just a problem for journalists. Big mountains and bad roads mean military forces rely mostly on heavy-lift helicopters to get from A to B. But there aren't enough heavy choppers in existence to meet the coalition's needs, according to U.S. Army Brigadier General Robert Holmes. “Countries never thought they’d be operating in Afghanistan and didn’t buy heavy-lift helicopters,” he explained a couple weeks back.
The alternative -- and the only true long-term solution -- is building new roads. In the relatively peaceful north and around Kabul, private firms and agencies like U.S. AID oversee the work. In Taliban country, military reconstruction teams (U.S. and Canadian, especially) lead the construction crews. All told, foreign donors have sunk several billion dollars into Afghan road work since 2001. NATO's banking on this to help the relatively tiny Afghan National Army speed around the country to defeat pop-up Taliban attacks. (The coalition is in the process of donating thousands of Humvees and trucks to the ANA.)
Problem is, the Taliban knows it:
(Photo: me)
