[MODEM CONNECTING] SHANE SMITH NARRATING: We first
met Ben Anderson when we started VBS, actually. We went to Spike Jonze, our
creative director's, house along with some of the most
talented editors and shooters and talent that Spike
had put together. All we did was watch Ben
Anderson footage from Africa, North Korea-- which I then
ripped off when I went to North Korea-- Iran, Iraq. It was just fascinating stuff. He ended up getting in a fight
and Johnny Knoxville had to go save him and sneak
him into a club. And since then, we've been
wanting to work with Ben, and we knew that he had been working
in Afghanistan for the past three years on making
a documentary there. And lately, Afghanistan's
been in the news. And you know, we're spending
more and more money there. We're losing more
and more ground. And generally what we've found
with VBS is what you hear the mainstream media versus what is
actually happening are two completely different things. So what he showed us
blew our minds. I mean, it's completely
insane. And it's also very complex. So we wanted him to come over
and explain to us what we're about to see. BRITISH SOLDIER: You'll want
to keep the bottles. You can fill the bottles up
using either stream water, or when you go into compound
from the well. Yeah, this is normally
confusion. They all gather round. He wants a lot of water for
himself, and he says he's going to sort it out, but if you
give it to him, he'll just fuck off with the lot. So nothing would
get sorted out. He'll just fill his vehicle
and noone will get none. So you have to sort it
out between them. Like kids. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: That
guy's the British Army and the other guys are--? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING:
Afghan National Army. SHANE SMITH NARRATING:
Afghan National Army. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING:
And that's basically our exit strategy. The idea is when these guys
can stand up and provide security on their own,
we can all get out. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: But
they can't even give them water without them
taking it away. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: No, they
can't even get them to wear their helmets
and flak jackets. BEN ANDERSON: Seems like quite
a chaotic start, then. BRITISH SOLDIER: This is good. BEN ANDERSON: Is it? BRITISH SOLDIER: This is
fucking squared away. They've got vehicles
and everything. It's well done. BEN ANDERSON: How difficult is
it to organize these guys? BRITISH SOLDIER: It just
takes a bit of time. They're all mad. They all want to go on the
mission, but they're not fully functioning yet. They need us to mentor them and
make sure they've got all the kit and equipment
they need. They'll go without water
and without food and hope for the best. They think we can manage-- magic things up, just invent
things and produce a fuel truck for them. But we can't. When we come into contact with
the enemy, sometimes you need to put them on a lead and hold
them back, 'cause they'll just go and go and go until they kill
more and more Taliban. That's what they want to do. That's what their life is. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So I
know there's problems in Pakistan with Muslim
fighting Muslim. Why would the ANA fight
the Taliban? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: I think
to them, it's work. It's not ideology at all. And there's an old saying-- I think you can hire an
Afghan army, but you can never buy one. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: Right. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING:
So loyalty is never taken for granted. BRITISH SOLDIER: They
are excited and they are brave soldiers. And they're like children. Their attention span doesn't
last very long. They soon get bored. At the moment, I think
they're all here. Clint Eastwood is. BEN ANDERSON: In
the cowboy hat? MALE SPEAKER: Yeah. BEN ANDERSON: How you doing? Have you given up on making them
wear uniform exactly the way they're supposed
to wear it? BRITISH SOLDIER: No,
I don't care. As long as they go and do the
job and do what they're told and they toe the line. You know, they enjoy wearing
their shemaghs and t-shirts and looking like Rambo
when they go out. I'm not bothered. As long as they've got their
weapon, their ammunition, all the stuff they need to sustain
themselves, I'm not bothered. BRITISH SOLDIER: They're so-- so bright and colorful,
all of them. It's a wonderful
sight, really. They're a very sort
of visual army. It's great. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: So in
the past, the problem and the criticism has always been that
the Brits, Americans, whoever it is, just control towns or
bases, and they're isolated. Isolated from the community,
and the Taliban can roll around freely in the rest
of the country, apart from these big bases. The aim of this mission was to
actually clear ground of the Taliban and then hold on to it
for the first time, actually keep hold of that land
and stop the Taliban from coming back. BRITISH SOLDIER: With this
amount of manpower, we should have enough, tomorrow, to commit
to a good scrap with the enemy if they choose
to take on with us. We aim to destroy the enemy and
take the ground this time, and not cede it again. BRITISH SOLDIER: If they can
get forward, destroy the Taliban, and hold that ground,
it's a massive morale booster for the ANA and for our boys. So, you know, that's what we're looking forward to doing. BEN ANDERSON: Did they know
exactly where they were going? BRITISH SOLDIER: They know the
general region, yeah, because they have to know. But we try and keep security
to a minimum so we can-- otherwise they'll get on the
mobile phone, start phoning everyone around the [INAUDIBLE]
they know, and then they'll pass it
on to the Taliban. BEN ANDERSON: So there's a worry
that some of the solders might intentionally be giving
information to the Taliban? BRITISH SOLDIER: Yeah, people
have been caught out before in the ANA. And they've been disciplined
in their own chain. BEN ANDERSON: And remained
within the ANA? BRITISH SOLDIER: No, they've
been kicked out of the ANA. They probably went and joined
the Taliban, but. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: The ANA,
the Afghan National Army, they can't tell them where
they're going because they'll call the Taliban and
let them know? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: And tell
them where they're going, what the plan is. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: Why in
god's name would they do that? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Because
the Taliban pay much better salary than any
government job-- police, army, whatever it is. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So they
pay them, and then they say, oh, we're coming here now. Kill us. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. So this is what all of Helmand
is like, just desert. But then the area where the
fighting is, is called the green zone. And completely opposite to the
Iraq green zone, it's the most dangerous place, because it's
the one fertile strip of land there, and there are so many
hiding places for the Taliban that that's where they
love to fight. And that's where the British and
the ANA have to go looking for the Taliban. SHANE SMITH NARRATING:
Green zone, bad zone. BEN ANDERSON: Yeah. BRITISH SOLDIER: They've watched
us so far, last hour and a half, two hours. BEN ANDERSON: Everyone
knows we're here? BRITISH SOLDIER: Yeah. They knew there was an upcoming,
because they're used to it, and they'd have
gone, right, OK. Seeing us go that way, Taliban
go that way to their fall-back positions. And it's a waiting game. We'll outnumber them, we'll
out-firepower them. And they know that. And they will stand and fight
sooner or later, because they'll have to. Because that's what they do. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: The
Taliban have got a really sophisticated network
of dickers. It's a phrase that comes
from Northern Island. Local people with mobile phones,
as soon as they see us, as soon as they see the
soldiers coming, they'll tell them exactly our movement. So the Brits take it for granted
the Taliban know their every movement. You see us walking through
this town, and it's completely deserted. That's-- every single time
we got ambushed, this happened first. You'd walk around, completely
deserted. Because the civilians
are very streetwise. They know where the
Taliban are. They see the British
soldiers coming. They know there's going
to be a fight. So they get out of there. So as soon as you find an area
that's deserted, you know there's going to be fighting. BRITISH SOLDIER: All these
compounds make up the village of Kakara. We're just clearing
through them. It's a painstaking process. Did you expect it to
be this quiet? BRITISH SOLDIER: It swings
around about. Sometimes it is this quiet. Other times you might meet
one or two people. By and large, because this area
has seen quite a bit of fighting over the last couple
of months, a lot of the families have moved out. But hopefully after the next
couple of days, we will have taken this area properly,
secured it, and sent a message that people can move back
into their compounds. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: Is
that poppy, right there? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. Everywhere you go. I mean, without exaggeration,
just about every single house we went into had a pile of
harvested opium poppies as tall as you. Over 90% of our heroin,
Britain's heroin, comes from Afghanistan. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN
LANGUAGE ON RADIO] BEN ANDERSON: The Afghan
National Army can use their radios to get on the same
channel as the Taliban and listen to what they're saying. What are they saying? MALE SPEAKER: They're saying
they are about to attack. They are getting ready for
attack, to attack us. BEN ANDERSON: Attack us here? MALE SPEAKER: Yes. BEN ANDERSON: Do you know
where they are? MALE SPEAKER: No. Their location is not known. Just they are asking where
[INAUDIBLE] located, where that relocating in
the morning. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: He's
saying that he knows that the Taliban are going to attack
you right then. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. SHANE SMITH NARRATING:
Were you scared? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah,
you're scared, but you get used to it very quickly. This is everyday life for
these guys out there. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: How does
he know the Taliban know? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: He's
just got a normal CB and he finds the same channel the
Taliban are speaking on. He hears them saying, OK, I can
see them, as soon as they come out of that street, as soon
as they come from behind that wall, we'll attack. SHANE SMITH NARRATING:
Jesus Christ. BEN ANDERSON: Are they close? MALE SPEAKER: Yes. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: So we'd
walked through the entire town, cleared the whole town. Really surprised not to see any
civilians, any Taliban. And almost the last building we
could see, there's a team of Taliban waiting there
to fire up on us. So as happens every single time,
the fight happens where they want it to happen. BRITISH SOLDIER: Possible
positive identification of two times Taliban. We're going to engage with RPGs,
see if it provokes a response, and if so, assault
that enemy possession. Over. That side. OK, get the RPG up
there, yeah? MALE SPEAKER:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] BEN ANDERSON NARRATING:
This guy lived for firing these RPGs. BEN ANDERSON: So we think it's
a sighting of two Taliban. And apparently what they'll
often do is send foot patrol down to harass, then run away
and lure British forces into a trap where they can be attacked
by 360 degrees. Just wait and see if there's a
response to the RPG that's just been fire. They're loading another
one now. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah you
get a lot of stuff about how our poor soldiers
are getting bogged down in this quagmire. And the Brits know exactly
what's going on, and go ahead anyway. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: Right. Why? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Well,
they're quite happy to go there and have a fight
with them. They know they're walking
into a trap, but they're looking for it. [RPG FIRE] MALE SPEAKER:
[SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [MISSILE FIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Sixer alpha,
sixer alpha, that's us now being engaged by RPG and
small arms from kilo. If you could put air on that,
that'd be lovely. Over. [GUNFIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Whoa. Where the fuck are
they coming from? BRITISH SOLDIER: I'm stuck. [GUNFIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Six
three alph-- six three alpha, that's enemy
trying to move, as I said, to the north of our current
position. [GUNFIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: They're
trying to [INAUDIBLE]. push forward [INAUDIBLE]. Over. BRITISH SOLDIER: Message on
the icon chatter said they were going to send
their friends. So what I'm thinking is probably
happening is that the original four Taliban are trying
to push forward to the compound that's 50 meters just
to our right, and that the friends are the ones
who are now off in that hedge line there. [GUNFIRE] BEN ANDERSON: So is
it [INAUDIBLE]? BRITISH SOLDIER: No, that's
stuff coming into us. MALE SPEAKER:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SHANE SMITH NARRATING: Now
they're shooting at you there, so you're encircled now, then? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. They were paying attention to a
small team round the corner to our right. Suddenly other teams have
arrived, firing straight at us, making the wall that we're
hiding behind useless. [GUNFIRE] BEN ANDERSON: I think the
Taliban are a lot closer than they thought. BRITISH SOLDIER (SHOUTING):
You're going to compound half right here. Alpha and Bravo are going to go
and assault that compound. You have 60 meters of open
ground, possible enemy in the compound, and we'll just clear
through with squads of ANA. [RPG FIRE] [GUNFIRE AND RPG FIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Right. Stay right in. Stay right in there. [GUNFIRE AND RPG FIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Just
coming straight in-- BEN ANDERSON: That was the
Apache, wasn't it? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: We're
all looking ahead to the area of the hedgerow where
the Taliban were shooting at us from. Helicopter comes over. We hear the explosions,
but there's no smoke. Look to our left, and
the field next to us has been strafed. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So
they're strafing you and not the Taliban? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Not
us, but very close to us. Too, too close to us. They're nowhere near
the Taliban. SHANE SMITH NARRATING:
Situation Normal All Fucked Up. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. [GUNFIRE] [EXPLOSION] BEN ANDERSON: The helicopter
was calling for a strike. We thought it was the compound
over here somewhere where the Taliban were fighting from. Instead it looks like they hit
this compound here, where Patty and some ANA
soldiers were. [RPG FIRE] BEN ANDERSON: I'm waiting. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: We're
already nervous about the helicopter, because they've
watched this happen. And again, no smoke rises from
the Taliban positions. I look around the corner and
see that the compound that some of the Brits and Afghans
have stormed has been hit by the Hellfire missile. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So they
bombed your own guys. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. MALE SPEAKER:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: We
then decided to go to the building, and we thought
we were going to see six corpses in there. [GUNFIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: [INAUDIBLE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Ready? BRITISH SOLDIER: Wait, wait. [GUNFIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: We're going to
get back to that compound over there as soon as we can. BRITISH SOLDIER: Go, go! BRITISH SOLDIER: Go, go! Come on! BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: We
decided to run for the compound to see if there
are six Afghan soldiers dead there. Some soldiers arrived to
give covering fire. We come under heavy fire as
we run to the compound. [MEN SHOUTING] [GUNFIRE] MALE SPEAKER: Come on! One more, one more. Good. BRITISH SOLDIER: One more
Bravo [INAUDIBLE]. BRITISH SOLDIER: Let's go,
let's go, let's go. [GUNFIRE] BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: There's
one small front door, and that's it. And we're now surrounded
by the Taliban. [GUNFIRE] BEN ANDERSON: And your
soldiers are all OK. BEN ANDERSON: Nobody,
nobody killed. MALE SPEAKER: No. BEN ANDERSON: Nobody
killed here. MALE SPEAKER: No. BEN ANDERSON: Pretty
good luck. BEN ANDERSON: You
found six RPGs? MALE SPEAKER: Seven. MALE SPEAKER: Seven. Shoot fire. Taliban finished. BEN ANDERSON: Now the Taliban
fire RPGs at us. [MEN SHOUTING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE] BEN ANDERSON: This compound
wasn't abandoned. There's a family behind me,
with one old man and five children, three of whom-- [EXPLOSION] BEN ANDERSON: Two,
three years old. Absolutely terrified. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So
there's a family there. The Hellfire missile came in,
blew up their house, and they're still in the house
during the firefight? BEN ANDERSON NARRATING:
Yeah, yeah. They're stuck in the house. That was probably the most
shocking thing I saw in my entire time in Afghanistan. These, literally, babies covered
in dust, crying, absolutely petrified. And you can see where
the missile struck. They must have been right next
to the explosion when the missile landed. BRITISH SOLDIER: Because there
are a number of compounds which aren't very clearly
identifiable on the air [INAUDIBLE], we called in the
compound we thought we were in, according to the GPS fixed,
and obviously they corresponded, they thought
that was the compound we were in. So when they called the Hellfire
in, it came in on this position. It's difficult enough when
you're firing on your own troops, let alone if you then
come into the compound and there's people who've
been hiding. But fortunately, I think
everyone was all right. There's a few slightly
shaky eardrums, more than anything else. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: So
there's only one compound with British troops in it, and
they've got that one. BEN ANDERSON: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there aren't detailed
maps of this place. And what maps they have got are
a rough guide, but their abilities aren't on map. Their ability to look at the
buildings, it's very, very difficult, especially when you
haven't got time to really work things out. BRITISH SOLDIER:
All [INAUDIBLE] confirmed, they're calling
in strafe on target Whiskey forward. Sixer alpha, roger, we'll stay
firm in this target location with the grid we've given you. I don't know what letter it
is, but let's just hope it doesn't come in us. Over. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: There's
been two times where it comes in on you, and now the third
time he's calling it in, saying, I hope it doesn't
come in on us. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. SHANE SMITH NARRATING: I don't
know what the number is. Shoot away. BEN ANDERSON NARRATING: Yeah. Yeah. Which they go on to
say more and more. They just abandon themselves to
fate by the end of the day. [GUNFIRE AND RPG FIRE] BRITISH SOLDIER: Sixer alpha,
that was spot on. We're now observing friendly
enemy movement. Over. BRITISH SOLDIER: They're
actually terrified of the air. The closer, the more risk you
can play with, it allows us to get even closer to the enemy. It just means that you've got to
slightly steel your nerves for those few moments when the
first rounds come in and they might be little bit close. But it's all fun and games, so.
This link appears to have been removed from /r/worldnews by either the spam filter or moderators.
Inside Afghanistan
submitted 2 hours ago by: Case2600 to worldnews
Confirm it's missing | Message the moderators about this removal | Post to PoliticalModeration