REPORTER: John Martinkus

It is the middle of the coldest winter in living memory in Afghanistan. Over 900 people have died from the cold here so far this season. Roads are blocked by deep snow and snowstorms and blizzards have grounded the helicopters. I'm on the first chopper in two weeks that's been able to reach this remote US base at Zormat, in the eastern border province of Paktia. Despite the extreme conditions, the war here in eastern Afghanistan is still being fought. As soon as I arrive, I join these troops from the US 82nd airborne, heading out for a 10-day patrol in temperatures that at night on the high plateaus drop to -30 Celsius. Their greatest fear IEDs, improvised explosive devices, an increasingly common form of attack learnt from their devastating success in the Iraq insurgency.


LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS, US 82ND AIRBORNE: 61 IEDs from mid-September through late November and, ball park, about 120, 130 mortar rounds and rockets fired at us. Small-arms fire is far and few between. They really don't want to stay.. they don't want to stay and fight toe-to-toe with us. They do a lot of harassment fire, hit and runs. They tend to attack the most during like full moons or when the moon cycle's on the high end.

I think it is a full moon at the moment, isn't it?

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: It's pretty close. You know what they say about a full moon. We'll see what happens. I think due to the cold weather and the ice and snow in the passes and their inability to manoeuvre on the ground during the wintertime like they did during the summer, they pretty much lay low or go to a safe haven.

At one stage this unit had lost over half its transport to IEDs. Travelling with the US troops are members of the Afghan police and army. The Americans say that the Afghans are leading the operation, but in reality they only act as support for the US troops. The soldiers set up on a snow-covered plain for the night. They want a clear field of view so that they can see any enemy approaching.

SOLDIER 2: We're looking right at him.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS, US 82ND AIRBORNE:  This is a staging area. We're getting ready for the operation which will kick off tomorrow morning. Right now we're making sure we have the perimeter secure and we are going to get all our team members inside our perimeter.

As night falls, the Afghan troops refuse to sleep in their cold, open trucks. They move into villages in the area, demanding shelter with the local people, spoiling any chance of surprise for the operation.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: We'll be here until late tonight, early morning. Some time to be determined we'll move out and stage.

As dawn breaks, after a freezing and sleepless night, they move out to start the operation.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: You ready, man? Yep. Alright, we're moving.

They start to search the first target of the day. It's a compound called a qalat. Like most Afghan houses it is built like a fortress with high walls on all sides.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: Alright, there's cows and stinky shit in there.

SOLDIER 2: So far just mainly ammo, Sir? Yeah.

Before too long they find a pistol.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): You were asked if you had any weapons and you said no, and then I said this is the first house in Afghanistan which does not have any weapon, and now a broken pistol is found. We don't count it.

He's said that that is broken, you cannot a shoot with that something, therefore we do not count that as a pistol.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: The point is, we need him to be honest with us, alright? If he is not honest with us and we find stuff, then they will send you to prison in Gardez.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): Tell us the truth, honesty is important. Otherwise they will send you to a prison in Gardez.

MAN (Translation): I’m telling you the truth, there is nothing here. You can see that for yourself.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): Well, there is a pistol.

MAN (Translation) Well, a pistol is just normal.

The soldiers aren't convinced and confiscate the weapon.

SOLDIER 3: He's asking about the pistol so he can take it back and they said we will fix it.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: That's what we're afraid of. There was a problem with the honesty at the beginning. We asked if there was a weapon in the house and we were told no, there wasn't, so that's why we're keeping the pistol.

Because of the lawlessness in this part of Afghanistan, each household is allowed to have one weapon. If they are declared to the searching troops, they are in most cases allowed to keep them. If they are hidden or the people lie about them, they are confiscated. The soldiers tell me it is common to find weapons in these underground cellars.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: If you go down there, it's like it's just a great place to hide stuff. It's deep, it's secluded and inconspicuous.

There are almost no military-age males in this village. They probably knew the Americans were coming and have fled.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: You guys get swallowed up? They know where we're turning and which way we're headed, they know well in advance.

So you reckon they would be gone if they were here?

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: I would think so. Probably caught wind of something going down. We were only a few kilometres away when we staged last night, we find a lot of qalats. We'll find weapons and ammo and when we get there we'll find women, children, no adult males, no military-aged males. And the common story we get is during the wintertime the males go to India or Pakistan, some place else to work, and then the families are left here.

Which could be true.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: It could be, it could be, there's probably there's some truth in that. Unfortunately, it's the honest people that are trying to make a living that are affected by the handful of Taliban doing stupid stuff.

At the next qalat they start to uncover a lot more.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS:  OK, before we give this up, ask him if he's got any weapons. We'll find out if he's lying to us right away.

The owner of the house denies he has any weapons.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: The plot thickens. No weapons... Guess what's in there?
Oh, yeah, it's getting better. Oh...now he's in trouble. This guy might be our first detainee. For a guy who's got no fucking weapons, he's sure got a good supply of shit. This guy's getting detained. Roger, I think we just got our first winner. We are kind of in the last qalat of the series. We're finding just an assload of stuff, mostly just small-arms stuff, but it's pretty good stockpile, over.

The weapons, and old rifle, a pistol, and AK47 and some grenades, mount up.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: Let him know, we asked him once before if he had any weapons and he lied to us, because obviously we found all this stuff here. This is his chance to be honest. Ask him if he's got any more stuff any place else in the qalat because we are going to find it.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): Look, we asked if you had any weapons and you said no. This is important. It’s still not too late to tell us that you have some weapons.

MAN (Translation) Search and if you find any you can execute me right here.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): Is that the lot? Are you telling me there is no more weapons? 

A normal saw blade is seen by the soldiers as potentially being part of an improvised explosive device, the most common and effective method of attacking foreign forces in Afghanistan.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: Makes the electrical connection on a pressure plate, two saw blades with a gap. You drive over it, the two pieces of metal make contact, sends the current and detonates the mine. This has been a huge oh, this has been a key piece with all our pressure plates. They've all had.. they call it the zormat saw. They've all had saw blades.

But this is a farm, after all, and a saw is a household item.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: Alright, that's 'Soldier of Fortune'. Already been in that magazine. Haven't we all.

SOLDIER 3 (Translation): Now they will deal with you. You should have told us in the first place.

The commander of the base, Lieutenant Colonel Woods, comes to inspect the weapons. It is not much, but it is something to show for their work so far.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: That is API and of course the frags. Of course, the guy we detained said this was all left over from the Russian invasion.

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS, US 82ND AIRBORNE: But it's not all 30 years old, and they got Chinese ammo in there.
That's all new, nice cache. Shotgun shells.

Some of the ammunition is armour piercing. They are convinced the old man is Taliban.

SGT 1ST CLASS JOHN JENNINGS: Military-age men? None. So that in itself isn't really enough to throw a guy in the truck, but we cut the ammunition anyway. That shit is scary.

SOLDIER 3: Hand grenades are not something you have for the security of your compound.

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: OK, good job by the whole team out here, good job. This is awesome.

The operation will continue like this for another nine days, with searches and detentions of anyone who tries to hide weapons. I head back to base with Lieutenant Colonel Woods. I ask the Lieutenant Colonel exactly how he thinks he can change the allegiances of the people.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL WOODS: That is a question we talk about too. How do you change someone who has grown up in that? How do you do that? I think we have to look at some of our own experiences at home. How do you turn communities from bad to good? It takes time. It takes, one, like you said earlier, it takes a legitimate government body, it takes a legitimate police force that isn't stealing from you. And I think you have show them that the government has more to offer than the insurgency does.

The rhetoric has changed. Field commanders like Woods no longer talk of wiping out the Taliban or hunting down the terrorists. The language now focuses on the US military's emerging theories on counter-insurgency, honed in the wars in Iraq and now Afghanistan.

REPORTER: Why has this strategy evolved in this way? Has the US military realised this is the only way to win this conflict?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL WOODS: We had to come in initially and remove insurgent threats. They were a direct threat. Well, now those threats have gone to ground. They are hiding. They are not winning here. They can't win here. The US army as far as evolvement, yeah, we've evolved. You have to involve. If you don't evolve you're useless in this business. We have to look at constantly ways to do it better and do it different.

The next morning the Lieutenant Colonel wants to show me how he is winning. It's not dead or captured Taliban, it's 400 Afghans working on a road paid for by the US military to stop them working for the other side.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL WOODS: The Taliban tried to stop it through verbal threats over the radio and to leadership and they couldn't do it. What's a Taliban gonna do? What, you gonna go out here and shoot people? You're gonna kill 'em? So any support you had in the area or any people on the fence just went completely the other way. You can't kill men with shovels out here working to put food on the table to support their families.

REPORTER: So you think you've outsmarted them?

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: What's that?

REPORTER: You've outsmarted them?

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: I never say we outsmarted them, because how we talked about before, how you have to evolve continuously in a counter-insurgency fight. He'll figure something out and then we'll figure something out.

Down the road the Afghan special forces and their foreign advisers are fighting the war a different way. Last night they surrounded and stormed a nearby compound where they believed Taliban leaders were hiding. They found no Taliban and all they achieved was the resentment of the occupants the same resentment the Lieutenant Colonel is trying to overcome with his programs.

REPORTER: So you were here last night?

SOLDIER: Yeah.

REPORTER: Did you find anything?

SOLDIER: I cannot tell you that because it's maybe classified. Without my team permission I would not share this.

REPORTER: OK, no problem.

SOLDIER: But it was really cold, man, it was really cold, yeah.

As usual, on the advice of their US trainers, special forces don't speak to the press. But before the counter-insurgency can work, nature has thrown some obstacles in its path. These men will be out here for days, sleeping in their vehicles, protecting themselves from a population that is at best wary of them and at worst is trying to kill them.

SOLDIER: We were gonna use that to sleep in. Pile a couple of guys in and get warm. That way, one, they are out of the elements and two, they can somewhat sleep.

Back at the base at first light, these soldiers are getting briefed on a new assignment. The provincial governor is scheduled to meet the local elders at the town hall.

SOLDIER: Try to use the smallest weapon possible. We got a lot of civilians over there in these areas. Those larger weapons are going to carry and we'll have too much collateral damage.

A wide security perimeter is thrown around the town hall to prevent suicide bombers attacking the meeting. The Governor of Paktia, like most of Afghanistan's governors, is appointed by the President, Hamid Karzai, and has little power other than the support of the foreign forces. There are constant threats and attempts on his life. This is the first time he has ever come to meet the elders here.

LOCAL LEADER (Translation): Honourable governor, so many injustices have been done. If you write it with a pen, it will run out of ink and you will run out of paper.

Under heavy security, some local leaders list their grievances to the governor. Many have not come out of fear and hatred for the governor and the foreign forces who protect and support him.

LOCAL LEADER (Translation): A lot of injustice has been done. Our tribal leaders, old men together with women on their way to Gardez has been pulled from the car and told that they are all al-Qaeda and then they have taken the car.

Others complain of the conduct of the Afghan forces on operations here.

LOCAL LEADER (Translation): Right at that moment the soldiers came here and took away 40 people. And released them for $5,000. Where am I going to get $5,000? I have a witness! They should be ashamed of their conscience.

The US commander and the governor listen uncomfortably to the litany of complaints against their forces.

LOCAL LEADER (Translation): Honourable governor, the government forces in Zormat district, they loot houses, they kill people, they detain people.

Again and again I hear how angry Afghans are becoming and that the source of their anger is their treatment in the ongoing operations. But Lieutenant Colonel Wood says the troops are just doing their jobs.

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: We follow the land of law warfare, We follow the rules of engagement, and we teach that to our soldiers, and we teach it over and over, and we teach it to our ANSF counterparts as well, because not only our mistakes will set us back, but a mistake they make can also set the entire process back. That's what you tell them everyday.

REPORTER: What do you say to your men who go out there every day facing IED attacks, facing small-arms fire attacks, to make them go on, to make them continue, to make them not respond in a way that will jeopardise the progress that has been made?

LT COLONEL DAVE WOODS: I think the first thing you do is you thank them every single day. Most of these kids in the business have joined after 9/11. They came here for a reason. All of them have a reason. Whether they express it or not, they have a reason. Most of them are re-enlisting. I've got better re-enlistment here than I have in the United States. It's because they believe in what they are doing. So you have to thank them first of all. The second thing you have to do is you have to explain to them the counter-insurgency fight, how we are trying to achieve victory. How we are trying to bring this whole thing together to achieve victory. I think you have to remind them too, "Look, you're giving people something they have never had. You're giving them freedom. Maybe not your version of freedom you have back home or my version back home, yet, but that freedom is coming." It's coming every single day. And they are providing that. They are providing the underpinning so that can happen. That is what you tell 'em. And you gotta tell 'em the costs have been high to be here. We cannot go back for a single incident or mistake that we make here.

But with the Afghan war entering its seventh year, and more than 6,000 Afghans killed in the past 12 months, it seems any freedom will be a long time coming for the people of Afghanistan. 

GEORGE NEGUS: John Martinkus there, embedded with the Americans in Afghanistan. And Dateline has just learned that a suicide bomber attacked a building in the province of Khost yesterday close to where John was filming. 2 NATO soldiers were killed and 15 others injured. If you would like to hear more from John, you can catch him on our website with a backgrounder on just how US military media minders try to control what journalists see and are allowed to film in Afghanistan.