Paula Broadwell, a former adviser to General Petraeus and current PhD candidate at King’s College London, [...] is touring the war on a research trip.[...]
The artillery unit, acting as a provisional infantry battalion, went on the offensive to clear a village, Tarok Kalache, where the Taliban had conducted an intimidation campaign to chase the villagers out, then create a staging base to attack 1-320th’s outposts. The village of Tarok Kalache was laden with IEDs and homemade explosives (HME) comprised of 50-gal drums of deadly munitions. Special Operations forces conducted a successful clearing raid on the village.
Successfully cleared.
Nowhere in [her] account is there a sense that the villagers felt any ill-will toward the Americans beforehand—rather, Broadwell explicitly describes the village as being victimized by the Taliban first, then being completely obliterated by the Americans.[...]
Indeed, clearing operations are a necessary evil to weed out the Taliban, and they often leave devastating destruction in the wake. But what Aziz failed to note is the tremendous effort some units, like 1-320th, have made to rebuild his country. As of today, reconstruction efforts are well on track for Tarok Kalache and others in his AO. Mosque construction is underway, the irrigation canals and culverts are being restored, and the local government has been an active participant in the process of assisting the people of the village in rebuilding their homes.
Well, isn’t that nice?
More succinctly put...
The Taliban fighters and their "dense pattern[s]" of IEDs "terrified" the Combined Joint Task Force 1-320th, which sustained heavy losses in two attempts to clear the village, and eventually Lt. Col. David Flynn decided the only way to maintain momentum was to blow it to bits.
...and hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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