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Afghanistan: Tough Mission for Marines

Golf Company 13:17

This story was originally published on Oct. 11, 2009. It was updated on July 18, 2010.

If the United States can win in Afghanistan, it will be thanks to the privates and corporals who are now being asked to turn around an eight-year war with a brand new strategy.

"60 Minutes" and correspondent Scott Pelley saw how tough it is when we spent three weeks with the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marines regiment, part of the first troop increase ordered by President Obama. The new plan sounds simple: separate the enemy from the people, then convince the Afghans to support their government. But it requires more forces, more time and more risk.

Golf Company: Number Eight

Last fall, the president sent another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

And back then, we joined with the battalion's Company G, "Golf Company," which was taking the highest casualties in the Taliban homeland.

In September, the men of Golf Company assembled for roll call in their combat outpost. First Sergeant Robert Pullen shouted for Marines who could not answer.

This was the roll of the dead.

The company's 200 Marines paused for a battlefield memorial, for the seven they call "brothers" killed in action: Lance Corporal Jonathan F. Stroud; Lance Corporal Gregory A. Posey; Lance Corporal Dennis J. Burrow; Lance Corporal Javier Olvera; Lance Corporal Patrick W. Schimmel; Lance Corporal Leopold F. Damas; and Lance Corporal David R. Hall.

This was Golf Company last summer, pushing into a part of Afghanistan never occupied by U.S. troops. They were ambushed repeatedly by the Taliban, the enemy that carries the name of the fundamentalist Islamic government overthrown in the U.S. invasion after 9/11.

But the enemy isn't one force: "Taliban" is a catch-all for a collection of tribes and warlords. Some are religious extremists, some are drug traffickers, and in Golf Company's area, many are locals fighting for money.

Golf Company set up in Koshtay, a village in the Garmsir District of Helmand Province near Pakistan.

It's a strange twist of history that Golf Company's area used to be called "Little America." In the 1950s, a massive U.S. foreign aid project dug the canals that now feed half the world's heroin poppies, and shoulder-high marijuana, both prime sources of Taliban cash.

Golf Company covers just a few square miles. The job is to push the Taliban out and stay in place.

Second Lieutenant Dan O'Hara from Chicago is a platoon leader. It's his first combat tour, and two of his Marines had been killed.

Asked how he can distinguish the enemy from citizens, O'Hara told Pelley, "For the most part, you don't until they start shooting at you. And even then, their tactic is hit and run. They will shoot and before you get the chance to close on them, they will run away and kind of just run back into the population."

Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss leads the 2/8 battalion. He sent Golf Company into battle with orders to use restraint.

This was a big change from the past. All U.S. forces in Afghanistan are now being told to protect civilians even if the enemy gets away. Over the last eight years, Afghans have been outraged by civilian deaths and it's a big reason the U.S. is not winning.

"Killing a 1000 Taliban is great but if I kill two civilians in the process, it's a loss," Lt. Col. Cabaniss said.

Asked how many enemies have been killed so far, Cabaniss said, "I have no idea and it's really irrelevant."

"Body counts not something that you track?" Pelley asked.

"It doesn't tell me that I'm being successful. It doesn't tell me that at all. The number of tips that I receive from the local population about IED's in the area, Taliban in the area, that is a measure of effectiveness," Cabaniss explained.

"You talk about restraint. What do you mean by that?" Pelley asked.

"As I told the Marines before we deployed, it's about a three second decision, especially with his personal weapon. The first second is 'Can I?' The next two are 'Should I?' 'What is going to be the effect of my action? Is it going to move the Afghan closer to the government or further away?'" he explained.

After two months, Golf Company reported zero civilians killed - a success - but at the cost of its seven Marines.

The biggest threat to the Marines, O'Hara explained, are improvised explosive devises, IEDs.

The search for explosives and IEDs dominates the patrols. They hunt for the buried plywood that breaks under a boot, and closes the circuit on a 40 pound bomb made of fertilizer. The enemy pays villagers to plant them at $10 each.

IEDs often push the Marines off the roads and into the fields, flooded with sewage. With 60 pounds of armor and weapons, in the summer heat, it's exhausting and it is possible to be so bone tired that the temptation to step on the next solid ground trumps even the fear of death.

On Aug. 31, O'Hara and Lance Corporal Jonathan Quiceno from Orlando planned a mission to clear an IED. It would be a day that O'Hara would not return with all his Marines.

O'Hara's squad destroyed the IED, but coming back, Lance Corporal David Hall from Lorain, Ohio triggered another.

A Medevac helicopter carried his body away and the Taliban opened fire.

The next day, O'Hara gathered Hall's squad. When a Marine is killed, there is worry and doubt, which a platoon leader should end quickly.

"His death is not the fault of anyone who is sitting here, if it belongs to anybody it belongs to me because I was the one who was out there in charge making the decisions. So just understand, we're doin the right things, we're doing good work, we're making a difference here, we're fighting for the people of Afghanistan, we're here fighting for our country which is what we all signed up to do," O'Hara told fellow Marines.

After Hall's death, while out on another patrol, Lance Cpl. Quiceno, told 60 Minutes what many Marines are saying about restraint. They understand the strategy, follow their orders and yet: "It sucks. I don't know another word to say it. It sucks, because all you wanna do is get them, you know, for revenge if, you know, to say the least, you know."

"Because of the Marines who've been lost," Pelley remarked.

"Sure. I mean, definitely. You know, I mean, how many times have we been shot at? How many times do we know a direction, a distance, a compound, a vicinity, where these guys are comin' at, and then conventional war, that's it, you know. That whole compound would go, you know. But we can't drop ordinance on 'em, because of civilian casualties," Quiceno explained.

"But you said it was frustrating. What do you mean?" Pelley asked.

"It's frustrating," Quiceno said. "I don't know if anybody really understands the amount of stress that the guys are already starting to feel because of that. You know? Simply just having their hands tied behind your back, if you will."

While we were with Golf Company, the president was deciding to expand the counter insurgency strategy, which was controversial in Washington. In late August, before the decision to order another 30,000 troops was made, we asked America's top commander in southern Afghanistan, Brigadier General John Nicholson, how the current strategy is supposed to work.

"Clearly at the front end you are involved in heavy security operations in this case," said Nicholson. "While we build up the Afghan security forces until they are at a level of capability where they can take over the majority of the fighting, we are going to be in a front line combat role but over time we become more focused on aspects of this such as the economic development, education and helping the government provide basic services to the people."

"How long does it take to fight a counter insurgency like this?" Pelley asked.

"Well if you look back in history a successful counter insurgency usually lasts at least 14 years," Nicholson replied.

"General you are talking about building a country," Pelley said, "It would take generations to do that."

"Yeah, the first thing I would say is, it's doable, the second thing I come back to is its important," Nicholson said. "Why is it important? This place was the sanctuary for al Qaeda from which they launched attacks against our country. Secondly, the people here want this, they want a better way of life. Yes, it's difficult and yes it's challenging."

It's challenging because 70 percent of Afghans are illiterate and 80 percent have no electricity. One Marine said it's like fighting in the Bible.

In Golf Company's area, skepticism is worn into the faces that confront the company commander, Captain Matt Martin.

The U.S. sees the new strategy as a fresh start; Afghans see it as the start of the ninth year that the Taliban haven't been defeated.

"If the men in your village are working with the Taliban, all I can tell you to tell them is to stop now," Capt. Martin told a group of villagers.

Every Wednesday, Martin holds a village council, called a "shura." This is what his Marines died for - the chance to win the people.

"The government is interested in putting a clinic here in Koshtay," Martin told the villagers.

Martin offers government aid projects, but it's a tough sell. They want to talk about security.

One man said, 'Don't say we are giving refuge to the Taliban. When you leave, they'll attack us. I'm not powerful enough to resist the Taliban. You are not accepting my point of view... We become victims between you and the Taliban."

Another man worried the U.S. force is too small, and he invoked an Afghan saying, "You can't hide the sun with two fingers…the Taliban are everywhere."

The next week, Golf Company was inviting a village leader named Younis to the meeting. He pulled out a letter the Taliban nailed to the mosque, threatening anyone who met with the Americans. But the letter didn't keep him from the meeting and Golf Company counted that as a win.

Younis said, "When we're assured of our security, we'll cooperate with the Afghan army."

On one of our last days with Golf Company, we saw how cooperation can save the lives of Marines.

Using new and secret technology, the Marines destroyed an IED from long range while it was still being planted in a road. 60 Minutes went with Captain Zach Lehman on a patrol to investigate the site. But at the same time, a quarter mile away, a different patrol led by Lance Cpl. Quiceno was stopped by a terrified villager.

The man said the Taliban was setting an ambush for Capt. Lehman's patrol headed to the IED strike. The man risked his life to tip the Marines.

Quiceno reported to base that Lehman's patrol was to be ambushed. Lehman, still unaware, reached the site of the IED.

When word of the planned ambush reached Lehman, the Marines slipped into the cover of a cornfield for the patrol home - a small U.S. victory on a long route out of Afghanistan.

General John Nicholson is now at the Pentagon planning the future of the war.

"This is a start?" Pelley asked.

"Yes. I mean it's a down payment and it's a down payment that we have not made to date and that is to put in the level of security forces necessary to begin to execute the strategy that we have laid out for ourselves," the general replied.

For Golf Company, the down payment has been made. It will be a long time before the Marines know what was purchased with the lives they remembered in the battlefield memorial.

Golf Company lost no more men before its deployment ended in November. The company and the rest of the 2/8 Marines are back in North Carolina now, training for their next deployment, which comes next year.

Produced by Henry Schuster

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