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Afghanistan; Where are we now? The Grand Central Times - Dateline September 12th 2019 The Afghan Flag flying over Kabul during a major Taliban Offensive in late 2018 The middle eastern country of Afghanistan has long been a hotbed for U.S. and NATO military activity. Cities and territory have changed hands so many times people have stopped keeping count and western progress in the region always seems to ebb and flow. The most recent ebb in the progress has been the Iranian-backed chemical weapon attacks which occurred just shy of 1 year ago in 2018, one in August and one in November. Since then, Afghanistan began a large spiral out of control as western backed leaders were assassinated, schools and roads were disrupted and NATO and ANA forces were muscled out of the entire northern part of the country. This action allowed ISIS and the Taliban to further grow in strength and the progress in Afghanistan to look bleaker than it had in years. This was, however, until a coalition of leaders within the anarchy of Northern Afghanistan banded together in the form of the Northern Alliance, a callback to a previous organization by the same name, and surprisingly began making ground against ISIS-A and Taliban forces. It is worth noting that while the Pentagon did not confirm the presence of US Special forces in this region aiding the Northern Alliance until mid August, there are many that speculate that after the withdraw of conventional troops, US Special Forces had a presence in the region much earlier than reported. Whatever the case, the fact remains that the newly formed Northern Alliance put an abrupt pause to the rapid expansion of ISIS and the Taliban in the region. During this time, alarming studies were revealed that as much as 45% of ANA forces had moderate to severe issues with substance abuse which resulted in a dramatic loss of discipline and combat effectiveness. This called into serious question the training, selection, and recruitment process being used by Afghan leadership and prompted a rapid turnover of much of the training and recruitment process to "NATO Specialists" who began a drastic rework of the ANA's combat potential. A few months later their efforts would appear to pay off, as in late July the newly reformed 3rd Brigade was deployed, with NATO supervision, to Kandahar to counter a major Taliban offensive in the area. Amidst five days of fighting more than 300 Taliban fighters were killed with only 18 men lost within the ANA's 3rd Brigade. The dramatic turnaround in the effectiveness of the ANA, or at least this group of them, is credited to the NATO reforms. US Special Forces conduct an early morning helicopter landing during training with ANA Finally, during mid August the Pentagon confirmed the presence of US Special Forces in northern Afghanistan who were directly interfacing with the Northern Alliance. We have yet to find out how NATO intends to deal with the Northern Alliance in the long run, as they have formed their own government and military forces separate to that of the ANA, but for the time being it seems that the US is more than happy to work with them to re-secure the country. This successful partnership and the steps back in the direction of stability was punctuated in late August by reports of intense Taliban infighting. There are no official sources that say what exactly happened, but rumors suggest an attempted coup-de-ta within Taliban leadership that resulted in this large scale internal conflict. Some reports say the coup was successful and Malik-al-ransoor, the de facto leader of the Taliban, was killed in the fighting and has been replaced. Other reports say he is alive and well or that the coup was crushed and he was replaced by another of the Taliban's leadership. The Pentagon has not commented on the status of the Taliban leader and only has said that US is "monitoring the situation." Whatever the reality is, the result is that the Taliban across Afghanistan have gone entirely quiet for nearly a month. The Northern Alliance, ANA, and NATO have seized on this opportunity and taken back major swathes of territory, now having only to contend with the remaining ISIS-A forces. The "New ANA" have reported several continued victories against the ISIS-A forces and a spokesperson for the ANA stated that portions of ISIS are now fleeing to Pakistan. What was a sharp downward spiral for the progression of Afghanistan appears to have been brought to a sudden halt through the efforts of local leaders, NATO and the New ANA. But, if there's one thing we've learned in the years of fighting, its that progress in Afghanistan ebbs and flows. Will this be the final stretch and settle the conflict in the region once and for-all? Or will it be another of the endless ups and downs, the country doomed to exist in a perpetual state of war. Only time will tell. Stay tuned for more as the story continues to unfold. Alan White - The Grand Central Times *This news report is a fictional work created to support the 3d MRB ARMA gameplay

These are all very helpful for catching up on what we've been up to! Great work Cap, and all the article writers

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