Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

Somehow these hickory-tough tribesmen not only survived the onslaught of
American bombing and escaped from the advancing Northern Alliance, but they
also evaded one of the biggest manhunts in the history of warfare as an
increasingly frustrated United States moved heaven and earth to capture bin
Laden, Mullah Omar, and the rest. I guess their propensity to run like hell from
strong opposition and their rapid exit into the Pakistani mountains on the other
side of the border allowed them to limit their human and material resources.
It also bought them time. And while they undoubtedly lost many of their
followers after a front-row view of what the American military could and would
do, they also had many months to begin recruiting and training a brand-new
generation of supporters. And now they were back as an effective fighting army,
launching guerrilla operations against the U.S.-led coalition forces only four
years after they’d lost power, been driven into exile, and had nearly been
annihilated.
As we prepared for our final approach to the great, sprawling U.S. base at
Bagram, the Taliban were once again out there, killing aid workers and
kidnapping foreign construction workers. Parts of eastern and southern
Afghanistan have been officially designated unsafe due to increasingly daring
Taliban attacks. There was evidence they were extending their area of influence,
working closely again with bin Laden’s al Qaeda, forging new alliances with
other rebel groups and anti-government warlords. Same way they’d grabbed
power last time, right? Back in 1996.
Only this time they had one principal ambition before seizing power, and that
was to destabilize the U.S.-led coalition forces and eventually drive them out of
Afghanistan forever.
I ought to mention the Pashtuns, the world’s oldest living tribal group; there
are about forty-two million of them. Twenty-eight million live in Pakistan, and
12.5 million of them live in Afghanistan; that’s 42 percent of the entire
population. There are about 88,000 living in Britain and 44,000 in the U.S.A.
In Afghanistan, they live primarily in the mountains of the northeast, and
they also have heavily populated areas in the east and south. They are a proud
people who adhere to Islam and live by a strict code of honor and culture,
observing rules and laws known as Pashtunwalai, which has kept them straight
for two thousand years.
They are also the quintessential supporters of the Taliban. Their warriors
form the backbone of the Taliban forces, and their families grant those forces
shelter in high mountain villages, protecting them and providing refuge in places