 |
Afghan battlefields are too chaotic for coalition gunships to sort out friend from foe, said a local reservist who recently returned from a six-month combat tour.
Rather, pilots tell friendly forces to hunker down while they open fire on everything before them, killing Afghan security forces and civilians along with Taliban fighters.
"Identifying enemies scattered among locals, members of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police would be near impossible from the air," said Cpl. Darcy Ressler, an Edmonton paramedic who returned from a tour as an infantryman in Afghanistan yesterday.
It's unfortunate, he said, but American chopper pilots say they don't have time to sort multiple targets.
"They don't want to know where the enemy is ... they want to know where we are. That way they know where not to fire, and everything else gets lit up with 30-mm cannons.
"Anyone in the way gets ripped to pieces."
Ressler, 34, called innocent casualties a sad cost of conflict, saying "everyone does the best they can ... but indirect fire can only be so accurate."
He described the harrowing war zones in and around Kandahar City, where he was based.
"At worst, a workday in Edmonton might involve a shooting. What I saw there ... I've never faced trauma like that.
"I pronounced two men dead who'd been hacked to pieces. Someone had started to saw their heads off with a dull knife, but didn't quite finish. It turned out they were brothers of two members of the Afghan National Police. (The enemy) was obviously trying to send them a message."
But violence begets violence, and Ressler said vicious reprisals are used by both sides in the domestic conflict.
"The Afghan police and army aren't much better. I saw suspects taken away for interrogation that I never saw again."
One rumour - about a man who was hung in the centre of Kandahar City and skinned because he threatened to bomb the coalition base - is so rampant Ressler thinks it's true.
"The local cops don't mess around. There's enough fear of them that the base hasn't been attacked for two years."
He called Afghan security members "savage" but fair, considering the murderous resistance they face.
"They are brave beyond words. People are trying to destroy their country, firing bullets everywhere, and these guys are the first to stand up and run toward them."
Ressler said that although he'd like to return to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, he found it frustrating to work as a soldier in a place where so many need a medic's help.
"Someone could be dying in front of me and I couldn't help them until we'd secured the area. Turning your back on a crowd in Afghanistan could mean the end."
Ressler says the bravery and honour displayed by most Afghans gives him hope they will conquer those who would see their elected government fall.
"But right now, all they have is boots on the ground and machine- guns. It's going to take (years) before they can stand alone and solve their problems themselves."