On The Ground Action Report From Afghanistan

U.S. Army Spc. Isaac Rittman looks out as the sun sets while on watch at the Andar District Center in Miray, Afghanistan, Jan. 05, 2011. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Swafford

The Afghan Diaries: The American Strategy in Winter -- Nate Rawlings, Time Magazine

The Alpha company command post lies at the foot of a towering Soviet grain silo just off of Highway 1 west of Kandahar city. The silo's tower is capped with the shards of a former roof, the result of a U.S. Air Force-dropped JDAM bomb. No one seems to remember when or why Americans bombed the silo; some say it must have been a Taliban stronghold, while others argue it was merely a thumb in the eye of Afghanistan's former occupiers.

A few kilometers down Highway 1, the 3rd Platoon "Punishers" of the 552nd Military Police Company, a platoon from Hawaii attached to Alpha Company, shares a tiny compound called Police Substation 7 with members of the Afghan National Police (ANP). The name is somewhat of a misnomer; while the Afghan National Civilian Order Police (ANCOP) is a national-level organization, the ANP are the local police, the equivalent of neighborhood cops who are the front line of security in Kandahar city. Consequently, training the ANP is perhaps one of the most-watched missions at this stage of the war.

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