St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan

St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan
By Charles Jaco FOX2now.com
May 17, 2010

LOUIS (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - A St. Louis area Marine came home on leave Monday from combat in Afghanistan and his story tells us a lot about the kind of war our troops are fighting. U.S. Enclaves, strict rules of engagement, a hit-and-run enemy, the inability to tell friend from foe: that's the reality in Afghanistan. And as combat heats up so will the problems. Marine Corporal Nicholas Wicker is one small part of one large war that's becoming larger.

20,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Division had been slugging it out with the Taliban in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. Now, they're responsible for two other provinces, tripling their combat area in a region infested with Taliban. It's also the primary opium poppy producing area of the country.

"Every day. Every day. Summer months it gets worse. They hammer you in summer. Let off. It never ends," says Cpl. Wicker.

In Helmand Province, about one-third the size of Missouri, 9 marines have been killed just this month. And with a summertime goal to root the Taliban out of their traditional strongholds, expect that total to go up:
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St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan