A Dutch reporter embedded with American troops from 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (ABCT).
Documentary: Hunting for Taliban
In this award-winning documentary we follow reporter Tom Kleijn and Joris Hentenaar, who were embedded for 2 1/2 weeks with an American unit searching for Taliban fighters in the vast mountain area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
They traveled with an American military transport from Kabul to the large American base in Kandahar and subsequently to an advance post in the hills. From there the two joined a unit that was eventually dropped in the mountains, in the same area Dutch commandos are active.
The journalists spent a total of five days and four nights with the soldiers hunting for the Taliban. The hunt took place on foot, from village to village, door to door. They witnessed a brief exchange of fire that led to the elimination of a possible Taliban fighter who had taken cover in a cave a large distance away. They also saw two men being captured, who were blindfolded and transported back to the base by helicopter.
The documentary is the account of the long, difficult hunt for invisible Taliban fighters. The viewer sees mostly powerlessness. The powerlessness of a superpower that can occupy a country but can't win the war. The powerlessness of a soldier who fights an invisible enemy. The powerlessness of the ordinary Afghan, who runs the risk of being taken in by American commandos one day and the next day must fear execution at the hands of the Taliban. The soldiers of the unit tell the journalists among other things about the usefulness of their work, about how it feels to kill people and about the way they view their enemies.
23 дек 2007
