Afghanistan's gray line

By Philip Smucker

Along Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan, the U.S. Army is focused on reaching out to Afghan villagers and building local institutions. Immense mountains and abject poverty stand out as obstacles to success, but it is the human terrain that presents the greatest challenge.

In this mini-documentary, Lt. Jake Kerr, West Point Class '07, leads his motley "Combat Platoon" out of a remote outpost in the Dangam District of eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province. Kerr, 25, of Lake Placid, N.Y., struggles to improve his skills as a peacemaker and diplomat even as the Taliban and his own "warrior" alter-ego draw him deeper into combat.

As more platoon-sized U.S. Army bases in eastern Afghanistan are abandoned over security fears, President Obama and the military's top brass must scrutinize the hard work of "Combat Platoon" and others like it. In doing so, they must balance the pros of having America's best foot forward, protecting the Afghans in a classic interpretation of Gen. Petraeus' counter-insurgency doctrine, while, at the same time, weighing the cons of putting more fighters in harm's way in a conflict that has only fragile -- sometimes fickle -- support at home.

This look at life on the front lines was filmed and narrated by Philip Smucker, the author of Al Qaeda’s Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror’s Trail. (Potomac, 2004.) It is part of a longer documentary project to accompany his forthcoming book, My Brother, My Enemy: America and the Battle of Ideas across the Islamic World. (Prometheus, 2010.)