WEBVTT 00:00.440 --> 00:03.880 I I will tell you this , The number of 00:03.890 --> 00:05.890 enemy forces on the ground has been 00:05.890 --> 00:08.420 significantly reduced over the past 12 00:08.420 --> 00:11.420 months . Uh the insurgency , as I said 00:11.420 --> 00:13.698 that we faced , we got here was robust . 00:13.698 --> 00:15.864 Uh there were , it's difficult to give 00:15.864 --> 00:17.809 you exact numbers as much of it is 00:17.809 --> 00:21.040 local with with the young men who come 00:21.040 --> 00:24.550 and go and much of it is also transient 00:24.550 --> 00:27.560 coming in from across the border . But 00:27.560 --> 00:30.880 it was a significant enough force 00:31.170 --> 00:34.180 to mass and fight us in in platoon 00:34.180 --> 00:37.220 sized units . Uh that force , the enemy 00:37.220 --> 00:39.442 force has been significantly reduced in 00:39.442 --> 00:41.500 the past 12 months . Uh battlefield 00:41.500 --> 00:44.640 nutrition has been uh substantial . We 00:44.640 --> 00:47.480 have that we have lost uh too many 00:47.480 --> 00:49.758 people , They have lost many many more . 00:50.340 --> 00:53.330 And I can tell you that uh the ratios 00:53.330 --> 00:55.497 there , although , you know , we don't 00:55.497 --> 00:57.497 do body counts these days . Uh they 00:57.497 --> 00:59.497 they are substantial and we we feel 00:59.497 --> 01:01.608 that we have one every engagement and 01:01.608 --> 01:04.040 dealt him a a very , very significant 01:04.040 --> 01:06.620 blow . We believe we're also seeing the 01:06.620 --> 01:09.110 beginnings of uh enemy forces who are 01:09.110 --> 01:11.110 leaving the insurgency to come back 01:11.110 --> 01:13.920 over to uh to the government side . And 01:13.920 --> 01:16.031 again , it's the local insurgency . I 01:16.031 --> 01:18.253 believe many of the local fighters just 01:18.253 --> 01:20.364 simply drift away from the insurgency 01:20.364 --> 01:22.587 to return to their homes without any uh 01:22.587 --> 01:25.630 without any uh we don't really know 01:25.630 --> 01:28.090 those kinds of numbers . We'll see what 01:28.090 --> 01:30.146 he brings back to the battlefield in 01:30.146 --> 01:32.257 the in the spring . My guess would be 01:32.257 --> 01:34.201 again , a significantly reduced uh 01:34.201 --> 01:36.312 number . We see that in his tactics , 01:36.312 --> 01:39.530 we see that in the uh support that he's 01:39.530 --> 01:41.808 getting the local level and so I could , 01:41.808 --> 01:43.919 I can promise you that the numbers he 01:43.919 --> 01:45.974 brings you back in april will be far 01:45.974 --> 01:48.030 less the numbers he had last april . 01:48.040 --> 01:50.207 Yeah . Let me address the situation in 01:50.207 --> 01:52.220 Sangin . Uh first the sank the 01:52.230 --> 01:54.452 situation , Sangin is much improved and 01:54.452 --> 01:57.690 the center district is uh is uh really 01:57.690 --> 01:59.980 free of insurgents and uh relatively 01:59.980 --> 02:01.980 free of insurgent activity . We see 02:01.980 --> 02:05.530 very little activity . We have begun to 02:05.530 --> 02:07.752 push that envelope out to both sides of 02:07.752 --> 02:09.808 Sangin district center , both to the 02:09.808 --> 02:11.697 north and to the south . That's a 02:11.697 --> 02:13.697 result of about one year's worth of 02:13.697 --> 02:15.752 effort up there . An effort that was 02:15.752 --> 02:18.210 started by the rifles continued on by 02:18.210 --> 02:20.266 40 commando as you know , during the 02:20.266 --> 02:22.620 early part of last summer , at which 02:22.620 --> 02:24.676 point I made a decision to reinforce 02:24.676 --> 02:26.620 that effort by proving some of the 02:26.620 --> 02:28.590 marine forces into that area . And 02:28.600 --> 02:30.600 through the early fall we fought up 02:30.600 --> 02:32.700 there as a combined team U . S . 02:32.710 --> 02:35.360 Marines and the and the commandos . 02:35.840 --> 02:37.896 They did have a tremendous amount of 02:37.896 --> 02:39.840 good work pushing out the security 02:39.840 --> 02:42.062 bubble and defeating a very dug in very 02:42.062 --> 02:45.420 tough , very entrenched insurgent uh 02:45.430 --> 02:47.700 force that was really all about the 02:47.710 --> 02:51.570 city . Uh we 02:51.570 --> 02:53.737 continue to put pressure on the on the 02:53.737 --> 02:55.737 insurgents in that area And when we 02:55.737 --> 02:57.737 when it transitioned and uh into an 02:57.737 --> 02:59.848 american force , we began to continue 02:59.848 --> 03:01.959 to push north towards Kajaki again to 03:01.959 --> 03:04.070 take more and more pressure off the , 03:04.070 --> 03:06.237 off the center of the city . So it was 03:06.237 --> 03:08.403 a long , hard difficult fight . Each , 03:08.403 --> 03:10.348 each one was a brick . Each , each 03:10.348 --> 03:12.459 effort was a brick if you will in the 03:12.459 --> 03:14.403 wall of success and there's no one 03:14.403 --> 03:16.681 particular unit at one particular time . 03:16.681 --> 03:18.848 I don't think that could be , could be 03:18.848 --> 03:21.126 picked off as being the market success . 03:21.126 --> 03:21.020 But I think it was a long team effort 03:21.020 --> 03:23.460 that got it . Got us where we are as we 03:23.460 --> 03:25.516 look now . Because you probably have 03:25.516 --> 03:29.510 heard of the uh the uh Sang in 03:29.520 --> 03:31.910 uh security arrangements , we have now 03:31.910 --> 03:33.900 pushed the fight well north of the 03:33.910 --> 03:36.021 Sangin district center up towards the 03:36.021 --> 03:39.280 Kajaki dam area , we know north of that 03:39.860 --> 03:41.700 where it's very rural , very 03:41.700 --> 03:43.867 mountainous , very low population . We 03:43.867 --> 03:45.922 know that that is one of the last uh 03:45.922 --> 03:48.144 readouts if you will of where the enemy 03:48.144 --> 03:50.311 can hide so that we feel there's still 03:50.311 --> 03:52.422 a fairly good insurgent population up 03:52.422 --> 03:54.478 there . However , they are separated 03:54.478 --> 03:56.589 from the Helmand population , they're 03:56.589 --> 03:58.700 separated from their base of supply , 03:58.700 --> 04:00.922 which is the people who live here , who 04:00.922 --> 04:02.922 they steal and take things from and 04:02.922 --> 04:05.089 there will separate from being able to 04:05.089 --> 04:07.033 impact on the center six districts 04:07.033 --> 04:09.144 which are our focus of effort . So if 04:09.144 --> 04:08.800 we push him into the mountains , 04:08.810 --> 04:10.866 although we know he's up there , the 04:10.866 --> 04:12.977 question becomes is irrelevant And so 04:12.977 --> 04:15.088 we feel that we're making some very , 04:15.088 --> 04:17.199 very good progress in that area . And 04:17.199 --> 04:19.199 uh and we're satisfied with the way 04:19.199 --> 04:18.760 it's going .