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After a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, Doc Todd suffered from PTSD. With his new album Combat Medicine, he hopes to show other veterans that they're not alone. ZoomWorks Photography/Courtesy of Doc Todd hide caption

After a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, Doc Todd suffered from PTSD. With his new album Combat Medicine, he hopes to show other veterans that they're not alone.

There is no one sure way to reach combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or substance abuse. But a new hip-hop album called Combat Medicine, released Wednesday, might help. It was written and performed by George "Mik" Todd, who goes by the name Doc Todd. He's a former Fleet Marine Force corpsman essentially a combat medic who served alongside the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

Todd's style is tough and direct in a way that only one veteran can be to another. In the song "Not Alone," he urges veterans to take action in their own recovery.

Take those bottles out, dog

and pour 'em in the sink.

Take the needles out of your arm

And the gun away from your forehead.

It's time, man.

You've been through enough pain.

Stand up.

It's time to stand back up.

Todd says the song is about empowerment, "about taking charge of your life, taking charge of your transition" from the combat zone to civilian life.

In his own transition, Doc Todd went through many of the issues other veterans face: shame, isolation, self-abuse. For Todd, it began in 2009 after he was in a large and dangerous battle in Afghanistan. Many of his friends were seriously wounded. His roommate was killed. Todd was medically evacuated to Germany after he fell seriously ill with pneumonia.

"That tore me up so bad, because I felt like I was alienated from the guys I served with," Todd recalls. "I felt like there was an asterisk next to my deployment. I felt like it would've been better if I got shot because that would've been more heroic."

George "Mik" Todd seen here in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in July 2009. He served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. Courtesy of Doc Todd hide caption

George "Mik" Todd seen here in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in July 2009. He served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines.

Todd says it took him several years before he got help for his PTSD. He was depressed and started drinking heavily. Eventually, he realized what he needed to be doing was helping other veterans. With savings from his job as a money manager and help from his wife, he was able to quit his job. He'd been making music since he was a teenager. Now, he wanted to use his music to help veterans heal. And he had plenty of material for his lyrics.

The struggle is real

Found a feast

And lost a soul

Eventually my drinking

It got out of control

There in darkness, I roamed

Struggling to find home

See Suddenly death didn't

Feel so Alone

In the video for "Not Alone," a young veteran gets out of bed and immediately reaches for the bottle. That scenario is all too real, says former Marine Zach Ludwig who served with Todd in Afghanistan and is now working through his own PTSD.

"He knows what to say and how to say it," Ludwig says, pointing to Todd's combat experience. "What the man says is just blunt force truth."

Todd says facing the truth, no matter how difficult, can do more to help veterans than "coddling" them. His mission with Combat Medicine is to show vets they're not alone and to urge them to get help.

"We have to be responsible for empowering our own lives. And it doesn't really help when the overwhelming narrative is victimization and brokenness," he says.

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Combat Veteran Fights PTSD Through Hip-Hop : Shots - Health ... - NPR

Afghanistan is at a critical point in its battle against multiple insurgencies and terrorist groups, the Pentagon has said in a new report to Congress. It also reveals that US and Afghan authorities are seeking peace through talks with the Taliban.

Sixteen years after the US-led invasion aimed at overthrowing the Taliban and denying a safe haven to Al-Qaeda the group blamed for 9/11 terrorist attacks Afghanistan is facing a continuing threat from as many as 20 insurgent and terrorist networks, in what the US Department of Defense called the highest concentration of extremist and terrorist groups in the world.

That is one of the assessments in the just-released Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan, covering US efforts between December 1, 2016 and May 31 of this year. Thesemi-annual report is required under the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The US and Afghan Governments agree that the best way to ensure lasting peace and security in Afghanistan is through reconciliation and a political settlement with the Taliban, the report says.

While no measure of territorial control is given, the Pentagon says that as of February 2017, the Taliban exercised influence or control over 11 percent of the Afghan population, the government could claim 65 percent, and the rest was contested.

Though the Taliban achieved only limited successes, it presented them as strategic victories through the proficient use of social media and propaganda campaigns.

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The Afghan National Army (ANA) is approximately 20,000 strong under the authorized level of 195,000 troops. It is generally capable of protecting major population centers, preventing the Taliban from maintaining prolonged control of specific areas, and responding to Taliban attacks, the report states.

President Mohammed Ashraf Ghanis government is seeking to double the size of Special Forces in order to take the battle to the enemy, while relying on local militias called the National Uprising Forces to provide security in rural areas.

However, these groups have limited accountability and a disregard for human rights, and they can exacerbate tribal and ethnic tensions if not properly monitored, the Pentagon concluded.

The plan to modify the force structure and develop into a more agile and lethal force is underway, but 2017 is a year of setting conditions to build momentum, the report said.

Afghanistans armed forces are funded primarily through the Pentagons Afghanistan Security Forces Fund (ASFF), which in the fiscal year 2017 amounted to $4.26 billion. President Donald Trumps 2018 budget request would see the funding increased to $4.937 billion. NATO allies have pledged approximately $900 million a year through 2020, while the Afghan government remains committed to spending roughly $500 million a year.

Over $800 million is earmarked for transitioning the Afghan aviation fleet away from Soviet-designed Mi-17 utility helicopters to US-made Blackhawks.

The Afghan Air Force began to operate its own bombers for the first time in 2016, using the Brazilian A-29 Super Tucano turboprop attack planes. There are currently 12 A-29s in service, with another seven scheduled for delivery in 2018.

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The report was more optimistic about the efforts against Al-Qaeda and Islamic States Khorasan group (ISIS-K), which have lost territory and are focusing on survival. At its peak, ISIS-K had a presence in six provinces, but is currently confined to four districts in Nangarhar Province.

Casualty figures paint a grim picture, however. In the six months covered by this report, there were 4,806 effective enemy-initiated attacks or 801 per month, compared to 4,727 or 788 a month in the previous reporting period. Five American soldiers were killed and 36 wounded. There were also 38 attacks on Afghan forces by their own members, known as green-on-green.

NATOs Civilian Casualty Mitigation Team documented more than 3,600 civilian casualties, of which approximately a third were deaths and two thirds were injuries. This was a 32.7 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago. The report also included figures by the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), according to which some 715 civilians were killed and 1,466 were wounded between January and May 2017.

As of May 31, a total of 1,865 US military personnel have been killed in action and 20,272 have been wounded since the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.

The US currently has 8,400 troops in the country, conducting both the training, advising and assisting of Afghan security forces and counterterrorism operations against ISIS-K, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. The report did not mention a need for additional troops.

The estimated cost of the report was $225,000.

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Pentagon's report paints grim picture of Afghanistan in 2017 - RT.com - RT

The attack began Sunday morning when a suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives at the main entrance of the police headquarters in the eastern city of Gardez in Paktia province.

The blast cleared the way for the other six attackers who stormed the police station and targeted Afghan officers.

Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said two gunmen were immediately killed by Afghan police, while the other others held out for hours. It took Afghan security forces most of the day to kill the last gunmen.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

"Around 6:20 (local time) this morning, a martyr attack was conducted by our mujahideen against a special forces base in Gardez, Paktia," Mujahid said.

"First a car bomb detonated then our mujahideen entered the building, opening fire on police," he added.

In April, the Taliban launched their "spring offensive" against Afghan and international forces stationed in the war-torn country.

Read:Opinion: Observe and reflect on Afghanistan

A massive truck bomb killed at least 90 people in the Afghan capital Kabul on May 31, 2017. The target of the attack was Kabul's heavily fortified diplomatic area in the "Green Zone." The German embassy in the area was extensively damaged. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban and the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) have staged large attacks in the city in the past.

The blast in Kabul's diplomatic enclave was the latest in a long line of attacks on the Afghan capital. Earlier in May, eight foreign soldiers were killed in a bomb attack claimed by IS. In March, insurgents attacked an Afghan military hospital in Kabul's diplomatic district, killing 38 people and injuring more than 70 others, namely patients, doctors and nurses.

In April, Afghanistan's Taliban vowed to ramp up assaults on coalition and Afghan security forces, announcing the start of their annual spring offensive. The group said they were changing tactics for this year's operation, naming it "Operation Mansour" after the group's late leader who was killed in 2016 in a US drone strike.

US President Donald Trump has yet to announce his Afghanistan policy. Afghanistan expert Michael Kugleman told DW Trump's Afghanistan policy will in many ways be quite similar to that of the Obama administration. "Like Obama, Trump will likely also express support for the idea of reconciliation between the Taliban and the Afghan government," said Kugelman.

But the Taliban have shown no interest in peace talks. Afghanistan observers say it is unlikely that the militant group will engage in any negotiations as they currently have the upper hand on the battleground. The Islamists now control more Afghan districts than at any other time since 2001.

President Ghani said last year his country "no longer expects Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table." Experts say Islamabad uses Taliban militants as proxy jihadists to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan. Former Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan (pictured), was recently captured and pardoned by Islamabad after he accused India of supporting the Taliban.

Apart from the Taliban, the Afghan warlords excercise massive influence in the country. Earlier in May, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.

Russia has increased its involvement in Afghanistan. Moscow had maintained an apparent distance from the Afghan conflict for many years but a new geopolitical situation is emerging in the region, and it seems that Russia has decided not to remain "neutral" in the protracted conflict. In the past few months, Russia has hosted a number of Afghanistan conferences involving China, Pakistan and Iran.

In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.

Author: Shamil Shams

Deteriorating security situation

The so-called "Islamic State" (IS) militant group and the Taliban have launched numerous attacks in Afghanistan in the past few months, with experts saying that President Ashraf Ghani's government is failing to protect citizens.

Read:'China and Russia want US out of Afghanistan'

"The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated further. Afghan security forces control only about 57 percent of the country's territory. Around 2.5 million people live in areas controlled by the Taliban and nine million more live in contested areas," Nicole Birtsch, an Afghanistan researcher at the Berlin-based think tank, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), told DW.

"The number of civilian victims, including many children, remains high. And many people are internally displaced due to the fighting between government forces and the Taliban," she added.

Sunday's attack came as the Pentagon is getting ready to send some 4,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan.

The latest wave of US troops will mainly be deployed to train and advise Afghan forces, following warnings by top US commanders in the region that the local military was facing a resurgent Taliban and a rising threat posed by IS.

Read:Afghan soldier attacks US troops near Mazar-i-Sharif

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Taliban storm police headquarter in eastern Afghanistan ...

Two world figures recently weighed in on the never-ending war in Afghanistan with opposing positions: U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a troop surge, while United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres called for a political solution. Neither seems to think the others approach will work.

The answer may lie somewhere between the two. I dont see this war ending until someone forces Pakistan to stop harboring terrorist groups that keep Afghanistan destabilized.

Its possible that can be achieved with both the carrot and the stick a combination of diplomacy and military strength but nobody in power seems to be seriously addressing the real problem.

In an unannounced visit to Kabul, UN Secretary-General Guterres said, The international community, the neighboring countries related to the Afghan crisis need to come together to understand that this is a war that has no military solution, that we need to have a political solution, we need to have peace.

His words came on the heels of Gen. Mattis decision to send about 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Mattis pledged, We will not repeat the mistakes of the past, and concluded with: Working with the Afghan government and our allies and partners, we will achieve victory against the terrorists abroad.

Gen. Mattis is a respected military officer who sees through the eyes of a warrior. Its not uncommon for a general to ask for more time and more troops. Unfortunately, he is taking the same road that took us nowhere before.

For the past 10 years, we have seen many operations under different names conducted by the U.S and its allies, each celebrated as victory, while bombs wasted countless lives and treasure as Afghan civilians suffered.

I recall talking to one of Gen. David Petraeus staff members in 2011, who told me the general had a new strategy and was reading a book about an ancient warrior whose approach was to choke his victim as does a boa constrictor. Gen. Petraeus would suffocate the Taliban insurgency.

I also remember when British general and NATO commander Nick Carter claimed victory because he was able to travel safely by car from Kandahar to the Spin Boldak district. Some among the U.S. military resented Gen. Carters claim because they also fought hard for the victory.

But was it a victory? Today, the Taliban roam those same areas freely, as they do in most of rural Afghanistan.

The lesson from Afghan history is that more troops alone will not defeat the insurgency, and that lesson continues to be ignored. Gen. Mattis should revisit the history of foreign intervention in this country.

Nearly four decades ago, the Soviet Union sent more than 100,000 troops into Afghanistan. The Red Army fought for nine years, then left in defeat. U.S. forces have been fighting in Afghanistan for 16 years, and Gen. Mattis himself admitted last week that we are not winning in Afghanistan right now.

Why? Because the insurgents have a safe haven where they can train, rest and launch attacks: Pakistan, home of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which believes it has a national interest in countering rival Indias influence in Afghanistan.

If nearly 109,000 Soviet troops failed to uproot the insurgency, what a difference will 4,000 U.S. troops make?

Hope remains lost until there is fundamental change in Pakistans military establishment specifically, the ISI, which thinks it has a right to meddle inside the borders of its western neighbor, Afghanistan. Staffed primarily by members of Pakistans armed forces, the ISI has been working to keep its neighbor weak and under its thumb a destructive belief left over from the imperial era.

The ISI is engaged in a political Jurassic Park-type experiment. Dozens of terrorist groups are allowed to thrive inside Pakistan, but its looking more like the end of the Jurassic Park movie when the raptors become a voracious threat to the stability of Pakistan itself, as well as to central Asia.

The ISI may be patting itself on the back for milking the U.S. and its allies of cash in return for fighting terrorism while at the same time drone-bombing Pashtun tribes in Waziristan and giving sanctuary to terrorist groups, including Taliban leaders. But perhaps they are coming to a tipping point.

The Trump administration may be ambiguous about the Afghanistan situation, but Congress and the Defense Department seem fed up with Pakistans deceptive policies.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said, The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, adding that military action should be an option.

Also, China has a strong motive to pressure Pakistan out of its hostile actions: Chinas trillion-dollar Belt and Road project a resurrection of the old Silk Road trade route between Asia and Europe will pass through northern Afghanistan. If Pakistan continues to use terrorist groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network to disrupt Afghanistan, it could damage Chinas economic interests.

President Xi Jinping recently met with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Astana and offered to mediate between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Xi Jinping pointed out that China considers Afghanistan a friend and will play a constructive role in advancing Afghanistans peaceful reconstruction and reconciliation process.

For its part, Pakistan gives lip service to redemption; Gen. Mattis said he spoke by phone to Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistans chief of army staff, who reiterated Pakistans commitment to counter all militant groups operating in its territory.

Weve heard such statements before. So far, nothing has changed on the ground, and Afghanistan remains embroiled in a war without end.

Gen. Mattis 4,000 extra troops wont change it, nor will Secretary-General Guterres diplomacy. But maybe both of those approaches, combined with pressure from an economically motivated China? We can hope and dream.

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Troop Surge Won't Save Afghanistan - HuffPost

Pakistan says it will soon begin building a fence along its volatile border with Afghanistan to improve security, a move that has sparked condemnations in Kabul.

The Pakistani Army said in a statement on June 20 that the first phase of fencing will focus on the Bajur, Mohmand, and Khyber tribal regions -- all regarded by authorities as areas prone to cross-border infiltration by various militant groups.

The statement also said that new forts and border posts will be built to improve defense and surveillance along the frontier.

A secure border "is in the common interest of both countries and a well-coordinated border-security mechanism is essential for enduring peace and stability," the statement said.

Afghan authorities, however, are opposed to the building of the fence.

The Associated Press news agency quoted Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, as saying, "Pakistan has no right to fence or construct any building along the border with Afghanistan.

Danish warned of retaliatory action, referring to previous clashes that erupted when Pakistan sought to build border fortifications.

The two countries share a 2,400-kilometer border known as the Durand Line, which Pakistan considers to be an international border but Afghanistan has never recognized.

Afghanistan and Pakistan often accuse each other of turning a blind eye to militant groups operating along their porous border.

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Pakistan Begins Fencing Border With Afghanistan - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty