THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

US soldiers are being redeployed in Afghanistan to support the Afghan Army in Helmand province. According to the Pentagon, which produces more shit than the entire US dairy industry, they are only going there to train and advise and assist the helpless boogers.

Col. Michael T. Lawhorn, a spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the new deployment would provide protection for the current Special Operations troops in Helmand and give extra support and training for the 215th Corps of the Afghan National Army. Afghan forces in Helmand have taken heavy casualties in recent months and have been cut off by the Taliban in many places.

“Our mission,” Colonel Lawhorn said, “remains the same: to train, advise, and assist our Afghan counterparts, and not to participate in combat operations.”

He would not detail the number of troops or the unit involved in the deployment, citing Pentagon policy. But a senior American military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said the unit being sent to Helmand, the Second Battalion, 87th Infantry, was slightly smaller than the usual battalion size of 700 to 800 soldiers. On Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported that up to a battalion would be sent to Helmand.

The new troops are replacing another unit that was already in Afghanistan, the official said, and were not adding to the total number of American troops in the country, which stands at roughly 9,800 service members.

The official could not say where the deployment would be based within Helmand, but said they said that the problems in the province demanded the attention of American and Afghan commanders.

“Certainly Helmand is the diciest place in Afghanistan right now, the place where ANSF have had the most setbacks from without and within,” the official said, using the abbreviation for the Afghan National Security Forces, meaning the army and police. “It’s part of what matters most right now or the future of the country.”

The additional American soldiers would be “doing some retraining, re-equipping and advising” for the troubled Afghan 215th Army Corps, the official added.

And if the locals shoot at them, they will shoot back. And if the Talibs have any success we will have to double down on our continuing failure. The slope will get slippery soon enough.