Insurgency/Counter-Insurgency

"They die here so they don't have to die in Iraq" Maj. John Clearwater of Ft. Irwin's PAO
The Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, in California's Mojave Desert is a military training sand box often referred to as "the box" the size of Rhode Island. 50,000 troops are trained here each year. Force on force used to be the mantra but now its RPGs and IEDs. Learning to deal with the real world situations of today's Iraq. About 1,600 troops and civilians including 250 Iraqi Americans are the OpFor or opposing force to the visiting units.
"If you took off the blind-fold and told me this was Afghanistan, I would say OK." Said New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins who has lived and covered the war in Afghanistan and Iraq for the past three -and-a-half years.
The slide show: Insurgency