Don’t forget Sangin, and that America is still at war in Afghanistan

As Stars and Stripes reporter Chad Garland noted on Wednesday, the loss last week of Sgt. Reymund Transfiguracion is a solemn reminder that America remains at war in Afghanistan.

The town of Sangin in the southern Helmand province encapsulates the U.S. story in Afghanistan. Because in Sangin, all progress has been hard won and sometimes fleeting. Originally under the British military’s responsibility, Sangin saw more than one hundred British soldiers and Royal Marines killed in action between 2006 and 2010. When the U.S. Marines took responsibility for the area in 2010, they engaged in a bloody two-year fight to push the Taliban out.

Why so much focus on one small town? Because coalition commanders have viewed Sangin as crucially important to Afghan stability. Sitting at the north of a river valley, Sangin is a key Helmand thoroughfare for drugs, Taliban fighters, and commerce. The coalition has long believed that controlling Sangin would lead to eventual control over Helmand. And the courage of those American and British forces who have fought for Helmand is immortalized by names like Robert Kelly and Mark Evison (read Toby Harnden’s “Dead Men Risen“), and others like Joseph Rodewald, Rob Richards, Hansen Kirkpatrick, Eric Torbert Jr, and Matthew Harrison.

In 2018, while U.S. forces are now officially only advising the Afghan national army in Sangin and Helmand, U.S. forces continue to often take the lead in operations. This speaks to something important: although various diplomatic initiatives are underway in Afghanistan, America’s role there continues to be defined by war.