[深入死亡之谷] 星露谷深入地底

　　位于阿富汗东部的科兰高山谷是塔利班和阿尔盖达组织力抢的战略要道，也是美军所遇形势最险恶的一隅。其中第二排的兵力被视为美军的精锐，记者塞巴斯蒂安・荣格尔和摄影师添姆・赫瑟林顿深入到战争腹地，追随他们痛苦缓慢地推进，记录士兵们的嬉笑、咒骂、奔寻掩护，他们自己永远不知道哪个会葬身异乡……
　　从侠客罗宾汉和阿拉贡的佐罗时代开始，有关秩序和反秩序的故事就成了人类传奇的一部分。对于“秩序”和“反秩序”两方我们时常很难真正评判哪一方是正义的。一如我们现在无法界定美国以“反恐”为名义展开的战争的真正动机。那些在战场上浴血奋战的普通士兵也在不知不觉间成为国家间利益争夺的牺牲品……
　　 ――Eva
　　
　　The 20 men of Second 1)Platoon move through the village 2)single file, keeping behind trees and stone houses and going down on one knee from time to time to cover the next man down the line. We are in the village of Aliabad, in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, and the platoon radioman has received word that Taliban gunners are watching us and are about to open fire. Signals intelligence back at the 3)company headquarters has been listening in on the Taliban field radios. They say the Taliban are waiting for us to leave the village before they shoot.
　　Below us is the Korengal River and across the valley is the dark face of the Abas Ghar ridge. The Taliban essentially own the Abas Ghar. The valley is six miles long, and the Americans have pushed halfway down its length.
　　Dusk is falling and the air has a kind of buzzing tension to it, as if it carries an electrical charge. We only have to cover 500 yards to get back to the safety of the 4)firebase, but the route is wide open to Taliban positions across the valley, and the ground has to be crossed 5)at a run. Platoon leader Matt Piosa, a blond, soft-spoken 24-year-old 6)lieutenant from 7)Pennsylvania, 8)makes it to a chest-high stone wall behind the village grade school, and the rest of the squad arrives behind him, 9)laboring under the weight of their wea-pons and body armor. The summer air is thick and hot, and everyone is 10)sweating like horses.
　　I’m carrying a video camera and running it continually so that I won’t have to think about turning it on when the shooting starts. It captures everything my memory doesn’t. Piosa is about to leave the cover of the stone wall and push to the next bit of cover when I hear a 11)staccato 12)popping sound in the distance. “Contact,” Piosa says into his radio and then, “I’m pushing up here,” but he never gets the chance. The next burst comes in even tighter and the video jerks and 13)yaws and Piosa screams, “A 14)tracer just went right by here!” Soldiers are popping up to empty 15)ammo 16)clips over the top of the wall and Piosa is shouting positions into the radio and tracers from our heavy machine guns are
　　17)streaking overhead into the darkening valley.
　　
　　The Korengal is widely considered to be the most dange-rous valley in northeastern Afghanistan, and Second Platoon is considered the tip of the spear for the American forces there. Nearly one-fifth of all combat in Afghanistan occurs in this valley, and nearly three-quarters of all the bombs dropped by NATO forces in Afghanistan are dropped in the surrounding area. There is literally no safe place in the Korengal Valley. Men have been shot while asleep in their 18)barracks tents.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　I went to the Korengal Valley to follow Second Platoon throughout its 15-month deployment. To get into the valley, the American military flies helicopters to the Korengal 19)Outpost―the 20)kop, as it’s known―roughly halfway down the valley.
　　I spent a couple of weeks with Second Platoon and left at the end of June, just before things got bad. Second Platoon began taking fire several times a day, sometimes from distances as close as a hundred yards.
　　I return to Second Platoon in early September. When we arrive, the men of Second Platoon have finished work for the day and are sitting behind 21)hescos, tearing open 22)pouches of ready-to-eat meals. They go to sleep almost as soon as it gets dark, but I stay up talking to a 22-year-old 23)private, Misha Pemble-Belkin, who is sitting on the edge of a 24)cot, cutting the pocket off his uniform. On his left forearm Pemble-Belkin has a tattoo of the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship that became entrapped by sea ice in Antarctica in 1915. “It’s the greatest adventure story ever,” Pemble-Belkin says by way of explanation.
　　He takes the pocket he has just liberated and sews it over a rip in the 25)crotch of his pants, which he is still wearing. The men spend their days clambering around 26)shale hillsides dotted with 27)holly trees, and most of their uniforms are 28)in shreds. Pemble-Belkin uses his free time back at the kop painting and playing guitar, and says that his father was a labor organizer who supports the troops absolutely, but has protested every war the United States has ever been in. His mother sends him letters written on paper she makes by hand.
　　That night I sleep in my boots with my gear close to me and a vague plan of trying to make it off the backside of the ridge if the unimaginable happens. It’s not realistic, but it allows me to fall asleep. The next morning comes clear and quiet, with a sharp little feeling of autumn in the air, and the men fall to working as soon as the sun is up. After 20 minutes the
　　29)Scouts shoulder their packs and head back toward the kop, and I grab my gear to join them. It’s a two-hour walk, and we take our time on the steep slopes in the heat of the day. The squad leader is a 25-year-old sniper from Utah named Larry Rougle, who has done six combat tours since September 11. His marriage has fallen apart, but he has a three-year-old daughter.
　　“I usually vote Republican, but they’re all so divisive,” Rougle says on the way down. “30)Obama’s the only candidate on either side who’s actually talking about unity, not division. That’s what this country needs right now, so he’s got my vote.”
　　Ten minutes later we’re moving again, and just outside the kop we take two bursts of machine-gun fire that stitch the ground behind us and make leaves twitch over our heads. We take cover until the kop’s 31)mortars start hitting back, and then we count to three and run the last stretch of ground into the base. A soldier is watching all this from the entrance to his tent. There’s something strange about him, though.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　He’s 32)laughing his ass off as we run by.
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　第二排的20名士兵在村庄中单列行进，以树木石屋作遮挡，还不时单膝跪下掩护后面的士兵。我们身处阿富汗科兰高山谷的阿里亚巴德村，排中的通信兵收到消息说塔利班枪手在监视着我们，而且准备开火。连队总部的信号情报部门一直在监听塔利班的野外无线电。他们说塔利班在静伺我们离开村庄，随即发起攻击。
　　我们身下是科兰高河，越过山谷便是幽秘莫测的阿巴斯尕山脉。塔利班基本上控制了整个阿巴斯尕山脉。山谷有6英里长，而美军已经沿着山谷推进了半程的距离。
　　暮色降临，四野充斥一种嗡嗡作响的紧张气氛，空气仿佛带有电流。只剩下500码（约455米）的距离，我们就能回到重火力基地的安全地带，但沿途暴露着遍布山谷的塔利班据点，得一路疾走。排长马特•派奥萨是个来自宾夕法尼亚州的24岁中尉，金发，说话柔声细气的，他成功地走到村小学后面那堵齐胸口高的石墙，排里的其他人吃力地背着沉重的武器装甲，紧随而至。夏天的空气粘稠炎热，每个人都汗流浃背。
　　我扛着一台摄像机，让它一直开着，这样我就不用在枪战爆发之际再想着开摄像机。所有记忆不能尽录的东西都给摄像机捕捉下来了。派奥萨正准备闪离掩身的石墙，推进到下个掩护点，突然我听到远处传来断断续续的爆响声。“报告，”派奥萨向无线对讲机发话，“我在向前突进，”但他根本没机会向前走。下一轮枪火爆发得更密集，摄像机里的影像猛然晃动，派奥萨大喊“这里刚刚有曳光弹飞过！”士兵们探身于墙头换出子弹夹，派奥萨则向无线对讲机高声报告位置，同时我们这边重型机枪发出的曳光弹也在头顶划破长空，飞向渐黑的山谷。
　　科兰高是公认的阿富汗东北部最危险的山谷，第二排则被视为当地美军的精锐。阿富汗境内的战事有将近1/5是在这个山谷里发生的，北约军队向阿富汗投掷的炸弹有近3/4是落在这周围。在科兰高山谷可以说没有一寸土地是安全的。曾经有士兵在这里的军营帐篷里睡着睡着就给射杀死了。
　　我随第二排来到科兰高山谷，全程跟踪他们15个月的部署。为了进入山谷，美军把直升飞机开到科兰高前哨站――也就是大家口中说的山丘，大概在山谷的半路。
　　我跟第二排一起度过了几周的时间，在六月底离开，之后情况就转坏了。第二排开始每天都受好几轮的炮火袭击，有时还是100码（约91米）之外的近距离攻击。
　　九月初，我又回到第二排。我们到达的时候，第二排的士兵已经完成了一天的工作，坐在简易堡垒中撕开速食食品的包装。他们天一黑就差不多都去睡了，我没睡，倒是跟22岁的大兵米沙•潘保-贝尔金聊了起来。他正坐在帆布床边把军服上的口袋剪下来。他的左手前臂上纹有“忍耐号”的纹身，那是1915年恩尼斯
　　特•雪克顿爵士在南极洲被冰川所困的船。“那是最伟大的冒险故事，” 潘保-贝尔以解说的口吻在讲。
　　他把刚剪出来的那块口袋缝在裤裆的裂口上，裤子仍旧穿在身上。士兵们成天在冬青树罗布的页岩山坡攀爬，所以大部分人的军服都给划破了。潘保-贝尔驻守在山丘时，闲来会画画、弹吉他，他说他爸爸是一个劳工组织的筹办者，百分百支持军队，但对于美国参与的所有战争都持反对态度。潘保-贝尔的妈妈会把信写在自制的信纸上寄给儿子。
　　那天晚上，我穿着靴子睡，所有装备都放在身边，脑子里模模糊糊想着，万一出现那不堪设想的情势，该怎样逃离到山的背面去。是不切实际，但不这么想我就睡不着。第二天早上天色晴朗，四野悄然无声，空气中明显有点秋天的气息。太阳一出来，士兵们就忙开了。20分钟后，侦察兵扛着背包往山丘走回去，我一把拿过我的装备跟上他们。这段路要走两个小时，天气热，加上走的是陡峭的山坡，我们的行进速度很慢。班长是25岁来自犹他州的狙击兵拉里•鲁格，自911以来他已经6次被外派打仗。他离了婚，有个3岁的女儿。
　　“我一般会投票给共和党，但是他们太四分五裂了，”鲁格下山的时候说。“奥巴马是两党竞选人中唯一说到要团结不要分裂的人。这是我们国家现在最需要的，所以我投给他。”
　　10分钟后我们又开始行进了，刚走到山丘外面我们就受到两轮狙击，枪火在我们身后雨点般射落，连树叶也在我们头顶颤个不停。我们找到掩护躲了起来，直到山丘上的美军迫击炮回击，然后我们一起数三下跑完最后一段路回到哨站基地。有个士兵在自己的帐篷入口看着这一切，举止有点奇怪。
　　原来在我们奔走逃命之际，他正笑得乐不可支。
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