No longer can we solely focus on the “Golden Hour” of presurgical care we must look beyond hours to maybe even days. 1 This operational situation, however, is changing. This mandate resulted in reduced overall time to surgery and was heralded as a key paradigm shift for a military medical system that directly contributed to the lowest mortality rate of any conflict in history. In 2008, then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued a mandate that all military medical evacuation to a surgeon must occur in less than 60 minutes. As a result, military medicine has substantially improved far-forward trauma care and stabilization in this operational setting. This has been the common experience of most military medical providers since shortly after 2001. The population estimates should be used as a guide only.When most people picture military medicine, they may imagine gunshots and explosions, heavily armored soldiers and vehicles, first aid administered as per the strict Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) protocols, and rapid movement through a well-established system to forward surgical teams and combat hospitals. The current projection is based on data from the CIA World Factbook’s 2018 evaluation of Afghanistan. Population control: Due to internal displacement, flight from the country, and a lack of accurate census reporting in the active combat zones, the population numbers are disputed and subject to change. 2019, report, that assessment will remain and will be noted in the comments. If there are no indications that the status of the district has changed since the time of the Resolute Support’s Jan. Some districts may retain the Resolute Support district assessment. For a detailed explanation of this, see LWJ report: US military ends reporting on security situation in Afghanistan’s districts. Department of Defense stated that negotiations with the Taliban, and not the status of Afghanistan’s districts, was the real metric of progress. In April 2019, Resolute Support stopped producing the assessment. military assessment of Taliban control of Afghan districts is flawed. For an explanation and analysis of why, see LWJ report: U.S. However, Resolute Support has continually downplayed the Taliban’s level of control as well as contested districts in its reporting. This information was helpful in filling the gaps in reporting on districts where there was little open source information (note: reporting on more opaque districts has improved since mid-2019). 2018, LWJ incorporated district-level data provided by the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which is based on assessments by Resolute Support, NATO’s command in Afghanistan. LWJ may assess a district Taliban controlled if the district center frequently exchanges hands and/or the government only controls a few buildings or villages in the district.īeginning in Jan. Or, the Taliban may control several villages, mines and other resources, runs prisons in the district, or administers areas of the district.Ī “Controlled” district may mean the Taliban is openly administering a district, providing services and security, and also running the local courts. This is a living and breathing map that LWJ frequently updates as verifiable research is conducted to support control changes.Īn “Unconfirmed” district colored orange has some level of claim-of-control made by the Taliban, but either has not yet been - or cannot be- independently verified by LWJ research.Ī “Contested” district may mean that the government is in control of the district center or buildings within the district center, or a base, but little else, while the Taliban controls large areas or all of the areas outside of the district center. Methodology: The primary data and research behind this assessment are based on open-source information, such as press reports and information provided by government agencies and the Taliban.