Film maker and reporter Ben Anderson began covering the war in Afghanistan in 2007, documenting the struggles of under-equipped and undermanned British forces who were fighting the Taliban for control of Helmand province in the BBC documentary Taking on the Taliban. He also directed the 2010 documentary The Battle for Marjah for which he followed US Marines as they launched Operation Moshtarak, the biggest operation since the start of the Afghanistan War in 2001 and with the objective of taking back control of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold.
In this feature-length 2013 Vice documentary, This Is What Winning Looks Like, Anderson follows U.S. Marines as they trained Afghan security forces with the objective that they would become competent enough to defend their own country and allow American forces and their allies to withdraw from Afghanistan. The documentary manages to lift the lid on the grim reality of the situation at the time, with Afghan commanders sexually abusing and killing children, widespread theft and corruption, many Afghan soldiers being addicted to hard drugs, and the illegal imprisonment of enemy combatants by Afghan police officers.
