Very sad breaking news on this one. The PM has announced that it may be she was actually killed by a rescuers grenade. This will of course trigger a barrage of arm-chair generals second guessing the decision for US Special Forces to go in - it is deeply, deeply sad - but it doesn’t change the following facts:
- At the point at which they thought she may be moved to AQ in Pakistan the tactical decision to go in became a no-brainer.
- The young men involved in the rescue operation were operating at real risk to their own lives - sometimes things go wrong. They remain heroic.
- The responsibility for her death remains with the kidnappers.
As with any operation that goes wrong lessons must be learned - lots of questions will be raised and SOP may be adjusted if necessary. But none of that changes that a choice had to be made, brave men made it - and although it didn’t pan out the way we would have prayed - it was still the right call.
Tey needed 3 snipers.Prhaps the location wasn’t suitable for it.
The Talibanies, of course, all were suffering reverse Stockholm Syndrome, and shielded her with their bodies, but alas the grenade thrown by the homicidal, maniacal cowboy special forces got past them, in their determination to stop her from telling the real truth about what is going on in Afghanistan./sarc
News of Norgrove's death and the bungled rescue operation has been greeted with dismay and trepidation by aid workers in Kabul, who expressed concern about the decision to launch a rescue attempt when Norgrove had been held for only three weeks. "Everyone in Afghanistan knows that you have to go through traditional tribal routes to get hostages free," said one aid worker. "All the Afghans say 'just why don't you leave it a bit longer?'"Translation: "Why didn't you just pay the ransom?"
The hard facts of life are that if you allow ransom, then kidnapping becomes a business, and there will be lots of kidnappings. But if kidnapping just means that kidnappers are hunted down and killed, even if we lose the hostage, then kidnapping becomes much less attractive.