there wer approx. 10 - 12 at the check point....they came under fire and 2 groups/hummers took off in chase of the attackers.....leaving only 3 at the area when they then came under attack from a different direction......therein lies the mistake....if one was made.... (arm chair squad leader here.....no disrespect meant...they were there....i wasn't....nor do i have their training)
what this also shows is the insurgents are beginning to employ battlefield tactics as opposed to ied attacks only......which is good for us.......when we can get a fix on them we kill them at a rate of about a 100 - 1
I read an interesting post on another thread by somebody who obviously knows a lot more than I do, and he pointed out that the enemy had probably been watching us for some time and had figured out that our tactic, normally, was to pursue people who attacked our patrols and leave a small contingent behind. It sounds as if the terrorists who attacked the group at the checkpoint were actually a larger group than those who did the initial diversionary attack, so I would suspect that the poster is right.
It was not a failure on the part of our soldiers, but probably a failure on the part of our strategy. If a football coach plays the same game over and over again, everybody will know how to respond. In fact, supposedly one of the reasons for American victories against the British in the Revolution is that we could adapt - but they had a strategy that they followed, and that was that. They did not adapt and furthermore left no discretion to the people on the ground.
One of the major problems, however, is that our war is essentially being run by the press. That is, every commander is thinking not about the things that will win and keep his men safe, but about what will pass muster with the press. We have a big problem here that I think no other military or war has experienced.
THANK you for pointing that out- the MSM has successfully gotten the public to assume we have 3 soldiers at checkpoints- which is nonsense.
Thanks for the info. A diversion for a grab sounds like {speculation}. I hope some gear was chipped. Kinda hard to track an enemy not in uniform and hides in the neighborhood.