Awesome Witness Account Of Fight With Taleban [only report of this action]

The Times (London) ^ | 3rdJuly 2006 | CHRISTINA LAMB

[Brit_Guy]

Put aside the authors political spin, and this is a very telling account. As she says at the end, if she hadn't have been there we would never have heard the story. You have to wonder how frequent an occurance this kind of thing is. It's clearly a hot spot in this region of Afghanistan at the moment we (the British) have lost 5 soldiers there in the last week.

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

Thanks for posting.

[1tin_soldier]

Afghans are the most hospitable people on earth, offering everything when they have nothing.

Which to this writer, I assume, is somehow more virtuous than having everything and offering nothing.

[GOP Poet]

Ping for later

[ChristianDefender]

Great find! Im impressed!

[Northern Alliance]

“HAVE you ever used a pistol?”

Not bloody likely if he is British.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Bullets and RPG rounds flying through the air are very exciting and all, but clearly the operation was planned as a political exercise of "winning hearts and minds" in Afghanistan.

And just what is the end result from this reporter? Deriding the Americans and "over-enthusiastic British generals"

What effect does that have on "hearts and minds" at home?

And the criticism is absurd. The reporter (without naming who is being critical which probably means no one but her) says:

"an enormous mistake for British troops to move out of the main urban centers of Lashkar Gah and Gereshk and into outlying areas."

And then complaining:

"Five years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan still remains bottom of the list for almost every major indicator from infant mortality to lack of access to water or electricity."

So how is remaining in "main urban centers" (basically hiding in barracks) going to improve the situation of "infant mortality to lack of access to water or electricity."...?

And what is with the fixation on poppy? That must come from the heavy drug usage of the Left they see a poppy field and are fixated by it. The truth is the Taliban were against poppy growing too so why would the villagers be sided with them for that reason? She is too ignorant to even be aware at how historically incorrect she is.

Once again our own press is seeking in every instance no matter what the circumstance to deride the conduct of the war while inflating the enemy, and they don't care about using unnamed sources, and that their spin doesn't even make common sense.

It would have been a tragedy for the Taliban if she caught a bullet.

[sneakers]

bump

[Rummenigge]

It's not a spin - it's her view of it. She is brave and it's important that she writes about it in a way that people can accept. Maybe even those who oppose our engagement in the war for Afghanistan.

If we don't get Afghanistan civilized now we might never will - then it will remain the source of drug production and desperate people willingly falling for whoever comes buy and has a gun.

[Rummenigge]

she

[Rummenigge]

Winning the hearts and minds of our more or less split nations and certinaly those of the afghans - yup that's the mission.

Killing taliban is just a way to make sure it's working.

The article makes clear that we cannot pacify helmland not even to win a camels heart without soldiers.

That's not what she's telling people to think but she provides the facts for it. This is far more convincing for the particular american and european minds that are still anti-war.

Ahhh forget about - maybe I just fell for her because she's got that brave attitude as a journalist.

[SkyPilot]

Bump for later read - thanks.

[the invisib1e hand]

my first reaction is, combat is no place for a lady; I don't understand what kind of men can put a woman in that place -- as a matter of policy. I just don't.

[FreedomPoster]

Already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659148/posts
under the original headline.

AM - are there excerpting issues with TimesOnline?

[agere_contra]

the British Army is the only one in the world whose soldiers pay tax while overseas.

And they have to buy their own DOD-mandated bodyarmour - which is apparently substandard. This is why I always buy drinks for UK military: especially the PBI.

Anyway, that was a gripping account. 25-nil to the UK/Allies and the sort of story that Hollywood should pick up: thanks for posting!

[Mac1]

"And they have to buy their own DOD-mandated bodyarmour - which is apparently substandard."

Really? What is DOD - that's the American one right? Don't you mean MOD? If it was British, the fact that it was substandard would not surprise me.

[Robert A Cook PE]

“We’ve got to stop talking and start doing,” he said recently. “Otherwise we’re in danger of losing this.”

It may be just too late. Disillusion with the government of President Hamid Karzai has never been so high. The Taliban have reorganised, possibly with the help of both the Pakistani military intelligence and Al-Qaeda, to use the sophisticated tactics I experienced first hand in Zumbelay.

No longer are they just a few dozen ragtag fighters here and there. Now groups often include hundreds of heavily armed men equipped with motorbikes, cars, horses and radios.

All over the south they have set up shadow administrations and kill any Afghan who is even indirectly associated with the government, such as teachers. Approximately 1,500 Afghan security guards and civilians were killed by the Taliban last year and some 900 already this year.

The Taliban are also winning the propaganda game. Within a few hours of our returning to Camp Price, the Afghan Islamic Press in Peshawar had put out a statement claiming the Taliban had killed seven British soldiers in Zumbelay.

Far from losing any men, the brave paras from C company had killed about 20 Taliban. Yet the Ministry of Defence put out nothing.
---

Her last few sentences are the most important: The real battle in this war IS propaganda! (And the MSM is winning FOR the AQ and Taliban - because they control the words and views.)

[robertpaulsen]

"It’s very annoying to think we were sitting there offering things and having a laugh and a joke with villagers who knew that five minutes later we’d be attacked.”

I know where I'd be going tomorrow.

[MattinNJ]

Amid all the stars we could just see the lights of two American A10s, anti-tank aircraft of awesome destructive power.

Why they are getting rid of this bird is beyond me. If I'm on the ground in a firefight, that is the one sight I am praying to see.

[DCPatriot]

Not bloody likely if he is British.

I believe the "he" is a "she".