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'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush
McClatchy ^ | 9-8-09 | Jonathan S. Landay

Posted on 09/09/2009 5:34:13 AM PDT by tcrlaf

GANJGAL, Afghanistan — We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition.

"We will do to you what we did to the Russians," the insurgent's leader boasted over the radio, referring to the failure of Soviet troops to capture Ganjgal during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation.

Dashing from boulder to boulder, diving into trenches and ducking behind stone walls as the insurgents maneuvered to outflank us, we waited more than an hour for U.S. helicopters to arrive, despite earlier assurances that air cover would be five minutes away.

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...


TOPICS: War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; fallen; marines; nss; obama; oef; quagmire
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To: tcrlaf

Just bring the troops home if you are not going to let them fight to win, Barry.


21 posted on 09/09/2009 5:55:50 AM PDT by KansasGirl ( Obama's heroes have always been left-wing radicals.)
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To: sand lake bar
"I would nuke them back beyond the stone age. One village at a time, one week apart, until the rest marched naked to surrender."

The problem with threatening to bomb Afghanistan back to the stone age is tantamount to threatening Br'er Rabbit with being thrown into the br'er patch.

IMHO, the way to win hearts and minds in Afgthanistan is to make the people fear us worse than they fear the taliban/al-qaeda. If victory is the objective, we need a Sherman's March strategy, but if we're not willing to commit the manpower, resources, political will and national courage to do that, we need to pack it up and bring it home.

22 posted on 09/09/2009 5:56:12 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: mbynack
“...No targeting enemies unless they were within 25 meters of the Ho Chi Minh trail...”

In Phuoc Long Province in MR III, The District Chiefs’ political clearance were required before artillery could be fired....pissed off a lot of folks in the Fire Support Base.

23 posted on 09/09/2009 5:58:21 AM PDT by verity
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To: tcrlaf
Use CAS aircraft like these OV-10 Broncoes instead of slow helicopters.
24 posted on 09/09/2009 5:59:00 AM PDT by myknowledge (F-22 Raptor: World's Largest Distributor of Sukhoi parts!)
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To: tcrlaf
Think of all the "major" speeches we've been subjected to by the President in that last month. How many times has he even mentioned the war?

He's an abject failure, and a lying bastard to boot.

25 posted on 09/09/2009 5:59:18 AM PDT by RetroSexual
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To: tcrlaf

America’s finest. R.I.P.

Damn


26 posted on 09/09/2009 5:59:50 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Joe 6-pack

Irony noted. That’s why I said “beyond the stone age.” As you point out, the Stone Age would be a step up for these goons.

And you’re right about the fear factor. Kill them all; women, children, all of them, until they beg us to stop. It worked in Japan. I just don’t think that any American leader has the stones to say this, let alone do it.


27 posted on 09/09/2009 6:00:01 AM PDT by sand lake bar (Take that thing off your head and act like an American!)
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To: tcrlaf

This story just pi$$es me off to no end! America,what have you done??!! Pull our people out of that Hell hole and carpet bomb the entire area! O.Hussein has no business anywhere near the White House.


28 posted on 09/09/2009 6:00:44 AM PDT by 4yearlurker
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To: tcrlaf

Fight like WWII, result like WWII, fight like Vietnam, result like Vietnam.

Hey Hey OBammay, how many kids did you kill today.


29 posted on 09/09/2009 6:02:02 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Liberalism is the art of taking what works, breaking it, and then blaming conservatives.)
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To: bergmeid

“If I said what I really want to say, I would get banned from this board forever. I am sick to my stomach.”

Likewise, and you can believe that...


30 posted on 09/09/2009 6:03:07 AM PDT by tcrlaf ("Hope" is the most Evil of all Evils"-Neitzsche)
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To: tcrlaf

I want everyone home now, from Iraq, Afghanistan and anywhere else. None of these men should have to fight under this sorry excuse for a CiC.


31 posted on 09/09/2009 6:03:20 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (Some men just want to watch the world burn.)
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To: tcrlaf

Awful but what a great report. Wow.


32 posted on 09/09/2009 6:04:40 AM PDT by RDTF ("I'm pretty sure this is a 2 man job once the shooting starts")
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To: tcrlaf

“We will do to you what we did to the Russians,...”

He may have meant they will do to our soldiers what they did to captured Soviets. Not pretty.


33 posted on 09/09/2009 6:05:01 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Liberalism is the art of taking what works, breaking it, and then blaming conservatives.)
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To: HD1200
"...my own youngest son...is now training in high country in CA..."

Just a guess, but would that be the 10th Mountain division? I've driven by that place many times. They are an awesome bunch of warriors.

34 posted on 09/09/2009 6:05:02 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: tcrlaf

This is very upsetting. If they had sent the helicopters, these Marines and Afghan allies could have been saved. They also couldn’t fire artillery rounds because of liberal made rules which care more about the enemy than our own troops.


35 posted on 09/09/2009 6:05:16 AM PDT by Pinkbell
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To: tcrlaf

The political career of our first half-white POTUS is not expendable, see.

This sh*t is just getting started.

This is the hard-left in action.

Prepare to have your minds blown in the coming months.


36 posted on 09/09/2009 6:08:10 AM PDT by Boucheau ("Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism." - Vladimir Lenin)
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To: Arkinsaw
When do we start protesting to get these guys out?

Yeah...whatever happened to the big protests that C-SPAN always showed with all the moonbats calling President Bush a terrorist and such...and to end the war ??????

37 posted on 09/09/2009 6:09:46 AM PDT by Mopp4
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To: bergmeid

well, here is what i think, and i don’t give a damn if i get banned or not....FUBO is a disgrace for damn sure, but the high command are the real traitors to our men...rules of engagement be damned, if you do not have the balls to order fire to protect your men, what the hell are you doing in a position of authority? their damn stars are more important than the men dying in the fields??? the officers responsible for this debacle should be lined up against a wall and shot.....does it make you proud to deny proper support to the men and women in the field so you can keep your friggin stars???


38 posted on 09/09/2009 6:11:04 AM PDT by joe fonebone (When you ask God for help, sometimes he sends the Marines.)
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To: tcrlaf

Afghanistan is and will always be the Wild West.
It is an arid desert with no resources other than the poppies that fuel the opium trade.

Civilized people have no use for Afghanistan, and that is why it will never be civilized.
It is the exclusive domain of terrorists and warlords.

The US experiment of nation building there has failed, as it was always destined to in a land of outlaws and bandits.
What we need to do is what we always should have done: get out, and scorch the earth as we go.
We should burn the poppy fields and destroy the camps and what little infrastructure is there. Instead of building roads and schools, we should be breaking them.
We need to make travel and communication to and from Afghanistan as difficult as possible. And we will have to come back once every decade and do it all over again. But next time, we should follow the Clinton doctrine, and do it from 10,000 feet.


39 posted on 09/09/2009 6:15:20 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: joe fonebone; bergmeid; nuke rocketeer

Does it seem as if everything has an overtone of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ since Obamassiah came into power?


40 posted on 09/09/2009 6:16:14 AM PDT by Froufrou (quality)
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