Posted on 09/10/2009 3:32:58 PM PDT by tencole
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.
"We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We've lost today," Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter's repeated demands for helicopters.
Four U.S. Marines were killed Tuesday, the most U.S. service members assigned as trainers to the Afghan National Army to be lost in a single incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Eight Afghan troops and police and the Marine commander's Afghan interpreter also died in the ambush and the subsequent battle that raged from dawn until 2 p.m. around this remote hamlet in eastern Kunar province, close to the Pakistan border.
Three Americans and 19 Afghans were wounded, and U.S. forces later recovered the bodies of two insurgents, although they believe more were killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
There is only one thing these people understand.
We've got to fight fire with fire.
The sad thing is that we were winning this thing until The One came into prominence.
This is beginning to smell a lot like LBJ and Vietnam.
Semper Fi
Perhaps the idea of Nation Building killed them.
I don't blame ‘libs’ but the idea that there is ever gonna be ‘peace’ there. Blame all you want, but shooters are on the ground, and it's a little late to be pointing fingers, as if there were never gonna be casualties.
Heartbreaking reading. Utterly heartbreaking. God be with them.
God help us all.
Nor did it work with the VC
Same playbook
Same solution
Turn off the cameras and hit em hard
He all but begged the government to review the ROE because our people were getting killed.
DAMMIT
It's not too late to point fingers so the next Marine doesn't die because of the ROE. Now is exactly the time.
BTW, are you still in the sand? I rarely see a post from these days.
Take care...
Semper Fi
politicians lost Vietnam -
politicians are doing their best to lose Afghanistan, IMO!!!
whoever came up with this new ROE has American blood on his hands!!
Blackhawk Down.
NUKE EM!
You have to have an idea of what 'victory' is and what you willing to put up in the number of deaths there.[Yes, I've been deployed there].
But as a whole, it's a police action there. It's gonna get worse, because more guys are be sent there, and there will never be civilized evolution there. Sorry, not all societies are equal.
>>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.<<
A very, VERY damning line.
Democrat presidents are not good at war. Obama, Clinton, Johnson.
Can't say more or I would be banned.
>>But as a whole, it’s a police action there. It’s gonna get worse, because more guys are be sent there, and there will never be civilized evolution there.<<
What you have described is essentially Vietnam II.
That’s the problem with being at war when your own leaders are hostile to the military. It was the same under Clinton. Emotionally, at least, the Democrat left has trouble taking national defense seriously. So we take unnecessary casualties to make the UN and our domestic anti-war left happy and to be “better liked around the world”.
Maybe George Will was right. Good article, anyway.
Been there, done that.
This is Vietnam all over again...now that Libs are again setting the rules of engagement.
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