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 ...
Sickening.
RoE do NOT work with Islamaniacs.
our guys cant fight there. The president is in bed with Iran
Not at all. Let them take the gloves off, or bring them home.
It’s time to bring our troops home.
Heartbreaking.
Prayers for loved ones left behind.
Obama is determined to APPEASE OUR ENEMY and have us DEFEATED there.
This makes my blood boil. Shades of Mogadishu.
Watch Obie one turn this into an American loss and blame it on Bush.
Let ‘em fight or bring them home
There is no sane reason why another young American must die on the soil of a foreign country!
Our tax dollars paid for the weaponry.
If you're not in it to win it, why die for a lost cause?
Everybody's happy! ;-)
Time to make the enemy pay!! foreign and domestic.
Exactly. Either let them fight or get them out.
Have some fun, go around and ask people why we are in Afghanistan and watch their faces. It’s like they didnt understand the question. they have no idea why we are there.
I agree. Our troops have a Commander in Chief that doesn’t know his butt from a whole in the ground. Something to be proud of huh? This guy has never shown any emotion at all for our troops. He can’t even relate to them in any way shape or form. He has no idea what they are going through. I question....how can they support him?
Obama did ... and I'll bet he's proud of his accomplishment.
“where women and children were replenishing their ammunition.
Take them out”
They are combatants at this point, they are targets, take them out.
Not one more American should be deployed at this time. Our troops need to come home now.
Another “overseas contingency operation” we are not allowed to win.
Four Marines needlessly KIA.
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