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 ...
“..We don’t know anything yet, although the pentagon has already challenged this one reporters account.”
It’ll be interesting to see if it’s a case of CYA. Don’t trust McChrystal.
Thanks Ansell. RIP Doc.
Much of the ROE in WWII cost the lives of tens of thousands of Americans including relatives of mine.
So we should have cut and run, don’t think so.
It is not one person there but have many relatives there.
Two of my good friends, a ret. Marine Major and a ret. Navy Capt. SEAL along with other active military neighbors,
have other views than yours.
“KABUL, Afghanistan — Navy medical corpsman James Layton, of Riverbank, Calif., had been ministering first aid to wounded Marine Lt. Michael Johnson, of Virginia Beach, Va., when both were killed Tuesday under a volley of insurgent bullets in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.
“If we leave this house, the people in the house in front of us will shoot us,” were the last words that Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, of Roswell, Ga., was heard calling into his radio before it went silent. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Edwin W. Johnson, Jr., of Columbus, Ga., died alongside them.
Layton was 22; Michael Johnson, 25; Edwin Johnson, 31; and Kenefick, 30. “
Ping. (Updated)
But the only worthwhile objective in Afghanistan/Pakistan is killing bin Laden & Co. The Taleban alone are not worth the effort. Instituting democracy was/is a waste of lives & money.
Obama is completely unprepared to fight & win this war. He will make LBJ look like a military genius.
And it could be he sees this as an opportunity to totally demoralize our military, as Vietnam did. Never let a bad situation go to waste, you know.
McChrystal, Gates, Mullins, Peterous want their jobs, nice salaries. They will follow zero and his cronies’ leads on how to conduct current and future wars.
Sooooo, are you defending Obama and McChrystal's passive and deadly (to our servicemembers) ROE’s?
*PLEASE NOTE THIS PARAGRAPH IN PARTICULAR.*
“In preparing his assessment of the Afghan command, McChrystal found an American military culture that showed a great concern for troops’ protection – sometimes at the expense of their relations with Afghan civilians.
To change those relations, McChrystal wants American forces to think twice about basic conduct - for instance no longer pointing their guns at people when they pass in convoy or blocking narrow roads with their convoys, while relegating Afghans to the ditches.
To deal with the most contentious aspect of those shaky relations, McChrystal has already committed to try to reduce civilian casualties by issuing new orders that restrict when troops should call in bombing strikes.”
http://www.hotsr.com/news/WireHeadlines/2009/08/02/general-wants-more-troops-for-afghan-war-26.php
From this posted article by McClatchy:
“...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.”
Not defending Obama or are my conservative friends, Marine Major and Navy Capt.
Then what is your point?
Bump that!!!
BTTT!
“Military leery of Afghanistan escalation with no clear goals”
I don’t know why we’re in afghanistan.
Thanks for the ping!
I think that Afghanistan is one thing that Bush handled brilliantly. He sent in a few Special Forces types, who got together with the Taliban’s enemies. With the help of U.S. artillery and air support, the Uzbek Northern alliance charged into Kabul in their flip-flops a few months later and sent the Taliban packing to Pakistan, to the delight of the inhabitants of Kabul.
Now the new U.S. government is trying to handle Afghanistan the same heavy-handed way the Russians did 25 years ago, with a massive troop buildup.
It may be no coincidence Obama has handled our domestic affairs the same heavy-handed way the Russians handled theirs 25 years ago. I sure hope he does better with Afghanistan.
Maybe Obama can send in a few hundred ACORN, SEIU, and trial lawyers. They'll show al-Qaeda and the Taliban that he means business.
I greatly respect those who have served in Afghanistan who say that we need to stay there. If our leadership is going to tie their hands, and not have the total commitment to victory, then our troops in Afghanistan will die needlessly.
A list of 50 metrics is not a strategy. Without a commitment to victory, I cannot support staying in Afghanistan.
Obama has not yet published his National Security Strategy.
He is required by the Goldwater/Nichols Act to do so.
Yep, I'm still in the sand. Things are improving here and I hope that can be maintained. There are still some problems in Diyala and Ninewa to the north, and here in Baghdad there are occasional nasty events, but it's much better now than it was from '04 to late '07.
Take care!
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