Posted on 10/04/2009 8:38:28 AM PDT by Saije
Specialist Alexander Miller had been watching a mysterious Afghan standing in a cornfield for 20 minutes. But it took only a split second for the American soldier to be mortally wounded.
As Miller turned his back momentarily, the Afghan picked up a weapon hidden at his feet and fired a burst. One of the rounds tore into the 21- year-old soldier’s groin. Troops rushed to apply pressure to the wound as they called in a helicopter, but he was dead on arrival at the nearest field hospital...
Nuristan’s rugged landscape, dotted with stone huts encircled by farmland, formed the backdrop to Rudyard Kipling’s short story The Man Who Would Be King, written when the province was still called Kafiristan or “Land of the Infidels” for its struggle to resist the spread of Islam...
US troops clash daily with Taliban militants over control of this isolated region on the Pakistan border. But as President Barack Obama reconsiders his overall strategy in Afghanistan, military officials on the ground are questioning the purpose of sending soldiers into sparsely populated areas such as Barji Matal when the army lacks the resources to hold on to them...
The soldiers believed they could secure Barji Matal within a week, allowing 500 farmers to return to their work in the flour mill and cornfields. But the date for their withdrawal came and went with soldiers bogged down in close-quarter combat. One was killed instantly when a Taliban fighter popped up 10 yards ahead of his position and loosed off a burst of machinegun fire...
The battle, in which dozens of soldiers were wounded, proved so severe that soldiers from C Company joked that they should receive the Purple Heart before boarding helicopters to the village. The fighting dragged on for two months.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
ROE from a pussified government.
we are unfortunately thinking the same thing.
“ROE from a pussified government.”
Honestly, I don’t think it’s that necessarily. I think it’s the idea that local forces, police, Army, whatever, are supposed to come in and do the holding, maybe? Anyway it makes me think of Patton (in the movie) when he said “I don’t like to pay for the same real estate twice.” Seems like we keep paying for it over and over.
Prayers for your husband, joesjane.
Maybe they should have a new RoE to keep them from firing upon corn fields. We’ve only hamstrung them in the populated areas and mosques so far. McChrystal thinks his job is to “protect Afgani’s” from US bullets. ugh.
The restrictive ROEs become self fulfilling. More of our guys get killed, the pressure builds for withdrawal and Obama then accedes Io public pressure. You think it might all be planned that way...
Stories like this make me furious.
It’s my personal opinion that these people only respond to strength. And we should never have silly ROE that put our soldiers at an unnecessary risk. The ROE should be a threefold plan: win, don’t get hurt, and don’t be cruel.
We’re not fighting the UK here. If our opponent doesn’t respect any sort of ROE then we shouldn’t either. People in Washington must not realize that this is a war, not a nervous first date.
Indeed. LOTS of prayers.
It would take far more troops than the west will ever deploy, and way longer than anyone has stomach for. Not gonna happen.
"People" in Washington do realize it's a war, and they fully intend to win.
They're just on the muslim side is all...
Hubby is out there and of course he can’t get into specifics but I will hazard a guess. It is probably something to do with new ROE although I can’t imagine they wouldn’t want the troops to at least secure the area. Hoping I am wrong.
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God Bless This Man and bring him home safely!
Substitute "VietCong" for "Taliban" and there you have it. Welcome to 1968.
Friend of my brother’s from Murfreesboro TN was killed last Thursday in Afghanistan.
22 years old and had a wife and baby he had never seen
His second tour.
Chaplain came to the door just like the movies....she didn’t want to open the door poor thing.
Damn...just sucks all around.
That is two from Murfreesboro in a month. The other one was right out of high school.
Liberals (I know saying Democrats is redundant) are teaching the Taliban and Al Qaida the same lessons about war that they taught the Viet Cong. The US doesn’t fire on temples (mosques) so they hide their arms and people in temples. The US doesn’t fire on villages so hide arms and people in villages. The US doesn’t fire on women and children so hide behind women and children. The US doesn’t fire on civilians so everyone wear black pajamas (long robes). Should I go on?
I had a cousin killed outside of Mosul in 2004. IED hit the humvee he was in. From the Arkansas National Guard.
Sucked then ... sucks now (for the family of your brother’s friend). However, Jeremy was where he wanted to be and knew that some things were worth fighting for.
Thank you all for the prayers!
My thoughts exactly while listening to the Sunday morning interview shows today.
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