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 ...
Hamburger mountains.
What we need to do is get the answer to one question: WHO is providing the funding to these guys?
Once that question is answered, then the mission becomes the elimination of their funding sources. Without funding, the Taliban will wither away. We need to cut off funding for the radical madrassahs that create and indoctrinate the Taliban. We need to cut off the funding that enables them to obtain weapons and supplies.
The problem with that is that it leads directly to a set of people in Saudi and elsewhere, and no US administration wants to touch them.
The question has a simple answer. For the most part, we are! The Taliban gets most of its money from protection money paid to it by the U.S. funded Karzai government and the projest of International Organizations (usually funded by the U.S). See here.
If there is a fund set up to help his wife and children let me know the details WD .......
It was replaced with "win hearts and minds."
Clear means clear the enemy. If they don’t have a weapon we are told to leave them alone.
Search and Destroy is better. You don’t have to come back.
We shouldn’t be tramping around in the boonies looking for the enemy if we allow them sanctuary where they can run to saftey. If your gonna chase ‘em, CHASE ‘EM TILL YOU KILL ‘EM. Don’t stop at no damn border.
And we need to get rid of these Rules of Engagement. Sound like something you’d read in a book on dating. The rules are Kill THE ENEMY. If civilians die, guess what? Thats part of war. The sooner we win the war the sooner civilians stop dying. Use arty, air 24/7.
Obambi is using ROEs to kill more Courageous Strong Intelligent Young mostly non-black Americans. He doesn’t want those around. Pretty soon he’ll say we can only fight during the day.
This could lead to a mutiny and military takeover and obambi don’t want that, he would not live too comfortably through that. He’d be hiding in some crack house in Southeast D.C. Well, as long as it was a crack house....
I don’t know specifics I will find out when hubby comes home for christmas!
We’ll probably pull the troops out. President Obama will order us to pull the troops out probably around ‘11 just in time for total withdrawal by the election season in ‘12.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335891/posts
In particular:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-09-08-airstrikes_N.htm
“Airstrikes by coalition forces in Afghanistan have dropped dramatically in the three months Gen. Stanley McChrystal has led the war effort there, reflecting his new emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties and protecting the population.
NATO fixed-wing aircraft dropped 1,211 bombs and other munitions during the past three months — the peak of the fighting season — compared with 2,366 during the same period last year, according to military statistics. The nearly 50% decline in airstrikes comes with an influx of more than 20,000 U.S. troops this year and an increase in insurgent attacks.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/75036.html?storylink=MI_emailed
I have to agree with your statements. Our civilians died, that’s why we are in this bleeping crap hole of a country. And no, it isn’t about the oil!!!!
thank you for your research! Freepers ROCK~!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.