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‘What’s the point? The Taliban will be back within a week’
London Times ^ | 10/4/2009 | Miles Amoore

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 ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; army; battle; obama
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To: Saije

Hamburger mountains.


21 posted on 10/04/2009 9:34:50 AM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spirito Sancto.)
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To: Saije
You cannot "clear and hold" when the enemy has a sanctuary into which he can disappear and wait you out.

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.

22 posted on 10/04/2009 9:46:23 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: PapaBear3625
What we need to do is get the answer to one question: WHO is providing the funding to these guys?

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.

23 posted on 10/04/2009 9:53:43 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: wardaddy

If there is a fund set up to help his wife and children let me know the details WD .......


24 posted on 10/04/2009 9:55:28 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Saije
"But whatever happened to "clear and hold"?"

It was replaced with "win hearts and minds."

25 posted on 10/04/2009 10:11:46 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: Saije

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.


26 posted on 10/04/2009 12:32:27 PM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: Truth29

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....


27 posted on 10/04/2009 12:42:30 PM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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Comment #28 Removed by Moderator

To: Chgogal

I don’t know specifics I will find out when hubby comes home for christmas!


29 posted on 10/04/2009 1:30:34 PM PDT by joesjane (The strength of the pack is the wolf - Rudyard Kipling)
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To: Saije

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.


30 posted on 10/04/2009 3:38:52 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: joesjane
I have found some stats and articles from fellow FReepers. Here you go! BTW, thank you for your service as a Military Wife. And Please thank your Hubby for all he does for our country. It is so very much appreciated. : )

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

31 posted on 10/11/2009 11:41:50 AM PDT by Chgogal (American Mugabe, get your arse out of my bank, my car, my doctor's office & my elec. utility.)
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To: TomasUSMC

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!!!!


32 posted on 10/11/2009 12:11:40 PM PDT by joesjane (The strength of the pack is the wolf - Rudyard Kipling)
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To: Chgogal

thank you for your research! Freepers ROCK~!


33 posted on 10/11/2009 12:15:10 PM PDT by joesjane (The strength of the pack is the wolf - Rudyard Kipling)
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