8 US troops killed in fierce Afghan fighting

Associated Press ^ | 4/10/09 | ROBERT H. REID and RAHIM FAIEZ

[Eleutheria5]

KABUL – Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said Sunday.

The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war.

It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, plans to shift U.S. troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new strategy to focus on protecting Afghan civilians.

U.S. troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and airstrikes Saturday to repel the attackers, inflicting "heavy enemy casualties," according to a NATO statement. Fighting persisted in the area Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

.....

[Eleutheria5]

Translated: They are not going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda, just "defending" the cities from being overrun, too. As if cities exist in a vacuum, and food comes down from heaven like mannah. So much for hunting down UBL. But this is "change". It's the removal of "hope" from Afghanistan's equation.

[ohiogrammy]

So now it is our job to watch over civilians and forget the terrorists? This is insanity, bring our troops home if our purpose has been destroyed by the man of hope and change.

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

This is Obamas fault...while he was playing Olympics Americans died today!!!

[dalebert]

time to bring them home....

[freebilly]

Get them out of there....

[raybbr]

Gee, I wonder if the Taliban found out that our Commander-in-Chief can't decide whether to send more troops?

I wonder if a strong statement of power by the C-in-C would have staved off this attack?

I guess we'll never know. Now what does Obama think of posting pictures of the coffins as they arrive home?

(Newser) – Back when George W. Bush was president, the media made a big fuss about the administration’s refusal to allow the press to photograph soldiers’ coffins, saying it hid the true cost of the war. President Obama lifted the ban in April, and the media flocked to snap shots of that first returning coffin. And then? Then they swiftly lost interest, notes Byron York of the Washington Examiner. From here.

[The Duke]

The best defense ...

[erkyl]

Every American soldier who dies while Obama ‘thinks’ about what to do over there is blood directly on his hands. He’s getting our heroes killed with his lack of an objective and his indecisive poor leadership as commander in chief.

Main stream media criticism? War protesters? Anyone?

(crickets)

[Wiz]

Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan, the Islamic belt of southeast Asia. How poor the situation of the remaining Jews in Afghanistan. If US leaves Afghanistan, those two are not going to be safe, and we are going to see an Islamic belt that could be united against Israel. Let's hope if Taliban overruns Afghanistan, Taliban does not overrun Pakistan and takes over the nukes. Those nukes will sure let Al Qaida poison Israel. Israel would sure be surprised that the Qods force are likely providing weapons to the terrorists in Afghanistan. Why? Iran doesn't want US presence on its neighbor, when it is aiming its nukes against Israel. You could tell this by the violence in the western region of Afghanistan. Could it be the Aimak ethnics that are doing a job for Iran?

[boknows]

Nuke the entire region back to the stone age.

[353FMG]

How can one expect a muslim to lead our troops in a war against muslims? Don’t we ever wake up?

[Eleutheria5]

“Nuke the entire region back to the stone age.”

They’re already there. Any more bright ideas?

[Eleutheria5]

“So now it is our job to watch over civilians and forget the terrorists? “

Rather hard to do, when you give the terrorists free reign in the countryside to strike wherever and whenever they choose. The cities will be awash in bloodshed at this rate, not to mention malnutrition and hatred of Americans.

[Repeat Offender]

“Nuke the entire region back to the stone age.”

They’re already there. Any more bright ideas?

Tax stones

/liberal mentality

[atomic conspiracy]

"They’re already there. Any more bright ideas?" No kidding. I've been to that part of the world. An H-bomb on Kabul would do about a hundred dollars worth of damage, depending on the current price of mangy camels, crumbling bricks and rickety oxcarts.

[hot4plasma]

Kill every one of them. Any semblance of human genome in the area must be incinerated without guilt. There is no other way for the West to survive. I repeat.. there is no other way for the West to survive. If you want cities filled with energetic, happy, bustling people, if you want bars, restaurants, shopping malls.. if you want intelligence, beauty, the arts.. if you want civilization... you must kill all of them now. This is harsh, but there is not one of you “Freepers” that can disagree with what I just said. Not one of you...