Posted on 08/06/2011 8:58:24 AM PDT by freespirited
A NATO helicopter was shot down in the eastern province of Afghanistan last night, killing 31 U.S. special forces and seven Afghan soldiers.
The aircraft, belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, went down in the Maidan Wardak province, according to a statement from the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The helicopter was completely destroyed, shot down by the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Maidan Wardak province said in a phone interview.
The incident marks the biggest single loss of life for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, Associated Press reported. Establishing the type of weapon used is key to gauging whether a new and more sophisticated threat has emerged in Afghanistan, Mark Pritchard, a U.K. Member of Parliament and vice-chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Defence Committee, said by phone.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Absolutely not. We should go in there and carpet bomb anywhere even a single U.S. troop is killed, regardless the loss of enemy lives and property.
Kill people and break things until we win and they lose.
But first, the commie Lilliputians, who are tying down our Gulliver with their thousands of little ropes, have to be broomed from the places in our government, legislature, judiciary, and culture into which they have insinuated themselves to destroy us.
Brutal and ruthless. That should be us, for they will show us no mercy when they have completed their takeover of the planet, and especially our country.
I agree. Bring them all home NOW!
I’m with you. Defending the world is missing creep.
Were it up to me, I’d evacuate Americans and then nuke every hilltop,valley, plain or bush in that 5th century sty. Just end them forever.
If our military was allowed to take the gloves and handcuffs off their hands and be as brutal as necessary as needed we would have won every conflict since Korea.
Yep! I'm for it.......but Obama simply is not going to do that any time soon.
NATO has written the rules of engagement. The whole Afghan war is being executed in the most unconstitutional manner imaginable, as is the Libyan conflict.
Shame on BOTH parties for allowing foreign governments and entities run a war using our fellow American citizens to execute it. They are not allowed to win, they’ve been told the war will go for 30 years. Just how does one set a deadline for a war so far distant? What is the purpose of a war that is meant to last for 30 years rather than to be won in the most efficient, tactical way to bring our fellow citizens home?
“Bomb the Poppy fields and bring our young men home-—alive.”
Amen. We’ve gained nothing; we’ve lost more than can be quantified, especially when it comes to our soldiers. Bomb Iraq and Afghanistan. Pull our guys from Germany, Japan, et al., and let them defend themselves. We have absolutely no business being in any of those places. (The more we help them, the more they hate us.) The Constituion only provides for the defense of America, not every God-forsaken, spawn-of-Satan country on earth.
The money we give to Afghanistan is immediately schlepped by Afghan big-wigs on to planes in the form of cash in suitcases, and going... where?
It’s all disgusting. I want to puke.
Power, Money, and political leverage.
Without a doubt.
Devastating: 31 Special Operations Troops, Including 25 Navy SEALS, Killed in Afghanistan
“First and foremost, you never land on a [hot] LZ! the LZ is prepped to lay waste to any terrorist who may be waiting for you to show up and then shoot you!”
Ever hear about this guy named “Uriah the Hittite’?
The airframe is generally tailored for the mission. Since we don’t know what it was, we can’t 2nd guess their decisions...if that’s ever wise in the first place.
The Chinook is the fastest, has the longest range, has the highest ceiling, and is able to carry the biggest load in and the biggest load out.
It’s a mountainous region, and as stated, we don’t know the mission.
NATO? I’ll always be convinced there was a snitch in the bunch. They knew who was on this chopper and they knew where it was going to be.
Second, they shouldn’t even put out the word of who was on this chopper.
LLS
I was in the Marines in 1983 when the Beirut barracks was suicide-bombed killing 241 US servicemen, including 220 Marines. Even then my first thought (after prayers) was, “How could so many Marines be concentrated in such a big juicy single target in a war zone?”
On this smaller scale, I just think it was unwise to put so many of our best weapons - - the SEALs - - into one tiny box. I figured after the last time this happened, in June of 2005 when 19 SEALs were killed in a Chinook, better insertion strategies would be developed that didn’t put “all the eggs in one basket”. That said, I agree that I have no knowledge of this mission and am being presumptious to second-guess command decisions.
By the way, if you never read about Operation Red Wings, it is an astonishing story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wings
This story (2005) will interest you, especially the part about the Afghan goat herders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wings
I heard the same thing on FOX about an hour ago. Makes me sick.
I read that NATO reported it that way initially.
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