U.S.-BACKED REBELS LOSE GROUND

New York Post ^ | 10/26/01 | NILES LATHEM

[kattracks]

October 26, 2001 -- WASHINGTON - A major Afghan rebel offensive on the strategically vital city of Mazar-e-Sharif has been stalled, producing the first major setback for the Bush administration's military campaign to rout terrorist forces, officials said last night.

[blam]

"I don't believe we are doing very well."

When you have generals and the SECDEF on TV saying that the Taliban are 'tougher than we thought,' It's a little troubling.

[Straight Vermonter]

[ladtx]

Once again it appears the politicians are running the war with apologies and apoplexy. The word "mired" seems to come to mind here. I served in Viet Nam and for 19 years thereafter and the politicians I have seen, both in and out of the service do a great disservice to the people they are there to lead by not having the intestinal fortitude to prosecute a war the way it should be done. Generally I found that the real will to win exists from O-4 or maybe O-5 on down, and once you go any higher than that, with a few exceptions, the motivation seems to become political, whether it is personal or national. It is truly a national shame for us to have become so namby-pamby (once again) in our willingness to stick with a course of action that will get us through a time of crisis that we have not seen in fifty years.

SCOUTS OUT!

[snodog]

If we are expecting somebody other than the U.S. armed forces to fight this battle, then we will be waiting a long time for victory.

I agree. B-52, AC-130 and A-10 runs day and night from north to south, east to west until all of Afghanistan understands we, THE UNITED STATES, will not accept a coalition government that does not produce Usama bin Ladin. If you have a tribal war going on that will be of no concern, to US.

President Bush has given them ample time to push forward and consolidate their forces, but they haven't. It is time to push this war up a notch. If they stall our progress they become targets. Either fight together, or get overrun.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way!

[Bull Man]

This is no way to wag a frickin' war!

I fear we are witnessing the result of a decade long feminization of the American military. The whole establishment reflects a promotion hierarchy of rewarding the PC crowd rather than warriors. Please - oh god please, may it not be a military of pussies! We all should have heard warning bells the first time they were using the phrase "winning the hearts and minds of the people..." Ugh - does this smell like an old fashion "police action" with the same dismal outcome?

[Lazamataz]

A failure to pull out all the stops, and totally melt all human flesh in Afghanistan that opposes us, will embolden every terrorist worldwide. We can then expect daily terrorist attacks the magnitude of September 11.

George W. Bush: You have the tools. Use them. Use nuclear, biological, and nerve agents. Use every tool at your disposal to crush these people.

To do otherwise guarentees to dissolution of America.

[dstog]

"This is no way to wag a frickin' war! I fear we are witnessing the result of a decade long feminization of the American military. The whole establishment reflects a promotion hierarchy of rewarding the PC crowd rather than warriors..."

I believe the American military is fully capble of waging war and accomplishing the overthrow of the Taliban govt.
We can certainly bomb them out of existence.

With that said, I am not so sure the simple stated objectives are our real objectives today?

Why all of this pussy footing around with phony coalitions?
Politics, I understand, Public Relations, OK. But we were attacked on our own soil and are still being attacked with Anthrax. Over 5,000 of us have been killed right from day one!

Why is America playing these nonsense political, P.R. related games. Congress should have acted by declaring war, and our military should have been directed to get in there and prosecute the war to it's fullest extent if needed.

This perpetual bombing, although necessary at first to secure the skies, doesn't appear to be very successful without the introduction of ground forces.

I am getting that nagging feeling I had in Vietnam and that snuck back in during the Gulf War. It never made sense to me that I could sit on the DMZ in Vietnam and see an NVA flag and camp, but not attack it?

I'm no military genius, but if someone pokes me in the face, I'm gonna kick their butt. I may lose, but that person will know he's been in a fight.

I don't think the U.S. military will lose. Now get out there and defend us.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

To find all articles tagged or indexed using

Taliban_List

Go here:

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC) LIST

and then click the Taliban_List topic to initiate the search! !

[Loopy]

Yes we were doing pretty poorly in 1942 BUT WE WERE FIGHTING A NATION STATE THAT HAD AS MUCH MILITARY MIGHT AS WE DID.

We are fighting some pissant army and we haven't got the "resolve" to do it properly. 100 soldier raids which don't appear to have been near as successful as we were told and bombing the airplanes, air defenses and airstrips of some people to whom air power means next to nothing is all but useless. This war is being looked over by morons.

I think we are closer to the days following Southern Seccession than to WWII. We have incompetents running the country.

[101viking]

Me thinks the Northern Alliance is trying to bargain. Early on they wanted Kabul, and we didn't support the idea, but we wanted Mazar-e-Sharif. I must have heard at least a hundred times in the past few weeks on the live reports from northern Afghanistan that the NA dosen't think we are doing enough bombing. They know Mazar-e-Sharif is of strategic importance to the U.S., and may be intentinally holding back until they get what they want. Only my opinion of course.

[WOSG]

"Pissant Army" ... The right term indeed! Force of 45,000 troops, not well-coordinated. Use Toyota pickups for transport.

But we are not making a major dent as we should be.

Very frustrating to see the U.S. Forces not going at it hammer and tong. Especially not going in on the ground in bigger fashion to engage and kill the enemy. A heavily armed base IN-COUNTRY as a launch point could find and neutralize any army movements and engage in much more raiding, recon and potential leadership capture. Additional help from friendly forces (NA) could take major cities for us if we engaged in a much larger scale on front lines. Lots of possibilities, why are we not pursuing them? Fear of doing too much?!?!?