Battle Rages Anew for Afghan Fortress

AP | 11/26/01 | BURT HERMAN

[Milosevic2]

There are two goals with this disinformation :
Continue to make believe that NA = evil and that US military is allowed in Afghanistan by NA.

[rmgatto]

This is nothing more than the fulfillment of Donald Rumsfeld's "personal preference" for the disposition of Al Qaeda fighters--better killed than captured.

[Zorobabel]

I doubt we will need that many troops to take Kandahar. The alliance forces will do the bulk of the fighting, with US and UK special ops forces providing tactical information, close air support, etc. And marines used as a blocking force to mop up or capture retreating talibans and arabs.

[Pontiac]

The alliance said most of the prisoners were killed, and estimates of how many had been inside ran from 300 to as high as 800.

May all of their virgins be ugly.

[FreedomPoster]

The 3:1 ratio is based on forces with more-or-less equivalent levels of military technology. Needless to say, that isn't the case here. A forward air controller calling in AC-130's, smart bombs, and even arclight strikes is one helluva force multiplier.

[Congressman Billybob]

What I don't get is why these "prisoners" weren't disarmed when they were captured. Imagine the Hell that would break out if a bus load of US prisoners arrived at Sing Sing with grenades, rifles, and rocket launchers in their baggy pants.

The only alternative is that this was a "make mmy day" moment. Leave them some weapons and wait for them to whip pme oout.

Congressman Billybob

[jerod]

Taliban Soldier: 'Tis but a scratch.

UA Soldier: A scratch? Your arm's off!

Taliban Soldier: No, it isn't.

UA Soldier: Well, what's that then?

Taliban Soldier: I've had worse.

UA Soldier: You liar!

Taliban Soldier: Come on you pansy!

[hah][parry thrust] [UA Soldier chops the Taliban Soldier's right arm off]

UA Soldier: Victory is mine! [kneeling] We thank thee Lord, that in thy merc-

[Taliban Soldier kicks UA Soldier in the head while he is praying]

Taliban Soldier: Come on then.

UA Soldier: What?

Taliban Soldier: Have at you!

UA Soldier: You are indeed brave, Taliban Soldier, but the fight is mine.

Taliban Soldier: Oh, had enough, eh?

UA Soldier: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left.

Taliban Soldier: Yes I have.

UA Soldier: Look!

Taliban Soldier: Just a flesh wound.

[Headbutts UA Soldier in the chest]

UA Soldier: Look, stop that.

Taliban Soldier: Chicken! Chicken!

UA Soldier: Look, I'll have your leg. Right! [whop]

Taliban Soldier: Right, I'll do you for that!

UA Soldier: You'll what?

Taliban Soldier: Come 'ere!

UA Soldier: What are you going to do, bleed on me?

Taliban Soldier: I'm invincible!

UA Soldier: You're a loony.

Taliban Soldier: The Taliban always triumphs! Have at you! Come on then.

[whop] [UA Soldier chops the Taliban Soldier's other leg off]

Taliban Soldier: All right; we'll call it a draw.

UA Soldier: Come on, let's get out of here.

Taliban Soldier: Oh, oh, I see, running away, 'eh? ... You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you.... I'll bite your legs off!

[wita]

I do believe there is much truth to your story.

[JoeGar]

"Massood said he doubted any of the prisoners could have made it out of the fortress, 10 miles west of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif."

On TV, film was shown of a few prisoners allegedly dropping from a prison wall and running off into the surrounding countryside.

[KSCITYBOY]

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time..

[Canuck1]

The 'uprising' has resulted in the deaths of all the Al Qaeda prisoners

Sounds like the prisoners were set up and then liquidated. If the Serbs had done something like this in Bosnia it would have been called a war crime.

[No Truce With Kings]

What I don't get is why these "prisoners" weren't disarmed when they were captured. Imagine the Hell that would break out if a bus load of US prisoners arrived at Sing Sing with grenades, rifles, and rocket launchers in their baggy pants.

This was a mass surrender of soldiers, not the transportation of convicted criminals. Protocol (and common sense) states that the soldiers surrender their arms, then are marched into a holding area, where they are later searched.

Why?

Because you are better having them under your guns, where you can easily kill them, than have them waiting around, armed, while you strip search each surrendering soldier individually. Yeah, they may smuggle in weapons, but so? If they do and use them, it is easier to kill them while they are confined to a fort, than have to play hide-and-go-seek with "unsurrendering" soldiers, who pick up their AKs and head for the tall grass (or whatever passes for tall grass in Trashcanistan), because they changed their minds while you were processing them one-by-one.

An added benefit to accepting their surrender, then searching them for weapons is that you can legally kill them if they do shoot at you after they surrender. That includes after they cease resisting. If any of the hundred surviving Talitubbies now surrender, the N.A. has the right to line them up against a wall and shoot them. Not a war crime -- just military justice. Troops that have not surrendered, but are attempting escape and evasion, have the legal right to use deadly force. You can get into a shootout with them, have them kill half your force, then once the do surrender, you have to treat them as P.O.W.s. Shoot them after they surrender, and you have committed a crime. (Maybe not great shakes in Trashcanistan, but frankly, I prefer having a hunting licence.)

Again, so they revolt once captured. All they get is dead. Friendlies that allow themselves to get killed under those circumstances are evolution in action. Wise men do not turn their backs on uncaged lions or unsearched Talitubbies.

[resistance]

May all of their virgins be ugly.

The joke is the virgins waiting for them in 'heaven' stay virgins.

[Paul Ross]

No, your speculation is way off. It sounds like the Northern Alliance is extremely 'thin' with experienced and forceful commanders. The RPG's the Al-Queda/Taliban are firing from the tower indicates that there was no 'set-up'...such weapons are way too deadly.

[Loopy]

Tend to have to agree with you. You mean there were NO wounded. Like in the movie The Great Escape when the commander of the British POW's at the end of the movie finds out how many were killed. He says, "How many were wounded" and the German just looks at him...

Not that I'm cryin or anything. In this case I don't mind the facade.

[bribriagain]

With apologies to Monty Python, of course.