Posted on 12/03/2001 12:42:37 PM PST by Badfoil
Islamabad IRNA - The bodies of 124 American troops have been flown back home in a cargo plane on November 29, claimed a local daily here on Sunday.
'Pakistan Observer' reported that the troops were killed during clashes with Taliban fighters when they had landed in Helmand province to help the ex-governor of Kandahar Gul Agha's Lashkar fighters against Taliban.
It added the perished troops are being officially described as missing in action.
Meanwhile, another daily, 'The Frontier Post', said 65 US marines have been killed by Taliban suicide squads in southern Afghanistan.
Reports of fresh casualties come as the US and the coalition forces struggle to keep a tight lid on the talk of casualties in the country, the daily pointed out.
Quoting witnesses, the newspaper added since their landing in Afghanistan, the US marines have come under attack by Taliban several times.
It noted apart from more than 2,000 US marines, American Special Forces are also present in the southern parts of Afghanistan.
The newspaper stated that these attacks could be in retaliation to massacre of Taliban fighters by gunmen of anti-Taliban Commander Haji Gul Agha in the presence of US troops.
We will accept casualties if we're winning. If we get bogged down, if we don't achieve our objectives and we have casualties that seem not worth what we're achieving (like in Vietnam), then support will go down. But this is totally different from anything we've faced, except maybe WWII. I couldn't imagine hearing the casualty reports from WWII today. How many thousands of Marines were killed on Okinawa and Iwo Jima? How many were killed early on when it looked like we were losing?
No, unlike Vietnam, Somalia, Desert Storm and Kosovo, we've been attacked here in the U.S. It's different now. We're in it for the long haul this time, I can feel it.
I haven't got the hang of the html thing yet, so you'll have to cut-and-paste the link.
Bottom line - there was a Courts Martial. If there had been massive casualties it would have come out.
That guy who said he saw all the bodies on the hanger deck was - other than lying about seeing them - confusing the Belknap (why would they transfer bodies to the carrier where more people could see them?) with the fire on the carrier Intrepid.
One of my favorite quotes is: "Anything that's too big to hide, but can't be seen - isn't there."
I am truly glad to hear that. I wou;ld hate to think that the government would cover something that up.
Munoz was adamant; said he was on shark watch and he counted over 100 bodies himself.
I still have pictures I took of Belknap. The bridge was also ripped completely open; you can look through the port side and see daylight on the far side.
Walt
Anyway, I'm sure your Sgt. Munoz was very adament. Next time you see him you'll have to ask him why they had him standing shark watch in the middle of a pitch dark night. What was he supposed to see?
Just like those bastards to attack a church service!
No. This is not Vietnam, as I've said numerous times. This is not somebody else's war, this is one that was started on our shore and we're 4000 bodies down. Those casualties make this an entirely different matter from any military deployment since World War Two, and I don't think anyone expects us to get out of this as easily as we did in the Gulf War. Moreover, I don't expect "mass casualties" because we don't have a "mass" deployment. Well, not mass American casualties, at least.
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