Posted on 07/27/2002 5:09:05 AM PDT by Diogenesis
GOTTA SEE THIS - BREAKING - War for Enduring Freedom 7/27/02 -
Afghanistan, SSE (Sensitive Site Exploitation) mission, 101st airborne, 'Bravo company',
Freedom on the streets, The bird market, Biochemical testing
==AFGHANISTAN: The SSE Mission, Somewhere south of Kabul ==
South of Kabul, toward the Pakistan border, where Taliban and Al Qaeda hide in the mountains,
heroes from the 101st airborne 'Bravo company' on the SSE (Sensitive Site Exploitation) mission.
The conditions are fierce, and can lead to dehydration.
Justice is coming to the evil Taliban and Al Qaeda.
= On the SSE Mission, Somewhere south of Kabul ==
Even the 101st airborne heroes need a rest.
Then it is back to patrol, as Afghans watch.
Success - ammo. More than 700 rounds of recoiless rifle rounds
were taken at this point during the SSE (Sensitive Site Exploitation)
in Narizah, 50 miles SE of Kabul.
================== Bagram ==================
In Bagram, heroes avenging 911 and on the road to bring justice
to terrorists, with judicious vigilance, test for biochemicals.
There were none.
================== Kabul ==================
In Kabul, freedom on the streets (courtesy of the USA),
with girls at play, where before under the Taliban ......
In Kabul, at the bird market [not permitted under the Taliban]
The pet bird lives in Kandahar.
In Kabul, 7/26/02, Afghans mourn their slain VP Haji Qadir [killed 7/6].
Unsolved, Afghans want to avenge the murder.
In Kabul, reconstructing begins, here, for the destroyed old palace.
In Kabul, mines remain a problem, including this minefield southeast of Kabul.
Although the UN should pitch in and send delegates to remove mines, they will instead
have a conference soon and attack free countries as they support terrorists and slavers.
================== In the US ==================
In Washington, DC, SOS Colin Powell, right, takes precious time from
his continual determined fighting for Arabs, Palestinians and Islamic countries,
including having his Department continue to give US visas
to declared terrorists who have murdered Americans,
to speak with the Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah.
END OF TRANSMISSION 7/27/02 
.......... K
It's not just you. They are all gorgeous and oh so brave. I'm so proud of them.
Awesome photos.
In Washington, DC, SOS Colin Powell, right, takes precious time from his continual determined fighting for Arabs, Palestinians and Islamic countries, including having his Department continue to give US visas to declared terrorists who have murdered Americans, to speak with the Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah.
Ha! Ha!
If only these were the actual subtitles of those photos!
He's a decorated hero....you are an image recycler from ap feeds.
"...Fighting for arabs..." Hyperbole for sure.
Get over yourself in the commentary!
Heros at work and at rest (the one pic looks like a soldier lying on the ground, while another soldier seems to be pouring water into his face)...burqa-less girls playing on swings just like other kids their age all over the world...
If the UN is not going to help, they should get out. Of course, they won't do that, because they must protect the interests of the terrorists, especially since the Security Council is led by a terrorist-supporting country.
Thank you for bringing us these threads every week...I always look forward to 'em!
American hero BUMP!
...WHAT? They have CONSERVATIVE moments sometimes?
There's no age limit on flirting. It'll keep you young.
...Besides, it's fun. I'm a grandma, and I STILL flirt!
[Powell's] "continual determined fighting for Arabs, Palestinians and Islamic countries"
BAH!! Please remember that Colin Powell was the commander of the largest slaughter of "Islamic Fighters" in this country's history...or probably in the history of the world. Iraq's "elite" guard was smashed by this guy, and he's going to be part of the administration that finally finishes the deal -against the UN's wishes- by "marching to Baghdad." Good for him.
I understand that he doesn't have blood dripping from his mouth, and that he plays, if nothing else, the devil's advocate in the formation of the Administration's policy, but the man is a bona fide American Hero.
Extrapolating that he is a friend to the very terrorists that murdered Americans is foolish and unfounded. Dio certainly does FR a favor by posting a digest of pix with commentary (esp. pix of Jenna!) But I will exercise my keyboard and support those who have served with honor in our military (as grunts or supreme commanders), whether you guys think I'm some kind of terrorist apologist or not.
By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon
- Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Dodging Peace
An enduring image of the Persian Gulf War is the picture of the two generals -- Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf -- celebrating the 1991 military victory in ticker-tape parades. They seemed the perfect teammates, a politically savvy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Powell) and the gruff field commander (Schwarzkopf).
But the behind-the-scenes reality often was different. Time and again in the march toward war, Powell represented the interests of a political leadership that hungered for a clear military victory to erase the painful memories of America's defeat in Vietnam. Schwarzkopf and other commanders on the front lines argued for careful planning and, if possible, a settlement that would force Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait without costing the lives of American soldiers.
According to contemporaneous accounts of the Persian Gulf War, these conflicting priorities even led Powell to shirk from presenting to President Bush a last-minute plan that Schwarzkopf thought might have averted the ground war. On Feb. 21, 1991, less than three days before the land assault began, Powell and Schwarzkopf had hammered out a cease-fire proposal for presentation to the National Security Council. But faced with Bush's obvious desire for the ground war, Powell substituted a different proposal that made the fighting inevitable.
Yet, in the glow of the quick Persian Gulf victory, Powell's double-cross passed unnoticed. Powell and Schwarzkopf basked in public acclaim -- and Bush boasted of his administration's success in avenging the American humiliation in Vietnam.
Exorcising the "Vietnam Syndrome" demons had been a priority of the Persian Gulf War almost from the beginning. As the ground war was starting, conservative columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak spotted this White House obsession. On Feb. 25, 1991, they wrote that an initiative by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to broker Iraq's surrender of Kuwait "stirred fears" among Bush's advisers that the Vietnam Syndrome might survive the Gulf War.
"There was considerable relief, therefore, when the President ... made clear he was having nothing to do with the deal that would enable Saddam Hussein to bring his troops out of Kuwait with flags flying," Evans and Novak wrote. "Fear of a peace deal at the Bush White House had less to do with oil, Israel or Iraqi expansionism than with the bitter legacy of a lost war. 'This is the chance to get rid of the Vietnam Syndrome,' one senior aide told us."
Though Iraq's civilians and Saddam Hussein's soldiers already had suffered tens of thousands of dead during a month of devastating bombing, the White House felt that more punishment was needed. A ground war could annihilate the Iraqi forces as they retreated and again prove America's war-fighting mettle. But Schwarzkopf saw little reason for U.S. soldiers to die if the Iraqis were prepared to withdraw and leave their heavy weapons behind.
No TKO
Powell was in the middle. He wanted to serve the desires of Bush and the hawks, while still representing the concerns of the field commanders. Stationed at the front in Saudi Arabia, Schwarzkopf thought Powell was an ally. "Neither Powell nor I wanted a ground war," Schwarzkopf wrote in his memoirs, It Doesn't Take a Hero.
But at key moments in White House meetings, Powell sided with Bush in savouring the psychological value of a successful war. "I cannot believe the lift that this crisis and our response to it have given to our country," Powell told Schwarzkopf as American air sorties pummelled Iraq. In mid-February 1991, Powell also bristled when Schwarzkopf acceded to a Marine commander's request for a three-day delay to reposition his troops.
"I hate to wait that long," Powell fumed. "The President wants to get on with this." Powell explained that Bush was worried about a pending Soviet peace plan which sought to engineer an Iraqi withdrawal with no more killing.
"President Bush was in a bind," Powell wrote in his own memoirs, My American Journey. "After the expenditure of $60 billion and transporting half a million troops 8,000 miles, Bush wanted to deliver a knock-out punch to the Iraqi invaders in Kuwait. He did not want to win by a TKO that would allow Saddam to withdraw with his army unpunished and intact."
Then, on Feb. 18, Powell relayed a demand to Schwarzkopf from Bush's National Security Council for an earlier attack date. Powell "spoke in the terse tone that signaled he was under pressure from the hawks," Schwarzkopf wrote. But one of Schwarzkopf's field commanders still protested that a rushed attack could mean "a whole lot more casualties," a risk that Schwarzkopf considered unacceptable.
"The increasing pressure to launch the ground war early was making me crazy," Schwarzkopf wrote. "I could guess what was going on. ...There had to be a contingent of hawks in Washington who did not want to stop until we'd punished Saddam. We'd been bombing Iraq for more than a month, but that wasn't good enough. There were guys who had seen John Wayne in The Green Berets, they'd seen Rambo, they'd seen Patton, and it was very easy for them to pound their desks and say, 'By God, we've got to go in there and kick ass! Got to punish that son of a bitch!' Of course, none of them was going to get shot at. None of them would have to answer to the mothers and fathers of dead soldiers and Marines."
Peace Dodging
Then, on Feb. 20, Schwarzkopf sought a two-day delay because of bad weather. Powell exploded. "I've got a President and a Secretary of Defense on my back," Powell shouted. "They've got a bad Russian peace proposal they're trying to dodge. ...I don't think you understand the pressure I'm under."
Schwarzkopf yelled back that Powell appeared to have "political reasons" for favoring a timetable that was "militarily unsound." Powell snapped back, "Don't patronize me with talk about human lives."
By the evening of Feb. 21, however, Schwarzkopf thought he and Powell were again reading from the same page, looking for ways to avert the ground war. Powell had faxed Schwarzkopf a copy of the Russian cease-fire plan in which Gorbachev had proposed a six-week period for Iraqi withdrawal. Recognizing that six weeks would give Saddam time to salvage his military hardware, Schwarzkopf and Powell devised a counter-proposal. It would give Iraq only a one-week cease-fire, time to flee from Kuwait but without any heavy weapons.
"The National Security Council was about to meet," Schwarzkopf wrote, "and Powell and I hammered out a recommendation. We suggested the United States offer a cease-fire of one week: enough time for Saddam to withdraw his soldiers but not his supplies or the bulk of his equipment. ...As the Iraqis withdrew, we proposed, our forces would pull right into Kuwait behind them. ... At bottom, neither Powell nor I wanted a ground war. We agreed that if the United States could get a rapid withdrawal we would urge our leaders to take it."
But when Powell arrived at the White House late that evening, he found Bush angry about the Soviet peace initiative. "The President's problem was how to say no to Gorbachev without appearing to throw away a chance for peace," Powell wrote in his memoirs. "I could hear the President's growing distress in his voice. 'I don't want to take this deal,' he said. 'But I don't want to stiff Gorbachev, not after he's come this far with us. We've got to find a way out'."
At that point, Powell sought the President's attention. "I raised a finger," Powell said. "The President turned to me. 'Got something, Colin?'," Bush asked. But rather than outlining the one-week cease-fire plan that had emerged from the Powell-Schwarzkopf conversation, Powell offered a different idea.
"We don't stiff Gorbachev," Powell explained. "Let's put a deadline on Gorby's proposal. We say, great idea, as long as they're completely on there way out by, say, noon Saturday," Feb. 23, less than two days away. Powell clearly understood that the two-day deadline would not give the Iraqis enough time to act, especially with their command-and-control severely damaged. The plan was a public-relations strategy to guarantee that the White House got its ground war.
"If, as I suspect, they don't move, then the flogging begins," Powell told a gratified George Bush.
The next day, at 10:30 a.m., a Friday, Bush announced his ultimatum. There would be a Saturday noon deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal, as Powell had recommended. Without knowing that Powell had never raised the one-week cease-fire idea, Schwarzkopf and his field commanders in Saudi Arabia watched the President's speech on television and grasped its meaning.
"We all knew by then which it would be," Schwarzkopf wrote. "We were marching toward a Sunday morning attack."
When the Iraqis predictably missed the deadline, American and allied forces launched the ground offensive at 0400 on Feb. 24, Persian Gulf time. Though Iraqi forces were soon in full retreat, the high-tech allies slaughtered tens of thousands Iraqi soldiers in the 100-hour war. U.S. casualties were remarkably light, only 147 killed in combat and another 236 killed in accidents or from other causes.
"Small losses as military statistics go," wrote Powell in his memoirs, "but a tragedy for each family."
On Feb. 28, the day the war ended, Bush celebrated the victory. "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all," the President declared.
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