Al-Qaida Attacked Afghanistan During Donald Rumsfeld's Visit

NewsMax ^ | 12/28/05 | NewsMax

[cpdiii]

I wonder how many of these guys will VOLUNTEER for the next attack on the base? :)

[Tallguy]

Do they normally keep a Buff on station over Afghanistan, or do you think it was ordered special for Rumsfeld's visit? If the Buffs are working out of Diego Garcia, then perhaps this wasn't anything special and the Talibunnies should have expected some steel rain.

[gotribe]

Al-Qaida Attacked Afghanistan During Donald Rumsfeld's Visit

Also...

Al-Qaida Attacked Afghanistan While I was Eating Christmas Cookies

This is news?

[MNJohnnie]

Based on what I read in "First In", I suspect we have Buffs on station. One of the reasons we just spent $453 BILLION in defense appropriations. Just about the ONLY thing in the Fed Budget this year we SHOULD be spending money on in my opinion. If having them Buffs in the air saves lives, send them. Some Senator will just have to do without a bridge or two in his state to pay for them being there.

[American in Singapore]

I think that the Taliban should get their hands on some old SNL re-runs and check out the Bad Idea Jeans commercials :-)

I can see it now:
(camera show only the jeans of the mujis while they are getting together for a meeting)
Muji #1: Punch SMS'd me and told me that the evil Satan Rumsfeld is coming to visit his troops.
Muji #2: Then they will be distracted and it will be a perfect time to overrun the base.

Voice-over, in booming voice: Bad Idea Jeans!

[95 Bravo]

How's about we just do away with the Senate to pay for them? That'd save several million $ if we did. B-52's are waaaaaay more important than 100 impotent gasbags.

[downtoliberalism]

...The suicidal assault...
>>>>>>>

Any assault from these loosers is a suicidal assault.

Thank god for our troops.

[downtoliberalism]

You couldn't be any more correct.

[MNJohnnie]

You have my vote!

[Itzlzha]

B-52 bombers, Apache gunships, A-10 Warthog jets, artillery and infantry delivered a "devastating" counterattack outside the camp's walls, resulting in more than a dozen confirmed enemy kills, sources told the Daily News.

OK....I have to call B.S. here!

Where were the B-52's based, that they could respond like that? How was the "strike" co-ordinated "outside the walls" as they say?

My B.S. meter is pegging!

[MNJohnnie]

The B-52s are based out of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and have been since the Cold War. Give the foot based movement of most of the Terrorists in Afghanistan it would be entirely possible to call in a strike from there to Afghanistan in time to interdict the retreat routes or hit terrorists heavy weapon sites supporting the assault. A Russian .51 cal Dishka or the terrorists mortar support etc would be set up well outside the danger close range for the Buffs to hit.

[Sarajevo]

The ground forces would "fix" the enemy (i.e. pin them down), then call in air support to bomb and strafe. The B-52's would have ample time to arrive on the scene to lay down an anvil for retreating forces to run into. (Those 500lb bombs can scramble your brains if you're too close.) Afterwards, the helo's and A-10's could move back in to pick off any enemy unlucky enough to remain alive.

[Itzlzha]

The B-52s are based out of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and have been since the Cold War. Give the foot based movement of most of the Terrorists in Afghanistan it would be entirely possible to call in a strike from there to Afghanistan in time to interdict the retreat routes or hit terrorists heavy weapon sites supporting the assault.

OK.

I checked for a rough guesstimate HERE to see how far Diego Garcia was from Kabul.

We get 2888 miles (2510 nautical miles).

Now, given that the BUFF is subsonic, at a good clip she'll cruise at 600 MPH.

Do the math folks. From alert time (I am going to give them credit for having fully loaded BUFFs on a Ready-5 alert status) to take-off to refuel to target acquire is still over 4 hours (Closer to 5 by my best guestimate)...and that's just to Kabul. Since I have no idea how far Camp Tilman is from Kabul, I'm just going to use the Kabul locale to frame my point!

So the attack continued for enough time for BUFFs to get from Diego Garcia to the zone? And A-10's, Apaches and F-15E's (of which I'm fairly certain there are some "in theater") weren't enough?

I'm sorry...I still think the B-52 part is B.S., unless they have BUFFs in a "forward area"....hmmm.....

[MNJohnnie]

6 hours from take off to the target is not an unreasonable time frame for a strike on terrorists exit routes.

A nighttime assault like this probably went on for hours. But I suspect the Buffs were on station. Given the build up in the area of the Al Qeda forces would have to pull to make the attack our guys probably knew something was up and had them on stand by. Making a truly surprise attack on anything given the massive amount of the intelligence resources available to a modern military is virtually impossible. Look up JStar and see what it can do. Hitting a target where they cannot mask their approach behind normal civilian traffic patterns is virtually impossible for the Terrorists. They simply cannot move fast enough.

FYI, During the initial liberation of Afghanistan they were even flying B-1 and B-2 strikes from Missouri to support the Northern Alliance troops. Using Buffs to support our own troops would be easier then that.

[95 Bravo]

I absolutely loathe the bloviating bast**ds in the Senate. It's got to be the greatest gravy- train job ever invented. The whole thing has become a 3-ring circus of "gotcha!" games.
The Founding Fathers would horsewhip the lot of them.
I say: Fund more B-52's, not blustering blowhard Senators!