BREAKING: Eight U.S. troops die in attacks in Afghanistan

MSNBC.com ^ | 10-04-09 | NBC News

[montag813]

Eight American soldiers and two Afghans have been killed in an attack on two outposts in remote eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

A tribal militia launched the attack from a mosque and a nearby village in Nuristan, one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan, the U.S. military said in a statement. The Americans and Afghans repelled the attack and "inflicted heavy enemy casualties," the statement said.

In the U.S. statement, Col. Randy George described it as "a complex attack in a difficult area." The Taliban claimed responsibility.

[Saoirise]

SoCalPol - You're just not getting it, the only cutting and running is Obama cutting down our troops and massacring them with the current ROE policy. If they are not allowed to fight then bring them home! So simple a 5 year old can understand that. Why are we sending 10,000 more Pendleton based troops only to have their lives risked by insurgents and our fuzzy ROE.

Remember this brave Marine:

We're are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We’ve lost today,” Marine Maj. Kevin Williams , 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter’s repeated demands for helicopters.

RIP Maj. Williams 9/9/09.

[Son House]

STATE OF THE UNION (CNN):

Just ran a clip of a former General(?) saying that he wished McChrystal wasn’t so public

^
It was so rare for Øcarter to have contact with him it became news

[444Flyer]

That is the same thing that eventually happened during the Vietnam war...by design. The people who had always supported the vietnam war became anti-war when it became painfully apparent that the leadership in Washington had no intention or strategy to win the war.It’s a very sad morning for America. God Bless our military in their hour of need and loss.

EXACTLY what I was thinking about this morning Penelopesire. I get a sick feeling that the gross incompetance of Obama may be his strategy. Is it his design to purposely lose the war? Make sure any potential conflicts we engage in of the future will be compared to Vietnam AND Obama's Afghanistan?

MAY GOD BLESS AND PROTECT OUR MILITARY. They deserve so much more than this Mickey Mouse CIC.

[JSloth]

“As for YOU Mr Obama — stop playing your f*cking games with Olympic Committees and the UN!

Either ramp up deployments like the in-theater CCs want to do to f*cking win and stabilize the region — or pull the troops all the hell out RIGHT NOW!

Stop playing you indecisive community organizer games with America’s son & daughter, damn you!”

SAYS IT ALL!!

[ohioWfan]

Amen, STARWISE.

This is a horrid situation. May God wrap His arms of comfort and love around each one who has lost a loved one.

May God protect our troops from their enemies in the field, and in the White House.

May God protect this beloved land, and may He have mercy on us!

[JSloth]

“...but that’s just not politically feasible.”

To he!! with politics...we’re talking about soldiers lives and doing the right thing.

[ohioWfan]

Firstly, I don’t think you can blame this on the President. It’s not like he wants this to happen. Plenty of troops were killed when Bush was in office, way more than under Obama. I suspect if Obama had his druthers and could do what he felt like, he’d withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately, but that’s just not politically feasible. Thoughts and prayers should be with the troops and not on blaming someone.

I know others have responded to this, but do you SERIOUSLY think Obama cares about this?? Are you SERIOUSLY drawing a parallel between Obama and President Bush regarding casualties? Do you SERIOUSLY think Obama is not to blame for putting our troops at great risk by changing the ROE in Afghanistan?

Obama could care less about troop deaths. To him the troops are the enemy. President Bush respected and cared for his troops and suffered with every death.

You know nothing if you think there's any parallel here, or that Obama cares.

[ohioWfan]

I wonder if Obama even knows about this.

I know he doesn't give a rip, but I wonder if anyone even told him.

[penelopesire]

The man has surrounded himself with the same radicals that helped to lose the Vietnam War. Perhaps he has that ‘strategy’ in mind. A ‘strategy’ which is to refuse our troops the support they require to win the war and then amid rising casualties as a result of a failed strategy... allow the anti-war demonstrators and media to do what they do best..weaken support for the war. I believe that is his so called ‘strategy’.

[vigilante2]

Who changed the ROE?

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks! I wondered about that interview that McChrystal gave and said he had only talked to Obama once. Then up pops the staged photo op in Copenhagen.

[444Flyer]

Our thinking is matching up. I think we're on to something. Until we see otherwise and are proven incorrect.

[MNSlim]

General Odierno stated in his press briefing last week that he hadn’t talked to Obama for over a month. Obama doesn’t seem to be interested in accepting his vital and painfullty difficult war-time CinC duty. We’re being led by a pansy.

[mazda77]

What is worse in my book is that Stanley is busy selling this ROE crap to a CBS reporter in the middle of the theatre OPNS Center! I cannot take him out of this whole mess because he is the salesman knowingly trying to sell the POS lemon YUGO to the media while the men he is responsible for are being picked off like ducks in a shooting gallery!

I could care less about some other officers wishing Stanley was no so public about his statements because they are typical of the same kind of thinking. Don’t say anything because the Post Turtle might get mad? As we used to say; “With all DUE respect, Sir!” Anyone who was ever an NCO knows exactly what this inferred to an officer. The officers knew exactly what it meant as well especially since he could do nothing about the remark.

As I said before, with Stanley defending this kind of Bull, he is aiding and abedding anything that comes of the rediculous ROE he personally defended on camera. It is obvious to me is cares more for his little chrome stars than he does for the men he is commanding. It is for him to defend his statements, not mine to accept whatever drivel may come out of anyone in this administration.

He is well on his way of making Westmoreland look like Patton if this crap continues. Again, the ball is in his court and he doesn’t have “weeks” to return the volley.

[penelopesire]

I don’t believe we are incorrect....sadly. Statists do the same thing everytime they get power. Remember after 911 and President Bush was organizing for his strike back against AQ and the Taliban...the leftist democrats and the left winged media were screaming about Iraq! You can go back in the old archives of every major media outlet at the time and they were writing article after article about the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein(as if he was the major threat to America..not AQ and the Taliban). President Bush sends our troops to Afghanistan..the left screams that Iraq is the major threat..then President Bush sends troops to Iraq eventually and they scream the Afghanistan is the major threat. See the pattern? It’s much like the terrorists pattern as a matter of fact. They play whack a mole too. You beat them in Afghanistan and they all run to Iraq and when they are beaten in Iraq..they run back to Afghanistan. That’s why we have to fight on both fronts at the same time..but the democrats and Obama are not going to do either in the end.

[Miss Didi]

From Michael Goodwin in today's NY Post:



"IF you still doubt President Obama is trying to do too many things and is giving short shrift to the most important ones, consider this pathetic scene at the Copenhagen airport. It was Friday, and the president went to Denmark to make his pitch for the Chicago Olympics.

Before Air Force One took off for home, Obama met with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Our commander in Afghanistan was summoned from London and got 25 minutes of face time with the commander-in-chief.

That's it -- 25 minutes on the plane for the man Obama picked to lead 68,000 troops and rescue a war he calls one of "necessity." Compare that to the 14 hours or so Obama wasted flying and speaking about the Olympics, and you get a snapshot of a president off course.

Not incidentally, that was the same day the unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent, the highest since 1983, as employers shed 283,000 more jobs in September.

Barack Obama, phone home. (cont.)"

President is AWOL as our commander

[444Flyer]

“Who changed the ROE?”

Everything comes from the Top down but McChrystal is the face on it.

“...Previous instances of unintended civilian deaths have angered Afghan leaders. As soon as McChrystal took command in June, he instituted strict standards for close-air support missions.”
(Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in a radio address to Afghans today that “nothing is more important than the safety and protection of the Afghan people.)

“McChrystal promises Afghans full accounting of Kunduz air strike”

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7VM4P7?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P#

“GIs Told Not to Risk Civilian Lives”

“...Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, will issue the directive as part of an effort to cut down on civilian casualties, which have enraged the Afghan government and residents. Instead of calling in air support or firing into civilian homes where Taliban fighters have sought refuge, commanders will be instructed to reach out to tribal elders or undertake other efforts to dislodge the fighters...”

http://www.military.com/cs/Satellite?c=maArticle&cid=1199422047446&pagename=News%2FnwsLayout

[PhiKapMom]

Pansy is too nice of word for Obama! Cannot believe this is happening.

[Rebelbase]

Eight soldiers dead is a small price to pay for Obama being distracted by sacrificing time with his children to go to Copenhagen and lobbying the Olympics for the USA.

Obama’s sacrifice is huge, he must have a terrible weight on his shoulders for failing to get the Olympics.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

Obama is finding out its alot easier to trash President Bush than it is to actually be a President.