Posted on 11/03/2001 6:04:22 AM PST by Diogenesis
MAG: 12 U.S. DELTA MEMBERS WOUNDED ON RAID OF OMAR'S COMPLEX, THREE SERIOUSLY; PENTAGON RETHINKS 'SPECIAL FORCES OPERATIONS'
Seymour Hersh has filed yet another controversial report for coming editons of the NEW YORKER, publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
In ESCAPE AND EVASION, Hersh claims: In the wake of a near-disaster during the assault on Mullah Omar's complex during the early morning of October 20th, the Pentagon has been rethinking future Special Forces operations inside Afghanistan.
Delta Force, which prides itself on stealth, had been counterattacked by the Taliban, and some of the Americans had had to fight their way to safety. Hersh has filed his report for the November 12, 2001 issue of the NEW YORKER, on sale Monday.
Twelve Delta members were wounded, three of them seriously.
The intensity and ferocity of the Taliban response "scared the crap out of everyone," a senior military officer tells Hersh.
The Delta team stormed Mullah Omar's complex, but found little of value, Hersh reports, and then, "as they came out of the house, the shit hit the fan," one senior officer says. "It was like an ambush. The Taliban were fighting with light arms and either [rocket-propelled grenades] or mortars." The team immediately began taking casualties and evacuated.
"The Delta team was forced to abandon one of its objectives: the insertion of an undercover team into the area and the stay-behind soldiers fled to a previously determined rendezvous point, using a contingency plan known as an E. & E., for escape and evasion," Hersh writes.
Yeah, guess it was a Taliban military officer who told him this. Also, he was told that the Taliban fought back with the support of the finest Palestinian rock-throwers and hundereds of Pakistani camel-jockeys with fresh diapers on their heards!
I have to question this article and its truthfulness. The "angle" of this article takes on a Taliban-propagandist tone. The U.S. military knows that special forces are going to engage in skirmishes and that casualties are likely. However, they are not going to stop special forces operations as the article implies, just because they have taken part in a firefight/ambush.
Something is missing from this story, who was covering the rear of the entry team? Or was intelligence so bad that resistance wasn't believed to be present?
Not sure about this report at all, but there have been other references to fierce fighting during this incident, so I do believe there is something to it. Somalia and Blackhawk Down come to mind. We need to have good intelligence, good military leadership, and superior numbers of forces to prevent the same things from happening in Afghanistan.
I'm not buying any of it. I think the whole thing is "crap".
That's the only reason that an officer would confide anything in a snake like Hersh.
The result here is a portion of truth with a strong politically-motivated defeatist spin.
This is very dangerous.
Bush has alot of weeding-out to do in the military.
It had better get done quickly.
You could be right, or it could be that Hersh is just pumping his old PR game up. I was only pointing out that the guy does have a checkered past. If they really had 12 wounded, why would the Pentagon try to hide that? They could still claim a successful mission if it was or not, hand out some ribbons and make some hereos. And I don't think any Spec.Ops. officer would ever publically say they had the 'crap' scared out of them. That seems over the top to me, which is what Hersh has taken fire for in the past. He gets a few 'nuggets' and then weaves the rest around it.
So they were getting whipped by a demoralized conscript army... that was trying to hold ground too. Their capital was in Russian hands. The only thing the Taliban ever whipped was some of the groups composing what is now the Northern Alliance, long after the Russians had left. The Taliban didn't come to power until 1996, and even then weren't able to kill off the Northern Alliance. The Taliban are NOT impressive, even if all enemies should be treated as if they are bigger than they are.
And now old Hersh is trying to claim the Taliban can part the Red Sea, when in fact the Taliban have nothing to their credit but a pair of wheels... and according to them, the "B-52 FIGHTER" (hahaha!) they say they 'shot down' yesterday or the day before with their low-altitude missiles. He claims a rout when in fact it looked like a nice, measured action, no one running, everyone moving steadily and carefully; when for all practical purposes it was in and out as it should be. Best of all, is his claim an officer would even talk to him, and whine too. (Won't happen.)
If we were hurting right now certain folks would be shifted from to fill in. (Not happening... that is a fact. Some of the likely fill-ins are still e-mailing me Taliban jokes. I don't think they'd be doing that from the field.)
Then be a good fellow and notify the SecDef, will you? Loose lips, you know!
The Clinton people fired them and the rest of the well trained non-coms!
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