[Bigg Red]

That "senior officer" should SHUT UP! Loose lips...

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Number one, nobody can confirm or deny this. Number two, Delta Force conducts very dangerous operations and only a fool would expect zero casualties. This is what is called war. In war, you take casualties.

[Conservative Tiger]

I wonder how tough the Taliban would be if a nuclear bomb is dropped on their asses?

[Dirk McQuickly]

Giving comfort to the enemy... This kind of crap should never be published.

[Bad~Rodeo]

Balance Reuters, remember?? You ARE Replaceable,VEG~

[Benrand]

I'm not sure I buy the "scared the crap" line...

[Ozymandias Ghost]

Gee, I wonder how they had time to take all that neat night vision video of equipment and ordnance while all this massive resistance was going on???

Next time send us back pictures of the dead Talliban bodies neatly stacked up ...that will put and end to this type of yellow journalism by people who are obviously enemies of the United States!!!

[piasa]

So how did old Seymore find these people to 'interview them?' Did he go down to the homeless shelter and find them lurking there? Or did he sprout wings and fly out to them?

[Kenyon]

Hersh has done the best reporting so far on this operation. He has had a history of being able to tap sources at the operational level, whether in the CIA or military.

His point of view is generally from the perspective of those on the ground actually doing the work - not from the high level cover your ass policy types. I suppose many are going to be critical of his reports because they think he is somehow undermining the war effort - he is not. He is performing a valuable service by getting out the straight story from those who are actually doing the job (special forces, CIA, etc.) and who need to have those (Franks et. al.) in policy making positions to get their acts together.

[over3Owithabrain]

If this report is true, I'm far more concerned that we have a whining senior officer in Delta Force than the fact the operation didn't go as well as planned. These guys are known as the cream of the crop, but this article makes them sound like a bunch of wimps - crying about how tough the mission was and how they were "scared". I'm taking this with a hefty dose of salt, especially considering it's from the New Yorker, hardly a voice of American pride.

[Nov3]

I just fail to see how they could be ambushed with Ac-130 gunships amd attack helicopters orbiting the place. This doesm't pass the smell test. I see how they could meet fierce opposition but ambushed?

[Cold Heat]

This must be the raid where the chopper crash landed in Pakistan. Three were seriously injured. 12 were on the chopper. In other words, Taliban report. New Yorker Mag sucks.(IMHO)

[angkor]

coming editons of the NEW YORKER

The New Yorker.

Is Tina Brown still running that left wing piece of crap?

I haven't picked it up since cancelling my sub a very long time ago.

[Publius6961]

The intensity and ferocity of the Taliban response "scared the crap out of everyone," a senior military officer tells Hersh.

I don't believe this for a minute.
If anything "scares the crap" out of our Delta Forces, we are truly lost.

[LaineyDee]

Hersch sounds like the Taliban.

[Aerial]

The Taliban gave the Russians hell and finally ran them out.

But some people will tell you they are not a force to be reckoned with.

If you do think they are a force to be reckoned with you will be accused of siding with the enemy.

Go figure...

[AmericaUnited]

Hersh is a pathetic, pathological LIAR!

[cake_crumb]

"...assault on Mullah Omar's complex during the early morning of October 20th"

October 20th??? Wasn't October 20 the night of the raid which the Taliban insisted never took place? How did the Taliban "fight back" when they insist there WAS no raid the night of October 20? I suppose the video and the computers confiscated were faked.

IMHO, I think the number of Delta Force casualties refers to the helicopter crash in Pakistan, but this is war and there will be casualties.

[knighthawk]

The intensity and ferocity of the Taliban response "scared the crap out of everyone," a senior military officer tells Hersh.

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!

[Jthro]

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

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.