← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 19631 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2005-08-14
2005-08-14 02:42 | User Profile
"U.S. Troops Begin Afghan Offensive"
I thought we defeated the "Talaban" already?
[QUOTE]AP: U.S. Troops Begin Afghan Offensive
By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago
KANDAGAL, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines and Afghan troops launched an offensive Saturday to take a remote mountain valley from insurgents tied to the deadliest blow on American forces since the Taliban regime was ousted nearly four years ago.
The operation is the biggest yet aimed at rebels believed responsible for twin attacks that killed 19 U.S. troops in June. Three Navy SEALs were killed in an ambush, and all 16 soldiers on a helicopter sent to rescue them died when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The offensive came at the end of a deadly week for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Seven Americans have died along with dozens of militants and civilians, reinforcing concerns that crucial legislative elections next month could be threatened by a surge in violence.
U.S. and Afghan commanders said militants in the Korengal Valley, in eastern Kunar province near the Pakistani border, were intent on disrupting voting. They said the valley held hundreds of Afghan rebels, as well as extremists from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
"We want them running for their lives way up in the hills where they can't attack polling stations," said Capt. John Moshane of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based in Hawaii. "We want to isolate them from the community."
Hundreds of Marines and Afghan special forces troopers started moving into position at one end of the valley Thursday, about 120 miles east of the capital, Kabul. They dug mortar and machine-gun pits for a resupply base in a corn field near Kandagal, a village of about 100 farm families.
Reacting quickly, rebels fired rockets at a nearby U.S. post and a troop convoy but did not hit anything.
American and Afghan forces hiked into the rugged mountains Friday and Saturday, many leading lines of donkeys laden with food and water. A-10 attack planes circled high above.
The operation was expected to last at least two weeks, Moshane said.
One of the main objectives is breaking up a network of militants led by a local Taliban officer, Ahmad Shah, also known as Ismail, who claimed responsibility for the June 28 attacks, said Kirimat Tanhah, a commander in the U.S.-trained and financed Afghan Special Forces.
Shah is suspected of having ties to al-Qaida militants in Pakistan, he said.
"Ismail's men ambushed the SEAL team and shot down the helicopter," Tanhah told The Associated Press. "Many of them are foreigners and have trained in Pakistan and elsewhere."
He said Shah also pays impoverished villagers to fight for him.
Lt. Col. Jim Donnellan, commander of the Marine battalion, said the valley was a base for lots of other "bad guys" besides Shah, including al-Qaida militants, fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other Taliban groups.
Dozens of criminals involved in timber and gem smuggling are there, too, he said.
"Some of them are thugs, others are political ideologues, coming in and throwing their money around," Donnellan said. "Many villagers are paid good money to work with the militants."
Meanwhile, a local shepherd who rescued the only member of the ambushed SEAL team to survive June 28, was reported in hiding after militants threatened to kill him.
Donnellan, the Marine commander, confirmed the fourth SEAL was sheltered by a villager, but he declined to elaborate. He didn't comment on the accounts of tribesmen who said shepherd Sher Alam was hiding from extremists.
"Men distributed leaflets around our village saying they were going to kill him," said Shah Wali, a neighbor. "His wife and children are being protected by others in the village, but Sher had to leave."
He said Alam was grazing his animals when he found the wounded commando hiding in the mountains after the ambush. Wali said the SEAL pointed his gun at Alam, but the shepherd raised his shirt to show he had no weapon and was not a threat.
Alam took the man to his home and bandaged his wounds, before walking to a nearby U.S. base to alert them, Wali said.
He said Alam, who is Pashtun, the same ethnicity as most Taliban fighters, gave sanctuary to the American because "it is our culture."
"We would help anyone who asks, anyone ... well, except Osama bin Laden because he damaged our country," Wali added.
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2005-08-14 21:26 | User Profile
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Nope, not at all.
The Taliban left rear-guard elements behind in 2001-02 as they simply dispersed into the hills and mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I laugh aloud whenever I hear the armchair warriors of Pox News declaring the Taliban to be "defeated" or "on the run." In the end we will learn - the hard way - what the British and the Russians already know: Afghanistan is not now, and never will be, pacified.[/size][/font]
2005-08-14 22:56 | User Profile
Good or bad a governent of a country is and should be formed by its people for their own people and not for the benefit of a foreign country.
That's something that the American people have forgotten and by doing that all those who fought for its freedom and die for the same did it for nothing.
You allowed those with the power to stay in power because they have shown you power and not because they deserved to be where they are at.
From your masses you should choose your next leader, a leader that will bring new blood and new thoughts to the country and one who will be free of those who you call "neocons", could the name of that person be Cindy?
I am the less educated individual on this board and yet I know what it is to participate in a revolution, I have seen three revolution and beeing in six wars for five countrys and unless you people do more than just talk it will be the end of a great nation that I have known and loved for the past 53 years.
There, I said it and for good or bad I feel better, now you can make fun of me. :cheers:
2005-08-15 01:16 | User Profile
Nobody is going to make fun of you Ponce, everything you said is right on the money and undeniable. One question though:who the hell is Cindy?
2005-08-15 01:57 | User Profile
Cindy Shennan? the mother whos kid was mudered in Iraq because of Bush and now she is now going after him and the Zionist state of Israel.
Like she said " My son die for Israel and not for the USA"
Like I wrote elsewhere, she is the only person with the balls to go after Bush and the Jews.
2005-08-17 03:16 | User Profile
Ponce: I think there are others with the balls but not the access to the national media. Sheehan has that access because of her son. Also, note that her own family is going against her in the public forum. Disgusting.
2005-08-17 12:48 | User Profile
I heard 17 Spanish troops were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan yesterday.
More Americans have been killed in Afghanistan in the 8 months of 2005 than were killed in all of 2004.
How long were the Soviets in Afghanistan before they were finally kicked out?
2005-08-17 13:18 | User Profile
The US has never really had firm control over any part of Afghanistan except for Kabul. That's why the President of Afghanistan, Karzei, is sometimes derisively referred to as the 'Mayor of Kabul.' We have basically farmed out the rule of the rest of the country to the various local warlords who were already there before we showed up. These warlords are supposed to answer to Kabul and thus to Washington, but they pretty much do what they wish, which is why overall opium production has skyrocketed since we 'liberated' Afghanistan. Some of these warlords have even set up strict Islamic law in their fiefdoms. Ol' Pyrrhus said it best -- 'A few more such victories and we shall be undone!"
2005-08-21 02:03 | User Profile
Hmmm, anyone ever hear of Kandahar?
Anyway, Q, your broad brush assessment is well put, as the footprint looks a lot like the dispersed Cavalry forts of the old West, what with patrols and an intricate series of deals, good and bad, with local folks who sometimes work with, and sometimes against, US aims based on their own priorities. It is to a certain extent a Special Operator's envirnoment.
Fluid, and never static, requiring immense patience and working with people. The kind of long term relationship building simply does not sell well in the "short attention span news world."
The most interesting facet is looking into and learning where the loyalties of local people lie. The identity with the state of Afghanistan is erratic, but family and "warlord" (an over used term) loyalties, as well as regional identification, are still as strong now as when the Brits were beating their brains out there over a hundred years ago.
AE
[QUOTE=Quantrill]The US has never really had firm control over any part of Afghanistan except for Kabul. Ol' Pyrrhus said it best -- 'A few more such victories and we shall be undone!"[/QUOTE]