8 US troops killed in fierce Afghan fighting
October 4th, 2009 . by TexasFredKABUL (AP) – Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said Sunday.
The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war.
It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, plans to shift U.S. troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new strategy to focus on protecting Afghan civilians.
U.S. troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and airstrikes Saturday to repel the attackers, inflicting “heavy enemy casualties,” according to a NATO statement. Fighting persisted in the area Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
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8 US troops killed in fierce Afghan fighting
I wonder how much time Barack Hussein Obama spent thinking about the deaths of these troops and the war in Afghanistan? Surely he gave it at least 25 minutes, wouldn’t you think?
Obama is far more concerned with HIS celebrity than he is the safety and security of this nation. With his approval ratings falling like a stone, even among the Democrats, at least among the more moderate Democrats, Obama turns his back on American troops, and slights them and the need for immediate action in Afghanistan.
For almost 8 years the cry of the libbers was, “Bush lied, troops died”, where is the outrage from the left when it’s now the inaction of Obama that is getting troops killed?
The hypocrisy of the left knows NO boundaries.
George W. Bush was, in MY opinion, guilty of micromanagement, he wanted his fingers to be dabbling in every aspect of the Iraqi campaign, and that was NOT how it needed to be done. You give your troop commanders a job to do, a task to accomplish, and then you get the hell out of the way and let them have whatever they need to make the mission happen! You don’t stand in and tell them how to manage the action.
Obama is guilty of saying one thing and doing something else. He is directly responsible for the deaths of these troops. The commanders have told Obama what they need, what they have to have to get this mission accomplished, and Obama makes the rounds on late night TV, and runs off to Denmark to do the bidding of his Chicago MASTERS!
I can’t begin to tell you how outrageous this is in my book. There is nothing so pressing that our young people should be paying with their lives… period. Not Health Care, not the Olympics or even a flyover NYC. 70 DAYS… and only ONE conversation with General McChrystal??? This along with the taxpayer funded EPIC FAIL in Copenhagen shows the twit… I mean POTUS for what he is! A poorly equipped man who has NO Successes to his credit in the Oval Office. What were the majority of voters thinking? What was the RNC thinking when they allowed McCain to run against him in the first place??? The more I think about it, the more I wish I had rallied around Ron Paul.
I am really pissed about this attack, the attack was apparently organized in a local Mosque which under Obama’s rules of engagement was off limits. Politicians and Obama are playing at war. I’m reminded of the Russian general who was presented with a group of French prisoners during Napoleon’s epic retreat from Moscow, and asked what to do with them: His reply simple—”shoot them, war is not a game, if more would follow this policy we would go to war only when absolutely necessary, I don’t play games”.
SF, it wasn’t Obama’s rules… It makes me sick to have to defend that son of a bitch, but not attacking a Mosque is NOT his rule of engagement…
al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army held up in a mosque in Basra and GWB would NOT give the orders to hit the bastards, they were in a HOLY SITE…
My opinion on that? I don’t care if the sons a bitches are in 1st Baptist Church in downtown Shreveport, if they are firing on MY men, that church just became a TARGET of opportunity..
But in this case, it’s not Obama, it’s rules of engagement…
HAM, if you were a Paulie, you wouldn’t be posting here…
You’re NOT a Paulie?? Are you??
I NEVER make statements I can’t back up!
Iraqi Troops, Militias Clash in Basra
Read that and refresh your memory… This cowardly bullshit of hiding out, resting, regrouping and launching attacks is nothing new, the ragheads do it regularly, mostly because they know that the American fighters will do NOTHING to impede their efforts…
Rules of war are a crock of shit, as Silver Fox pointed out regarding the Russian General, ”shoot them, war is not a game, if more would follow this policy we would go to war only when absolutely necessary, I don’t play games”.
It’s called WAR for a reason…
And maybe that link will serve to remind the libber trolls of the fact that I don’t just blast Obama for HIS screw ups, I went after Bush just as hard, with at least as much intensity… I may be a lot of things, but I am NOT a political hypocrite…
No, I wasn’t a Paulie, though I will say that at least whiny voiced Congressman knows something about the Constitution. When McCain went on the ticket, I tried to help get Alan Keyes on the 3rd Party. When that didn’t work… I resigned myself to voting for McCain. I can’t stand him for reasons that go to his cruel treatment of MIA families in Congress…etc.
But… if I had it to do again… I might have voted for “whiny butt”, but then we would be worrying about being up to our eyebrows in terror attacks with a “no balls, no war POTUS”. Plus, I thought and still do think, that anyone who for even a minute could think that 9/11 happened (inside job) to promote a political agenda, has bats in their belfry!!!
Of course TF, you need to remember, I’m a recovering Liberal, though I was never far left, I would say left of center. I am still learning things and absorbing like a sponge. All I had to do was see the hypocrisy during the Clinton years and I was done and ready to move on to common sense. I hang out on your blog because you are a down to earth, common sense point maker. You back everything up too.
I’m still learning what it means to be Conservative, and not a party line girl.
HAM, being a FREE THINKING Conservative will set you free…
It pisses off the libber pukes, all they can do is call you *queer* and *racist*, I had one libber puke DO that to me in comments on another blog, he had nothing to argue with so, I must be a racist, and I am, and I must be queer for George Bush…
And thinking that I am a Bush fan, well, that’s all anyone that knows me needs to know… Tim, over at Bloviating Zeppelin, really is the epitome of libber pukeness…
Pukeness… LMAO, I invented another word to denigrate libbers…
Its Obama’s war now and he can retreat or advance, and whatever rules of engagement were set in the past as CIC he can change—they were wrong when Bush pushed them on the military and they are wrong now. The game needs to end and the war needs to begin or else get the hell out and let the chips fall where they will.
Silver Fox, Bush didn’t push them on anyone.. I thought you were a military man? You ever hear of that little thing called The Geneva Convention?
We are a part of that, I hate it, but that’s the breaks, WE have to follow a set of rules that gets US killed and our enemies laugh at us for it…
I don’t have chapter and verse, and I am not going to even try to look it up, but we, the U.S. military, the GOOD GUYS, we DOES NOT FIRE on a church or mosque, they have been places of sanctuary and asylum, forever…
My view point with libs can be an exercise in frustration. Kind of like a raging alcoholic encountering a recovering alcoholic… they can try to give them their best BS and they will get shot down. You can’t con the ex-con man, as they see right through you.
There is a way around the Geneva Convention… send in the mercs!!!! OK, that sounds like I’m not hooked up with reality, but once in awhile one has to dream. LOL!!!!
HAM, why do you think Blackwater was SO big in Iraq?
Maybe we need to get activist judges to give us a new meaning to the Geneva Convention, ha! I didn’t let Bush off the hook then and I won’t let Obama off now—just wait until the body count reaches 800 instead of 8 and we’ll see what these rules mean. We have attacked some mosque in Iraq, but I think we were getting incoming fire from them at the time—I seem to remember a number of examples. But we don’t need to wait until the bastards shoot. The old sanctuary think was often brushed aside in WWII—remember Monte Cassino and others. I do note however, that was before the current Geneva thing. But the old idea of sanctuary is dead in many circles now and only used by those who seek advantage or those who oppose all wars. Like HAM said there are many ways around that sanctuary issue—-stray bombs which inflict collateral damage, etc. But let us have no fear for our great leader will never lower himself to bending the rules of the Geneva Convention even to save American combat lives in a conflict I feel he doesn’t want us in. If this were a conflict to prop up some petty left wing dictator south of the border you can rest assured, nothing and I mean nothing would prevent Obama from taking whatever action was deemed necessary inside or outside the so-called rules of engagement, and herein lies the rub.
I take it you all haven’t seen this one. We’re going to scare them away so they can come back to fight us at a more opportune time.
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — A new military approach in Afghanistan may mean buzzing rather than bombing the enemy, according to the general taking over the air war there.
It’s known as irregular warfare, designed to protect local people and then enlist their help defeating Taliban insurgents, Air Force Lt. Gen. Gilmary Hostage said Thursday.
“The first thing we do is fly over head, and the bad guys know airpower is in place and oftentimes that’s enough. That ends the fight, they vamoose,” said Hostage, who will direct the air battle over Iraq and Afghanistan. “The A-10 has a very distinct sound. The cannon on an A-10 is horrifically capable and our adversaries know it. When they hear the sound of an A-10, they scatter.”
Air Force may buzz before bombing in Afghanistan
To quote an OLD Marine General I used to know, “Well I’ll be damned, that sounds like a crock of shit to me!”…
Why burn the fuel and not kill something??
Blackwater’s owners screwed them, their contractors were former military and professional. But yes, that’s what I’m talkin about. I would like to see mercs that don’t answer to a government per se go in and take out the garbage though. Contractors are still government employees.
Gotta love the Marines… LOL!!!!
That cartoon hits too close to the truth. I don’t think he likes the military and he does not like police officers. This was made very evident on two different occasions. The first being his failure to come to the Fallen Officers Memorial service because he was too busy entertaining baseball players to support those who have given their lives in the service of their country and communities defending the home front.
The second was when he addressed the Nation and called the actions of a certain police officer “stupid.” He never apologized for his disdain to the men and women in blue. bho is not an American. I don’t know what he is but he does not represent the principles and beliefs of “us.”