On September 8th this story hit about American & Afghanistan troops dying apparently by decisions made by ‘non-military’ geniuses. I just don’t believe a career military officer would institute such a policy.¶
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By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
McClatchy Newspapers
Editor’s note: McClatchy reporter Jonathan S. Landay was embedded with U.S. Marines on Tuesday when they were ambushed about six miles from the Afghan-Pakistani border. Four U.S. Marines, eight Afghan troops and police, and the Marine commander’s Afghan interpreter were killed. Landay wrote this account. ¶
GANJGAL, Afghanistan We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortresslike village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition. ¶
“We will do to you what we did to the Russians,” the insurgents’ leader boasted over the radio, referring to the failure of Soviet troops to capture Ganjgal during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation. ¶
>snip<>snip< The Marines were cut down as they sought cover in a trench at the base of the village’s first layer-cake-style stone house. One Marine was bending over a second, tending his wounds, when both were killed, said Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 21, of Greensburg, Ky., who retrieved their bodies. ¶
2 comments:
The big mistake was letting the Afghans in on the plan. Somebody in the Afghan unit is on the enemy payroll, which happened time and again on mixed operations in Vietnam. We were betrayed every time our Vietnamese troops knew the plan in advance. The only way we could achieve surprise was to tell the ARVN "We want two companies of troops available at 5 a.m. Wednesday with ammo and supplies for 48 hours." We left out the when, where and how of the operation.
As for the rules to prevent civilian casualties ... that's the way counter-insurgency warfare is fought. Obviously communication broke down in this case. But keeping civilian casualties to a minimum is essential to defeating an insurgency, even if it means more of our troops will die. Every civilian death is a victory for the enemy. In fact they will do everything they can to maximize civilian casualties. The new rules to limit civilian casualties tell me our military commanders are finally beginning to understand the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Independent correspondent and blogger Michael Yon has this to say about limiting civilian casualties in this March 2008 article about an Army chopper unit hunting terrorists in northern Iraq:
"... in reality, this ever-increasing willingness to let a few bad guys get away has played a huge part of turning this war around, and ultimately saving the lives of civilians and, paradoxically, Americans."
Yon's full dispatch is well worth reading:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/guitar-heroes.htm
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