Miles Amoore at Combat Outpost Monti, Kunar ‘What’s The Point? The Taliban Will Be Back Within A Week’ -- Times Online
Specialist Alexander Miller had been watching a mysterious Afghan standing in a cornfield for 20 minutes. But it took only a split second for the American soldier to be mortally wounded.
As Miller turned his back momentarily, the Afghan picked up a weapon hidden at his feet and fired a burst. One of the rounds tore into the 21- year-old soldier’s groin. Troops rushed to apply pressure to the wound as they called in a helicopter, but he was dead on arrival at the nearest field hospital.
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(Click To Enlarge)
One of the deadliest attacks of the Afghan war is a symbol of the U.S. military's missteps.
The rocket
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(Click To Enlarge)The Battle Of Wanat: 'Almost a Lost Cause' -- Washington Post
One of the deadliest attacks of the Afghan war is a symbol of the U.S. military's missteps.
The rocket
(Click To Enlarge)The Battle Of Wanat: 'Almost a Lost Cause' -- Washington Post
One of the deadliest attacks of the Afghan war is a symbol of the U.S. military's missteps.
The rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire was so intense that most of the soldiers spent the opening minutes of the battle lying on their stomachs, praying that the enemy would run out of ammunition.
They had been in the tiny Afghan village of Wanat, near the Pakistani border, for four days. The command post of their remote base was still just a muddy hole surrounded by sandbags.
The radio crackled. About 50 yards from the base's perimeter, nine U.S. soldiers manning an observation post were on the verge of being overrun. Several soldiers were already dead.
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My Comment: I read both of these stories early this morning .... and I have not been able to shake them from my mind. It seems that we are repeating history again .... going into a conflict with no set goals or objectives, and what goals and objectives that are voiced .... we under resource or change our mind when the going gets tough.
President Obama has to step up and be the Commander in Chief on this rapidly deteriorating and bloody war. He has the next few months to formulate (again) a strategy, and to put all necessary assets into the field this winter. Come springtime in 2010 .... this war is going to evolved into a major and bloddy conflict with the likes that we have not seen since Vietnam.