"Taliban firefight may foretell bloody summer for US troops" by Chris Brummitt, Associated Press | June 22, 2009
And Afghans, too, right, AmeriKan MSM?
NOW ZAD, Afghanistan - Missiles, machine guns, and strafing runs from fighter jets destroyed much of a Taliban compound, but the insurgents had a final surprise for a pair of US Marines who pushed into the smoldering building just before nightfall.
As the two men walked up an alley, the Taliban opened fire from less than 15 yards, sending bullets and tracer fire crackling inches past them. They fled under covering fire from their comrades, who hurled grenades at the enemy position before sprinting to their armored vehicles.
The assault capped a day of fighting Saturday in the poppy fields, orchards, and walled compounds of southern Afghanistan between newly arrived US Marines and well dug-in Taliban fighters. It was a foretaste of what will probably be a bloody summer as Washington tries to turn around a bogged-down, eight-year-old war with a surge of 21,000 troops.
Can't we home then? 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB!
“This was the first time we pushed this far. I guess they don’t like us coming into their back door,’’ said Staff Sergeant Luke Medlin, who was sweeping the alley for booby traps as Marine Gunner John Daly covered him from behind when the Taliban struck.
Would WE LIKE THEM HERE, 'murkn?
I mean, you seem to put up with the Zionist parasite, but.....
“And now they know we will be back,’’ said Medlin, from Indiana.
And they got the dead bodies to prove it.
The fighting was on the outskirts of Now Zad, a town that in many ways symbolizes what went wrong in Afghanistan and the enormous challenges facing the United States. It is in Helmand Province, a center of the insurgency and the opium poppy trade that helps fund it.
I'm tired of the drug war fooleys!
AHEM!
"U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer."
Related: Einstein, insanity and the war on drugs
Like much of Afghanistan, Now Zad and the surrounding area were largely peaceful after the 2001 invasion. The United Nations and other Western-funded agencies sent staff to build wells and health clinics.
Pfft! Still doesn't mitigate the BOMBING RUNS!
But in 2006 - with American attention focused on Iraq - the insurgency stepped up in the south. Almost all the city’s 35,000 people fled, along with the aid workers.
British and Estonian troops, then garrisoned in Now Zad, were unable to defeat the insurgents. They were replaced last year by a small company of about 300 US Marines, who live in a base in the center of the deserted town and on two hills overlooking it.
The Taliban hold much of the northern outskirts and the orchards beyond, where they have entrenched defensive positions, tunnels, and bunkers. The Marines outnumber the Taliban in the area by at least 3 to 1 and have vastly superior weapons, but avoid offensive operations because they lack the manpower to hold territory once they take it. There are no Afghan police or troops here to help.
Pffft! Excuses, lies, and bullshit -- all rolled into ONE!
“We don’t have the people to backfill us. Why clear something that we cannot hold?’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Cashman, head of the battalion in charge of Now Zad and other districts in Helmand and Farah provinces, where some 10,000 Marines are slowly spreading out in the first wave of the troop surge.
Did you just feel a DRAFT, readers?
Cashman said the Marines did not intend to allow the Taliban free rein in parts of Now Zad, but was unable to give any specific plans or a timeframe for addressing what he acknowledged is “a bad situation.’’
Yeah, what right to THEY have to FREEDOM?
They ONLY LIVE THERE!!!!!!!
Saturday’s mission was aimed at gathering intelligence and drawing a response from enemy positions close to a street called “Pakistani alley’’ because of one-time reports suggesting fighters from across the border had dug in there....
No kidding?!!!! See: Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group
Each time the insurgents attacked, the Marines returned fire if they could spot their foes or radioed in coordinates for air strikes.
Yup, THEY ATTACK and WE RESPOND, yup!
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie!!!!!!
“Bombs are away,’’ a voice crackled over the radio as Dutch fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on a compound, sending clouds of dust mushrooming into the air.
And HOW MANY INNOCENTS were killed because they are ALL INNOCENT -- save for "Al-CIA-Duh!"
The planes then strafed the position, leaving a line of fire and destruction 50 yards long. Other times mortar teams back at the base in Now Zad pummeled enemy positions.
And HOW MANY WOMEN and CHILDREN were under that BARRAGE!!!!?
In the late afternoon, US forces fired two missiles from 55 miles away to hit a compound being used by the attackers.
Now, THAT is COWARDLY!
Minutes later, Marine Harrier jets strafed the compound, setting fire to a wheat field outside it but sparing a poppy patch - an irony not lost on the troops....
NOR ME!!!
How ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC!!!!!
What will be reported here:
"Amid security concerns, foes of Karzai see electoral opening" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | June 23, 2009
An Afghan looked through the rifle scope of a US Marine during troops' visit to Khwaja Jamal village to meet locals. (David Guttenfelder/ Associated Press)
Oh, DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?
The MOST PRECIOUS and PRICELESS GEMS in the WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!!
KABUL, Afghanistan - Eight years after Karzai assumed power amid high hopes for a new Afghanistan, kidnapping is a cottage industry, bribery is routine, and a stalemated guerrilla war between international forces and insurgents grinds on, killing hundreds in the cross fire....
And now, in the eyes of the United States, the faltering condition of Karzai’s government is becoming a US national security issue.
So WHO is going to REPLACE him in the RIGGED U.S. election?
Last week, in his last trip to Kabul, outgoing NATO supreme allied commander John Craddock called good governance “the key factor’’ for defeating the insurgency.
What's your answer to America's troubles?
“If people don’t believe that government is a positive factor in their life, then this will be very difficult, regardless of how good we are at delivering security,’’ Craddock said.
They don't, especially when you are laying bombs on them!
While the Bush administration steadfastly backed Karzai, President Obama has gone out of his way to make it clear that the United States is not supporting any particular candidate, even as the United States prepares to send 22,000 additional US troops to the country.
Related: Obama Cutting Karzai Loose
Well, it won't be him so, WHO?
Over the weekend, US ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former general, attended press conferences with two leading presidential candidates - former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani. Yesterday, he did the same for Mirwais Yasini, a member of Parliament who is considered the third viable challenger. At each event, Eikenberry explained that he was trying to get to know the potential future leader of Afghanistan, and seemed to scold Karzai between the lines.
“We would like to know what their views are on poor governance, because we know that poor governance leads to insecurity,’’ Eikenberry said at the event with Abdullah.
Then COME HOME because THAT is the STATE of AmeriKa!!!!
“This is a chance for the people of Afghanistan to give the government a report card for its performance over the last five years.’’
We have had SEVERAL of those in the states, and yet NOTHING has CHANGED!!!!
Could we REJECT BUSH anymore than we were allowed to by the elction-fixers?
A recent International Republican Institute poll of 3,200 Afghans showed....
Who wants to read lies?
Still, Karzai’s challengers face an uphill battle against an incumbent who has a genius for neutralizing rivals by giving them plum political posts. Karzai’s campaign headquarters, on the outskirts of Kabul, was a hive of activity, as servants fed watermelon to nearly 100 people seated outside in a tent. Most wore turbans traditional to the Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group.
Karzai’s support is flagging in the Pashtun heartland, in part because of anger over the insurgency that has gripped much of the south and east.
NOT the U.S. MASS-MURDER, huh?
Analysts say that if Karzai fails to win 50 percent of the vote in the first round, another candidate might defeat him. Some view Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun and former World Bank official, as a potential dark horse.
That's YOUR MAN, AmeriKa!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As finance minister, Ghani was at loggerheads with the US government, fighting to get more aid funneled through Afghan institutions rather than expensive US contractors. When the US government hired defense contractor BearingPoint to supply him with an adviser to rein him in, the first task Ghani asked the young American to do was draw up a memo kicking BearingPoint out of the country.
Maybe not.
But now Americans seem eager for any leader capable of managing the chaos.
Maybe then. Of course, it would HELP if WE WEREN'T CREATING the CHAOS!!!!
Afghans, meanwhile, are skeptical that any of the candidates can improve life here.
That's because THEY ARE NOT FOOLED like WE IS, 'murkns!
All this POLITICAL B.S. taking up NEWSPRINT while PEOPLE are being SLAUGHTERED over a DAMNABLE LIE!!!!
“When Karzai came, all the people were optimistic about Afghanistan, but now I don’t think even 10 percent are optimistic,’’ said Haji Hamid, 54, whose family has owned Chelsea Supermarket in downtown Kabul since 1929.
Wow, they are JUST LIKE US with their FAMILY BUSINESSES!!
So WHY are we KILLING THEM over a LIE, 'murka?
Because the ZIONIST MEDIA and GOVERNMENT DEMAND IT?
Hamid, who has lived through 15 presidents, two foreign invasions, and a civil war, said he is still struggling to survive. Two months ago, he was kidnapped and held for 20 days while his family gathered ransom. The fact that the kidnappers came in broad daylight as the police looked on makes Hamid suspicious of the government.
(Readers!?)
Still, he said, “I have to vote for Karzai, even though he doesn’t have a good government and I was kidnapped. It’s our responsibility to vote,’’ he added. “And we know Karzai is going to win because he now has a place among the people.’’
I wonder how thee guys will do: Taliban Want to Talk
Done with the lies yet, Globe?--more--"
Also see: Boston Globes Censors Civilian Slaughter
Slow Saturday Special: Absolution in Afghanistan
And ABOUT that TALIBAN:
How many times I gotta put this up?
"Something of a catchall term for loosely affiliated insurgents without a singular command structure. Often, the Afghan government favors the phrase 'enemies of the state' (New York Times July 24, 2007)."
"The Taliban is growing and creating new alliances not because its sectarian religious practices have become popular, but because it is the only available umbrella for national liberation," says Pakistani historian and political commentator Tariq Ali. "As the British and the Soviets discovered to their cost in the preceding two centuries, Afghans never like being occupied."
Also see: Afghanistan's Other Government
And today, readers?
"More and more, people here look back to the era of harsh Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, describing it as a time of security and peace."
Oh, oh, oh!!!! I'm so offended by the AmeriKan MSM and its bullshit!
Also see: How I Came to Love the Veil
And consider this:
"They sat in one girl’s home telling their story, their faces uncovered only because no man was present. But when Mohammed Matloob, the father of one of the girls, walked into the room, the other three quickly pulled their head scarves over their faces. His daughter, Nagina, 16, ordered him to leave the room, which he did, with a surprised shrug."
Aren't the children beautiful?
Tomas Munita for The New York Times Hameeda Sarfraz, in the dark burqa, teaches Islamic religious lessons to children in her village, about 50 miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Oh, what LIES we have been told about Muslims by our Muslim-hating Zionist AmeriKan MSM, Americans!!!!!!
Honestly, I'm tired of the MSM lying? Aren't you, AmeriKa?
Also see: I Don't Want to Kill Them Anymore
The Children of Afghanistan
The Uncomfortable Others
Are you sick of half-truths and Muslim-hating lies from your jewspapers yet, America?
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
We can "LIVE WITH THAT?"
Yeah, kinda like the way the keep "Al-CIA-Duh going!!!!
See: The Boston Globe Knows About "Al-CIA-Duh"
Naivete or Disingenuousness?
Which means this is ALL GARBAGE and THEY KNOW IT!!!
