This operation is about expanding AmeriKa's military presence, America.
It's not about clearing a town, protecting people, and liberating them.
"Strike kills 10 Afghan civilians; US suspends use of rocket system; Taliban keep up battle in Marja" by C.J. Chivers and Rod Nordland, New York Times | February 15, 2010
MARJA, Afghanistan - An errant American rocket strike yesterday hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians in the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, killing 10, including five children, military officials said.
Avoiding such civilian deaths, which came on the second day of a major coalition offensive around Marja, has been a cornerstone of the war strategy by the top American commander, General Stanley A. McChrystal. He apologized to President Hamid Karzai, saying, “We deeply regret this tragic loss of life.’’
Empty and hollow words.
The strike came after American Marines and Afghan soldiers had been taking intense small-arms fire from a mud-walled compound in the area, American officers said. The answering artillery barrage instead hit a building a few hundred yards way, striking with a roar and sending a huge cloud of dust and smoke into the air. As the wind pushed the plume away, a group of children rushed outside.
And WE TOLD THEM to STAY PUT!!!!
See:
“The compound that was hit was not the one we were targeting,’’ said Captain Joshua Biggers, the commander of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, which had been engaged in a rolling gun battle with Taliban insurgents throughout the day.
It was unclear whether one or more rockets hit the building.
Officers said the barrage had been fired from Camp Bastion, a large British and American base to the northeast, by a weapons system known as Himars, an acronym for High Altitude Multiple Launch Artillery Rockets. Its munitions are GPS-guided and advertised as being accurate enough to strike within a yard of their intended targets.
Oooooops!
McChrystal said in a statement that he was suspending use of the weapon system “until a thorough review of this incident has been conducted.’’ Karzai also ordered an investigation into the accident.
There were conflicting reports about the number of dead in the strike. The joint military command, known as the International Security Assistance Force, and the Afghan government initially put the toll at 12. Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand Province’s governor, said 10 people had been killed....
--more--"Rather than just rely on the NYT, let's check the AP article I pulled down from the Glob:
Snipers harass US, Afghan troops moving in Marjah" by Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer | February 15, 2010
MARJAH, Afghanistan -- A setback on Sunday: Two U.S. rockets slammed into a home outside Marjah, killing 12 civilians. NATO said Monday that the rockets missed their target by about 600 meters, or about a third of a mile. NATO had earlier said the rockets missed their target by just 300 meters.
Translation: the first thing military says is always a lie.
Six children were among the dead from the rocket strike, a NATO military official confirmed Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been formally released.
British Chief of the Defense Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup called the off-target strike a "very serious setback" in efforts to win the support of local communities.
"This operation ... is not about battling the Taliban. It is about protecting the local population and you don't protect them when you kill them," he said in an interview with the BBC.
Which is why WE ALL NEED TO LEAVE NOW!!
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had pleaded with NATO and Afghan forces to be cautious about civilian casualties ahead of the offensive, has called for a thorough investigation into the airstrike.
Pffft! After he signed off on this? F*** him!!!!!!
Differing accounts have emerged about the details. On Monday, Afghan Interior Minister Atmar said at the briefing in Lashkar Gah that nine civilians and two or three insurgents were among those killed, suggesting that insurgents were firing at troops from a civilian home.
Yup, here comes the HORSE S*** RATIONALIZATION for the BUTCHERY!!
"The reality is this ... the enemy did capture some civilians in their house and they were firing at our forces from this house. Unfortunately our forces didn't know that civilians were living in that house," he said.
Right, human shields.
The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, apologized for "this tragic loss of life" and suspended use of the sophisticated rocket system pending a thorough review.
Why would he do that if we were not guilty, 'eh?
The rockets were fired by the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, at insurgents who had attacked U.S. and Afghan forces, wounding one American and one Afghan, NATO said. However, the projectiles veered off target and blasted the home in northern Nad Ali district, which includes Marjah, NATO added.
Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said the president "is very upset about what happened" and has been "very seriously conveying his message" of restraint "again and again."
Then tell us to leave!
Oh, he's out if we stop propping up the election-stealing slime? Then we ain't leaving.
--more--"
"Militants fleeing stronghold, but fighting remains fierce; Insurgent death toll is heavy as battle narrows" by Dexter Filkins, New York Times | February 16, 2010
NAD ALI, Afghanistan - Also yesterday, five civilians were killed and two wounded in an airstrike in Zhari, a district in neighboring Kandahar Province. A patrol of Afghan and NATO forces spotted a group of locals digging a ditch on the roadside. They mistook them for insurgents planting a bomb and called in an airstrike....
And about the PREVIOUS DAY'S MURDER?
Un-flipping-fucking-real!!
--more--"
Yeah, YOU BET I'M GOD-DAMNED ANGRY, readers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And look what was CUT for the web version:
The heavy civilian toll highlighted the stressful and confusing nature of the fighting....
Look at the NYT making EXCUSES for Amerikan MASS MURDER!!!
Do they give the "terrorists" the same qualifiers, readers?
Still....
Pffft!
An American rocket fired into a mud-walled compound during a firefight killed at least 11 people Sunday. After the strike, the American military said the rocket had struck the wrong house and apologized for the civilian loss of life.
Yesterday, however, American officers said that the rocket, fired from miles away, had in fact hit the compound it was intended to hit. American marines were taking fire from that compound, officials said, so the compound was attacked. They did not realize civilians were inside.
Okay, so NOTHING the U.S. MILITARY, the MSM, or officials say is to be believed!!!
And I guess McChrystal can go back to using the rocket system, huh?
But that explanation did not square with accounts from Marines on the ground, where a New York Times reporter embedded with a company witnessed the episode.
Yeah, no words can describe the dejection I feel when I realize that the AmeriKan military is JUST A LYING PIECE of DOG SHIT!!!
The Marine company commander said that he and his men were startled by the missile strike, of which they had no prior warning. Earlier in the day, the company commander said, he had requested a rocket to be launched at a building next to the one that was eventually hit, from which the Marines were taking small-arms fire. The permission was denied, he said."
So WHY the HACK JOB, Glob?
I think WE ALL KNOW WHY, huh, readers?
""Marines link up in Afghan Taliban stronghold" by Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer | February 16, 2010
MARJAH, Afghanistan -- Two U.S. missiles struck a house on the outskirts of Marjah on Sunday, killing 12 people, half of them children. Afghan officials said three Taliban fighters were in the house at the time.
NATO first said the missiles went 300 yards off target and hit the house. On Tuesday, however, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, commander of NATO forces in the south, told reporters in London via a video link that the rockets hit the intended target.
If at first you don't lie, do it later.
--more--"
"Marines cope with Afghan civilian deaths; Heavy resistance encountered in Taliban haven" by C.J. Chivers and Rod Nordland, New York Times | February 17, 2010
MARJA, Afghanistan - Twelve bodies - five children, five women, and two men - were wrapped head to toe in woolen blankets, lying in a neat row on the floor of the only room remaining in a house that had been blasted to mudbrick rubble by at least one and possibly two 675-pound rockets.
I post the green because I so respect the ceremony.
Frikkin' hate it, but so respect it!!!
A US Marine Corps battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Christmas, stood in that room yesterday with a relative of the victims, a local elder named Haji Mohammad Karim, and said what he could.
“I bring my deepest condolences and will provide all of my support,’’ the colonel told him. There was no recrimination, only sorrow.
They are amazing people who SHAME US, Americans!!!
And our "support" is a one-time check for an increasingly worthless $2500.
Christmas, commander of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, had arrived near this place in northern Marja by helicopter just before dawn; his beleaguered Company K, after three days of heavy fighting, was finally getting resupplied. Bridges had been put over the canals nearby, so roads could reopen.
“The resistance has been a little thicker than I would have liked for the forces I have,’’ the colonel said, as he led a foot patrol over to the house later in the day.
We OUTNUMBER THEM 75-to-1 I was told!!!!!!!!
Related: The Battle For Marjah
WTF?
I'm really getting downright sick of the MSM lying here, people.
On Sunday, Company K had been in their fighting positions a couple of hundred yards away from the family’s mud-walled compound when the rocket or rockets struck it. Since then several versions of what happened have emerged....
To the Marines of Company K, and an embedded reporter accompanying them, one thing seemed clear: The company had not ordered a rocket strike on that house. At the time they were taking fire from many houses in the area.
“The original target of the two rockets was a compound where insurgents were delivering accurate, direct fire on an Afghan-ISAF joint team,’’ according to a Sunday press release by the NATO-led force, the International Security Assistance Force.
That team was Company K, with an Afghan army unit attached to it. “The compound that was hit was not the one we were targeting,’’ company commander said that day.
Do you LIKE the LIES of NATO?!!!
After the Marines saw children stream out of the ruined house, the company commander immediately ordered a cease-fire. With Taliban snipers still trying to pick them off, his men raced across the flat, open expanse between their positions and the house, where medics rendered what first aid they could.
They initially counted 11 dead because one woman was still alive. Marine Corps medics worked to stabilize her condition, although she had lost three limbs.
There goes the water again!! Yeah, we are saving them, folks!!!!
A chopper came in to evacuate the wounded, but took so much Taliban ground fire that it had to lift off again before the wounded could be loaded on board. The woman died, making the death toll 12.
Yeah, like her death is the Taliban's fault!
And AMERICANS, would YOU WANT the BUTCHERS of YOUR HOUSE and VILLAGE CHOPPERING IN and TAKING AWAY YOUR LOVED ONES?
Would you if it were, say, Chinese?
Wouldn't you be worried about an organ-running ring?
He needs to get buried within 24 hours!!!!
--more--"
And NOTHING about those missile strikes today, readers -- or anymore that may have been carried out.
Why don't you go take a swim, Obomber?
Pool full of Afghan blood right over there. Then pull up a glass and down a few pints, you mass-murdering war criminal.
We "elected" you to END THIS S*** not ESCALATE it!!!
Why did we even bother with an "election?"
Update: American unmanned spy plane shot down in Khost
I doubt I will see that in the newspaper tomorrow.
