Ambushed Marines' Aid Call 'Rejected'
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Should our armed forces be left in the command of the UN? Ambushed Marines' Aid Call 'Rejected'
Tuesday's incident was "under investigation" and details remained unclear, press secretary Geoff Morrell told a news conference.
A McClatchy newspapers' journalist who witnessed the battle reported that a team of Marine trainers made repeated appeals for air and artillery support after being pinned down by insurgents in the village of Ganjgal in eastern Kunar province.
The U.S. troops had to wait more than an hour for attack helicopters to come to their aid and their appeal for artillery fire was rejected, with commanders citing new rules designed to avoid civilian casualties, the report said.
Morrell said the helicopters were not hampered by any restrictions on air power but had to travel a long distance to reach the Marines at the remote location near the Pakistan border.
"I think that it did take some time for close air support to arrive in this case, but this is not a result of more restrictive conditions in which it can be used," he said.
"It was the result, as is often the case in Afghanistan, of the fact that there are great distances often between bases where such assets are located and where our troops are out operating."
Morrell could not confirm whether appeals for artillery fire were denied by commanders.
According to the McClatchy report by Jonathan Landay, the U.S. advisors assisting Afghan forces had been assured before the operation that "air cover would be five minutes away."
The incident comes after the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, issued new restrictions on the use of military force and air raids in a bid to prevent civilian deaths.
McChrystal has warned that civilian casualties caused by the NATO-led force risk alienating the Afghan population and jeopardizing the war effort.
But the general and other top military officials have insisted air support and fire power would not be restricted when U.S. troops were under direct threat.
Bombing runs by coalition forces have declined sharply since McChrystal took over command in June, U.S.A Today reported on Wednesday, citing military statistics.
Tuesday's firefight in eastern Afghanistan involved a 13-member team of U.S. Marine and Army trainers assigned to the Afghan national army, the report said.
Eight Afghan soldiers and police and an Afghan interpreter also died in the battle, which lasted for hours with insurgents unleashing a barrage of gunfire and rockets from mountain positions, the report said.
When an Afghan soldier demanded helicopter gunships, U.S. Major Kevin Williams replied through an interpreter: "We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We've lost today."
The Americans were assisting Afghan forces in an operation that called for Afghans searching the hamlet for weapons and then meeting village elders to plan police patrols.
But U.S. officers suspected insurgents were tipped off about the operation beforehand, as the coalition and Afghan forces were ambushed as they approached the outskirts of the hamlet at dawn, the report said.
What happened to no man left behind?
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Fukc the UN. We should never, ever operate under the UN. We operate as U.S. Units only. This kind of shit really pisses me off.
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Will we see movies like we did after Clinton was in office over these type of events?
Black Hawk Down?
Behind Enemy Lines?
After situations like in Black Hawk Down, where they were limited to what type of firepower they were allowed to use, the end result was dead soldiers.
Obama needs to stop pandering to the world and do whats good for american soldiers.
My son wants to join up, I talked him out of it until The next President comes in, he is going to wait until Obama is replaced as Commander and Chief then go in. I told him you want to serve under a president who will be loyal to those under him.
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Will we see movies like we did after Clinton was in office over these type of events?
Black Hawk Down?
Behind Enemy Lines?
After situations like in Black Hawk Down, where they were limited to what type of firepower they were allowed to use, the end result was dead soldiers.
Obama needs to stop pandering to the world and do whats good for american soldiers.
My son wants to join up, I talked him out of it until The next President comes in, he is going to wait until Obama is replaced as Commander and Chief then go in. I told him you want to serve under a president who will be loyal to those under him.
My son wants to join up, I talked him out of it until The next President comes in, he is going to wait until Obama is replaced as Commander and Chief then go in. I told him you want to serve under a president who will be loyal to those under him.
Now that is true bipartisan patriotism...
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And where is Obama's military experience?
The same goes for Slick Willy.
Meanwhile we have Generals calling out to Obama for more troops.
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He is finishing up to get his degree beforehand.
Texas Air guard would be a great ideal Thanks!
I here their benefits are better than the Kenyan spear chuckers.
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Kosar, wouldn't you agree that the Obama White House is to busy trying to appease those in the UN and the Liberal Left, and trying to put into place every socialized experiment and thought that he has ever had. Rather than tending to the needs at hand. One the War in Afghanistan and Two the Economy.
Everybody know the Obama stimulus was BS and nothing more than a spending bill. He needs to tend to what is important rather than passing out candy to everyone.
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Here is why I said what I said, K.
BTW, Bush was a wonderful guy. You can read the entire article and see what the Big Cat, Ernie Ladd, said about
George W.
But first, here's the excerpt:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/polit.../bush072899.htm
"In discussing his own decision, he has always said his main consideration was
that he wanted to be a pilot, and the National Guard gave him a chance to do that.
In 1989 he tried to describe his own thought process to a Texas interviewer.
"I'm saying to myself, 'What do I want to do?' I think I don't want to be an infantry guy
as a private in Vietnam. What I do decide to want to do is learn to fly."
Asked in a recent interview whether he was avoiding the draft, Bush said,
"No, I was becoming a pilot."
Four months before enlisting, Bush reported at Westover Air Force Base in
Massachusetts to take the Air Force Officers Qualification Test. While
scoring 25 percent for pilot aptitude ā "about as low as you could get
and be accepted," according to Martin ā and 50 percent for navigator
aptitude in his initial testing, he scored 95 percent on questions
designed to reflect "officer quality," compared with a current-day
average of 88 percent.
Among the questions Bush had to answer on his application forms was whether
he wanted to go overseas. Bush checked the box that said: "do not volunteer."
Bush said in an interview that he did not recall checking the box.
Two weeks later, his office provided a statement from a former,
state-level Air Guard personnel officer, asserting that since
Bush "was applying for a specific position with the 147th Fighter Group,
it would have been inappropriate for him to have volunteered for an
overseas assignment and he probably was so advised by the military personnel
clerk assisting him in completing the form."
During a second interview, Bush himself raised the issue.
"Had my unit been called up, I'd have gone . . . to Vietnam," Bush said.
"I was prepared to go."
But there was no chance Bush's unit would be ordered overseas. Bush says that
toward the end of his training in 1970, he tried to volunteer for overseas duty,
asking a commander to put his name on the list for a "Palace Alert" program,
which dispatched qualified F-102 pilots in the Guard to the Europe and the
Far East, occasionally to Vietnam, on three- to six-month assignments.
He was turned down on the spot. "I did [ask] ā and I was told, 'You're not going,' "
Bush said.
Only pilots with extensive flying time ā at the outset, 1,000 hours were required
ā were sent overseas under the voluntary program. The Air Force, moreover,
was retiring the aging F-102s and had ordered all overseas F-102 units closed down
as of June 30, 1970"
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Fukc the UN. We should never, ever operate under the UN. We operate as U.S. Units only. This kind of shit really pisses me off.
Fukc the UN. We should never, ever operate under the UN. We operate as U.S. Units only. This kind of shit really pisses me off.
If only the UN was impotent. Then we could simply ignore them.
Because they do have some chache, it has become a place where the US is tied to the whippin' post time and time again.
It is there for show and, guess what- -the US carries almost all of the expenses.
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We've been giving the UN a "bail out" forever.
I wish we would just stop. The UN has been a hopeless soapbox, full of corruption and greed.
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