Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
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Rivrdog proves I'm not the only one around here who can't be trusted unsupervised around sharp objects. And he gets touched by history, too, if in a different way.
CJ attends an anti-war protest in Huntsville, Alabama, so that you don't have to. And interviews the anti's. -the Armorer
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Sometimes, the headlines are amusing...
Militants killed, detained in Kandahar province
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 19, 2008) - Afghan National Security Forces, with support from Coalition forces, killed a few militants and detained more than a dozen during an operation to disrupt militant activity in the Kandahar District, Kandahar province, July 18.
A large cache of artillery rounds, grenade fuses, and small arms ammunition were discovered during the operation. These items were destroyed in place to prevent future use.
No Coalition forces, ANSF or civilian casualties were reported.
They were probably much easier to detain after they were killed, certainly. -the Armorer
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The Stars and Stripes has a good story about what happened in the outpost attack in Afghanistan, the one resulting in 9 KIA.
Fuzzybear sent me that link, with this cringe-inducing intro:
I'm sure you haven't had time to read my blog. One of the 9 who died last weekend was a good friend of JHD's son. Hell, the whole family was tight with the soldier's family. JHD was his soccer coach.
It's true, I haven't had much time to maintain this place, much less surf... JHD is a frequent commenter over at Cassandra's place. And Fuzzy has a few posts herself, regarding one of the casualties, Corporal Ayers. -the Armorer
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CDR Salamander picks up the mantle of Diversity Bully and goes after Obama. With damning results (the comments are enlightening, too).
Neptunus Lex has a must-read sea story. - FbL
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Bouhammer loses a friend. Iraq loses a patriot. H/t, CJ -the Armorer
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A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.
John, I hope that cringe was for the KIA and not for me. I was simply stating what I expected was fact, without complaint--which is why I sent you the links. My own "regular reads" has shrunk to about 4 these days, and I don't have the work schedule you do.
You ever notice how the AP or Reuters would declare with certainty when 1/5th of American forces suffered fatalities and when it comes to no casualties, they say that is only what is "reported"? Implying that they aren't certain or that they are hoping for more.
I will make two comments:
CJ’s story sounds rather frustrating.
I kind of found it odd that Jennifer actually said this lady, Reese, knew more than she did about the topic. In all honesty, there are fewer people I’ve met more ignorant and just outright stupid than Reese. I hate saying that because Reese seems like a nice, wonderful old lady.
What a way to spend a weekend... Talking to some brainwashed old lady must not have been enjoyable.
Next:
There was a lot of heated discussion at the Belmont club on the nine men killed in Afghanistan and who to blame. I don’t think that there is a need to blame anyone.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team was out to patrol and make contact with the enemy and they did. It was a little larger group then they expected but, as I understand the ensuing fight killed over a two dozen enemy fighters.
Further, it’s past the harvest season and it a time to fight (good weather and so on). The loss of nine men is bad but we are fighting a war and bad things happen. The MSM packaged the story as a complete defeat.
Col. Charles Preysler, lays out his case of the fight being more of a victory than a defeat:
Preysler and his staff also object to media reports that because of the size of the attack, it could be a harbinger of change in the way militants fight in eastern Afghanistan. "I think people are taking license and just misusing statistics, and I refuse to do that," he said. "We’re in the middle of the fighting season. When we first got here last summer and started fighting here in June, we were only seeing the enemy and engaging him first about 5 percent of the time. Now we’re between 25 and 40 percent. We see the enemy, and we’re engaging him first." Preysler and his staff have seen several reports on the fight and numbers of enemy... "I do not know the exact numbers. But I know they had much greater strength than one U.S. platoon," he said. "I believe the enemy to number over 100 in that area when he attacked. I don’t know the casualties that he {the enemy -ed}took, but I know that it’s got to be substantial based on the different reports I’m getting. We may not know the true damage we inflicted on the enemy, but we certainly defeated his attack and repulsed his attack and he never got into our position."
[Large number of patrols and lots of risk]
"By sheer numbers and sheer volume of patrols — I mean this [battalion] has had 9,000 patrols in 15 months — we’re out there taking the fight to the enemy," We’re out there taking the ground that he used to own exclusively, and we have separated him from the people in many locations," Preysler said. "This is one area that is still contested, and we’re going to have to go back in there and fight hard to separate the insurgents from the population, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56252
See: Media reports on Afghanistan outpost battle were exaggerated
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/07/20/postscript/
See: Postscript for background