| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Ambushed Marines' Aid Call 'Rejected' |
| 2009-09-18 |
| NATO-led forces are investigating the death of four Marines in eastern Afghanistan after their commanders reportedly rejected requests for artillery fire in a battle with insurgents, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. 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." |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #6 Probably the same ROE that we had in I-Corps way back when. Freaking desk jockeys in Washington and the morons on the Hill never work khaki or camo and don't know which end of a rifle to point, so it doesn't surprise me. Every time we have a shooting war with a demo president we wind up with this kind of crap. |
| Posted by: James Carville 2009-09-18 20:20 |
| #5 The one thing that the Marines or SF people could do that would help the situation the most is to take out Fixed it. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-09-18 17:25 |
| #4 I have to agree with Art - we're doing all the stupid things we did in Vietnam, and it's all coming from the top. The one thing that the Marines or SF people could do that would help the situation the most is to take out Karzai and his top 10-20 "advisors". As long as we're unwilling to do that, things are going to deteriorate, regardless of what the US does. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-09-18 16:57 |
| #3 Bottom line is this is BS. Our troops should not be placed in this situation. No wonder the tide is turning in public opinion. We are going back to the Vietnam mentality. May LTC. Hackworth rest in peace cause if he was alive, you wouldn't hear the end of this. |
| Posted by: Art 2009-09-18 10:58 |
| #2 Last I heard the Marines were calling for smoke. All the guys had was WP and didn't want to hurt any "civilians" in the area. I don't know if this has changed in the last day or two. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-09-18 10:14 |
| #1 so per morrel, the absence of air support was not due to the commanders read of the ROE. That leaves two things to be further investigated - 1. Why or how was it communicated that air support was close? 2. What about the artillery support? |
| Posted by: liberal hawk 2009-09-18 09:54 |