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| Afghanistan |
| The U.S. Suffered Its Worst Airpower Loss Since Vietnam Last Week and No One Really Noticed |
| 2012-09-23 |
| The Taliban attack on an air base in southern Afghanistan on Friday drew coverage for the way the insurgents cloaked themselves in U.S. army uniforms to gain a tactical advantage, but few have taken note of the historical proportions of the damage inflicted. John Gresham, at the Defense Media Network, has published a detailed account of the attack on Camp Bastion, in which two Marines were killed, six U.S. Marine Corps jet fighters were destroyed, and two more  "significantly" damaged. Those facts were all carried in most reports, but if that just sounds like a typical damage report from a decade-long war, you're wrong. Gresham explains the devastating damage done to VMA-211, the name of the Marine Corps attack squadron that was most affected last week, noting that it is "arguably the worst day in [U.S. Marine Corps] aviation history since the Tet Offensive of 1968." Or you could go back even further. "The last time VMA-211 was combat ineffective was in December 1941, when the squadron was wiped out during the 13-day defense of Wake Island against the Japanese." He spells out some more of the details of the attack: Eight irreplaceable aircraft (the AV-8B has been out of production since 1999) have been destroyed or put out of action -- approximately 7 percent of the total flying USMC Harrier fleet. Worse yet, the aircraft involved were the AV-B+ variant equipped with the APG-65 radar and AAQ-28 Litening II targeting pods -- the most capable in the force. Given the current funding situation, it's likely that the two damaged AV-8Bs will become spare parts "hangar queens" and never fly again. A Harrier squadron commander is dead, along with another Marine. Another nine personnel have been wounded, and the nearby Marines at Camp Freedom are now without effective fixed-wing air support. The USMC's response to this disaster will be a telling report card on its leadership and organizational agility. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #7 ION DAILY TIMES.PK > DANGEROUS AND DEEPENING DIVIDE BETWEEN ISLAMIC WORLD, WEST. * SAME > US MUST RESPECT MUSLIM SENTIMENTS TO AVOID [more Embassy, etc.] ATTACKS. PAK Ambassador to UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon. ARTIC > AMB, HAROON = also sezzes that ... - Muslim world has historically been friendly to the US-West. - Once great respectful institutions of the 1950's and 1960's are no more. versus * DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > WIKILEAKS REVEALS NATO ATTACK PLAN AGZ RUSSIA. SecState Hillary allegedly told various foreign Dilomats, "SSSSSHHHHHHHHH, ITS A SECRET"!? IMO any such NATO Milplan is likely a contingency schema in case Mama Russia is attacked and in danger of being overrun by Radical Islam + Regional, Global Jihad, ala "RUSSIAN SPRING"??? "CHINA SPRING"??? Lest we fergit, MSM-NET > repor time back that the Afghan + Pak Taliban were planning to initiate Jihadi ventures agz Ex-Soviet SSRS = CENTRAL ASIA REGION [CAR], as well as possibly setting up a huge joint enclave = separate Sharia/Islamic State from parts of both Afghanistan and Pakistan in likely support of said Central Asian jihad = [West]CHINA?, espec iff the US-NATO still hold effective sway in AFPAK = Kabul + Islamabad after 2014??? Lest we fergit II, ANTI-US "GLOBALISTS/OWG" > deisre to see a WEAK US under OWG-NWO where the US is no longer a Superpower or World-dominant. IFF ONE PRESUMES THAT ANTI-US GLOBALISTS/OWG ALSO DESIRE TO DO SO WIDOUT NEED OF ANY POPULAR NATIONAL REFERENDUM(S) ON THE ISSUE, ONE WAY THEY CAN DO IS TO ENSURE THAT THE US IS FORCIBLY OR INTENTIONALLY LOSES IN WAR, WHERE IT MAY BE ARGUED THAT THE US HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO GIVE UP IMPORTAN ASPECTS OF ITS TRADITIONAL POWER + INFLUENCE, ETC. TO OTHER FOREIGN STATES = POLITIES. IOW, "losing a War by winning it", or in alternate by "not losing" at same where major ideo, geopol concessions are still made by the US and only the US. "SURRENDERISM" IN THE NAME OF PEACE??? In the "Great Game of Geopolitics" = Substitution of Nations, the US Govt-Establishment must not think for a moment that Radical Islam, etal. won't exploit any perceived NEW US WEAKNESS as an opportunity to launch new Jihad. THE GWOT = [Bush 43's/Dubya's] "LONG WAR" = WAR OF DECADES-N-GENERATIONS THAT ISN'T OVER JUST BECAUSE SEAL TEAM SIX WHACKED OSAMA = "CORE" AL QAEDA'S LEADERSHIP. The Crusades in the Medieval Age were defeated in large part because the Christian nations were too busy conspiring and fighting against each other, etc. to focus on dealing wid the protractive or enduring Muslim struggle agz their collective interests in the ME. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-09-23 22:47 |
| #6 Beyond disgraceful. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2012-09-23 20:03 |
| #5 Pentagon might make whiny noise, but the loss of the Harriers bolsters their case to force feed the F-35 to the USMC, who have already said they don't want it. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2012-09-23 18:16 |
| #4 The Taliban have borrowed a page from the SAS playbook More like the Pakistanis. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-09-23 18:00 |
| #3 if you go back to the days of the Russians in Afghanistan. at that time the British SAS had teams in that country ... and they were staging covert attacks on airfields and blowing up Russian Mig's. History repeats itself. The Taliban have borrowed a page from the SAS playbook. |
| Posted by: Raider 2012-09-23 17:03 |
| #2 Champ sees this is an O&M (Operations and Maintenance) savings. Think of the food stamps those worthless dollars will buy. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-09-23 11:35 |
| #1 I don't think you understand. I need to know Obama's fantasy football starters and whether Jay-Z helped pick them out. He has 126 points dontchyaknow? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2012-09-23 10:41 |