Article

2010-02-17 Afghanistan

US-led troops face resistance in Marjah operation

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2010-02-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top
File under: Taliban

#1 All NET reports indic that US-ALLIED forces are making solid, steady headway on all fronts - personally, I'm more concerned about what Country(s) outside of AFGHAN = AFPAK the Talibs will be retreating into.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2010-02-17 00:31|| 2010-02-17 00:31|| Front Page Top

#2 The Taliban have only had months to prepare defenses in that town to include tunnels under it between districts.

So far after four whole days, the Marines have still not eradicated all Taliban resistance. It must be a quagmire! FOUR DAYS and still they have not been able to completely eliminate the Taliban. Why they should have been able to wrap that operation up in 14.6 minutes according to noted military expert Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-02-17 02:20|| 2010-02-17 02:20|| Front Page Top

#3 since peace is the lack of conflict, and the fastest end of conflict is surrender, then it makes sense that all we need to do is surrender and we can have peace. after all, it would take far less than 4 days to properly surrender wouldnt it?

Posted by abu do you love 2010-02-17 05:58|| 2010-02-17 05:58|| Front Page Top

#4 The thing that annoys me the most is the insistence that every civilian death is an avoidable tragedy, instead of being the understandable result of being in the vicinity of perforce imperfectly aimed flying ordnance. It's very sad when an innocent dies, but wandering through a battlefield is like juggling chainsaws in terms of risk for the untrained.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-02-17 07:05|| 2010-02-17 07:05|| Front Page Top

#5 The thing that annoys me the most is the insistence that every civilian death is an avoidable tragedy

Actually, civilian casualties are imminently avoidable: All the Taliban has to do is to tell the civilian population that they expect fighting in the area including aerial bombs and that they should flee the area until the fighting ends.

Instead, the Taliban knowingly allows fighting in area they know to have civilians and they take zero measures to protect them as real defenders would.

Posted by badanov 2010-02-17 07:17|| http://www.freefirezone.org 2010-02-17 07:17|| Front Page Top

#6 Three civilians killed? The horror! Guess we shouldn't have wasted all these days subduing the Talibunnies with this ground offensive when we could have done it by air mail. We COULD destroy the village in order to save it.

Posted by Glenmore 2010-02-17 07:33|| 2010-02-17 07:33|| Front Page Top

#7 Trailing wife I'm with you.
It's also well known how insurgents seem to transition to civilians. Drives me nuts.

Posted by Jan 2010-02-17 11:53|| 2010-02-17 11:53|| Front Page Top

#8 Yeah, imagine the coverage if a couple of batteries of FASCAM were let loose onto an urban setting.

Posted by swksvolFF 2010-02-17 12:11|| 2010-02-17 12:11|| Front Page Top

#9 All the US would have to do to successfully engage the Taliban is:
- declare the area a battle zone, and urge all civilians to flee.
- set up blocking points on all possible escape routes.
- drop additional leaflets telling the civilian population that if they don't leave, they will be killed.
- ARCLIGHT the sh$$ out of the area for about a week.
- Go in and assess damage, kill any surviving Taliban, bulldoze the area flat, and build a new village on the site of the old one - a village with running water, electricity, and a decent sewage system.
- Keep a battalion on hand to prevent the Taliban from returning. The rest of Afghanistan will get the message.

Posted by Old Patriot 2010-02-17 12:55|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/ 2010-02-17 12:55|| Front Page Top

#10 The problem with getting the civilians out before festivities commence is getting the civilians out. Yeah, exit stage left is a great strategy, but loading up the donkey cart with the mrs. and the kiddies and driving down the road under the watchful eye of the Taliban sounds problematic at best. The Talibunnies *want* civilians around. They make great human shields and every civie casualty is a media event and propaganda victory.

ARCLIGHT

Drinks! Hey, can we add 'civilian casualties' to the list of trigger words?

Posted by SteveS 2010-02-17 14:05|| 2010-02-17 14:05|| Front Page Top

#11 Operation Mushtarak ("Together" in Dari)

They speak Pashto in Helmand province.

They name is probably deliberately symbolic of Northern dominance. Completely lost on the MSM of course.

Posted by phil_b 2010-02-17 19:18|| 2010-02-17 19:18|| Front Page Top

23:44 trailing wife
23:41 Skidmark
23:41 trailing wife
23:28 tipover
23:28 rammer
23:23 rammer
23:12 USN, Ret.
23:09 USN, Ret.
23:00 notascrename
22:57 gorb
22:56 notascrename
22:31 Frank G
22:30 Frank G
22:29 Pappy
22:25 Skunky Glins****
22:19 SteveS
22:13 notascrename
22:12 Skunky Glins****
21:59 Heriberto Uloth5220
21:56 Beau
21:44 Shad 211
21:38 Eric Jablow
21:35 Frank G
21:33 Frank G