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2011-08-09 Terror Networks

Did Foreign Training Help the Taliban Take Down a NATO Helicopter?

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Posted by Griting Smith6978 2011-08-09 08:28|| || Front Page|| [11125 views ] Top

#1 Did Foreign Training Help the Taliban Take Down a NATO Helicopter?

What brought the helo down was our unwillingness to vanquish the enemy and achieve victory. This area was being turned over to host nation, but they failed to secure it and the TB moved back in. Senior leaders fear this scenario will play out in other turn-over areas as well. Remind anyone besides me of helo's landing on top of the embassy?

Launching a QRF (Quick Reaction Force) into a unsecured, HOT LZ has it's risks. We just suffered one of them.

No counterinsurgency can be defeated with border sancuaries such as Pakistan. This is a fool's game at best.

Sickening, all very, very sickening. This entire country isn't worth a bucket of warm piss.

Posted by Besoeker 2011-08-09 11:44|| 2011-08-09 11:44|| Front Page Top

#2 "One unidentified source told an American officer that seven Manpads purchased by Iran from Algeria had been 'clandestinely transported from Mashhad in Iran across the border into Afghanistan,'" the paper explained. "Other reports, also unconfirmed, accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of supplying weapons or missile-trainers to the Taliban." Last month, Kandahar's police chief told Afghanistan's TOLO News that Pakistan and Iran were providing "safe havens" for Taliban leaders. Other reports last year suggested that Taliban fighters were training in Iran and using Iranian weapons.

Check, check, and check. I would not trust any intel coming from tribal chiefs, ISI, Pakistanis, Afgans, etc. unless thoroughly vetted. I recall the group of CIA agents who trusted an informant. Vigilance was relaxed and he turned out to be a boomer.

Posted by JohnQC 2011-08-09 11:49|| 2011-08-09 11:49|| Front Page Top

#3 nuke/pave

Posted by Chailing and Company1591 2011-08-09 13:25|| 2011-08-09 13:25|| Front Page Top

#4 We are wasting blood and treasure on this dump. The enemy has safe haven and support in both Pakistan and Iran. Our supply lines are extremely long and you have to bring in everything. The locals are uneducated, tribal and regionalized by the local geography. The local geography also makes fighting and transport a nightmare. Anyone here, many of whom have a lot more experience about such things, think this is a good place to fight or that we have a chance of making a difference? I say we declare victory and leave. Start packing today.

Posted by remoteman 2011-08-09 13:38|| 2011-08-09 13:38|| Front Page Top

#5 I say we declare victory and leave.

Bush pretty much DID 'declare victory and leave' back in 2003 but was ridiculed and vilified for it, for abandoning a 'righteous' war and 'lying' us into wrongful war in Iraq. I thought it was the single most intelligent and pragmatic decision he made as Commander-in-Chief.

Posted by Glenmore 2011-08-09 13:45|| 2011-08-09 13:45|| Front Page Top

#6 The whole point of the Afghan War is to not allow Al Qaeda (or their facsimiles) a base to train and launch attacks against the West. Are we sure that this has been accomplished? I'm not...

Posted by Shakey Steve 2011-08-09 14:09|| 2011-08-09 14:09|| Front Page Top

#7 How many attacks has al-Qaeda launched on the west from Afghan bases these last few years?

There's your answer.

Posted by Steve White 2011-08-09 15:36|| 2011-08-09 15:36|| Front Page Top

#8 Does the term 'Taliban' ring a bell? Last time I checked, they are still VERY active Afghanistan, and are still bragging about attacking Western targets...do they not qualify as a facsimile of Al Qaeda? Remove the Allied armies, and the Taliban will take over as sure as the sun rises in the east. But there's not much Texas tea under those sands, so Dubya and his cabal had no reason to stay too long...

Posted by Shakey Steve 2011-08-09 15:47|| 2011-08-09 15:47|| Front Page Top

#9 I suspect something that no one has yet said, that the shoot down was probably done with a Soviet Strela 3 (NATO name SA-14 Gremlin).

Strela-3 missiles have been exported to over 30 countries since 1974. It has a reputation for being an effective fly swatter for slow moving, low targets.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-08-09 16:02|| 2011-08-09 16:02|| Front Page Top

#10 My money is on an Anza missile

Posted by john frum 2011-08-09 17:00|| 2011-08-09 17:00|| Front Page Top

#11 If they did use an anza missle then we would run out of reasons to let Pakistan exist.

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-08-09 17:26|| 2011-08-09 17:26|| Front Page Top

#12 So Shakey, if the Taliban return, so what? Then they become a pain in the ass, nothing more. We know a whole lot more about A-stan now than we did before 2011. If they set up diddly that could threaten us there are a whole lot of ways we could eliminate the threat. We are not limited to troops on the ground. The point is that we are not going to eliminate the Taliban...ever. Even if we stay 20 years, as soon as we leave, the Taliban or some version are going to return. That is why it is futile to waste more blood and treasure on this exercise.

Posted by remoteman 2011-08-09 18:43|| 2011-08-09 18:43|| Front Page Top

#13 We ran out of reasons to let Pakistan exist a long, long time ago.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-08-09 18:53|| 2011-08-09 18:53|| Front Page Top

#14 AFAIK the Taliban Hard Boyz are still claiming it was an RPG - however, AFAIK again they haven't specified whether the SEALS' Helo was fired upon by only one lone Fighter, or a group of Fighters in which one struck home.

Safe to argue that the SEALS' LZ was NOT SECURE.

FYI an AL-QAEDA AFFILIATE is jumping into the fray, claiming it was one of their Hard Boyz that killed the SEALS, ee AL-QAEDA-IN-GAZA = JIHADAYA SALAFIDHAYA.

Paleo Fighters in Afghanistan = AFPAK???

Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-08-09 19:18|| 2011-08-09 19:18|| Front Page Top

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