[nathanbedford]

The significance of the story might go well beyond the tragic death of four Marines who were betrayed into an ambush by their Afghan colleagues and whose deaths might have been averted if rules of engagement had been less restrictive. The broader significance might be that we are witnessing the initial stampings out from a new template being put in place by the mainstream media which will be followed by a series of stories designed to illustrate the futility of the war in Afghanistan.

Please note that the succeeding article about IED losses in Afghanistan is in much the same vein.

It does not much matter whether these stories are essentially true or not what really matters is the perception created by what is produced from this template. We saw the media relentlessly undermine support for the Iraq war and we have every reason to believe they might be trying to repeat in Afghanistan.

Whether one supports or opposes Barak Obama's presumed intensification of the war in Afghanistan, there can be no doubt that the media will play a role.

Perception is policy

[HospiceNurse]

McClatchy screwed up,we aren’t allowed to mention enemy casualties due to an Obama administration guideline.

[DTogo]

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

WTF!!??

Bring them home, there's a Regime that needs changin' back here. We'll have their back 24/7.

[exit82]

Ganjgal should be levelled in an airstrike that surrounding inhabitants will recount to their grand children and great grandchildren for decades to come as the day a huge fire claimed the village.

The villagers and elders were complicit in this ambush.

That said, Afghanistan is a tribal hellhole, mired in 700 AD with IEDs and automatic weapons.

It is not worth the life of ONE American, let alone 4 Marines.

I am seeing Vietnam all over again, writ large.

“Pacifying” a village here, a village there, does not work.

Muslims and Afghans will only respond to overwhelming force and the impossibility of victory without the total annihaltion of their culture and families. That is the deciding point for them.

That is what worked with the Japanese. Only when they were faced with total annihilation and the knowledge that they had an enemy willing to incinerate their cities did they surrender, and even then they almost did not.

Day after day, our soldiers are being maimed by crude IEDs, killed in ambushes, suffering in extreme heat and cold, being put in impossible situations trying to find and kill an enemy that wears no uniforms and is willing to hide behind women and children, as well as willing to use them as human bombs.

After eight years, we have not ever found Bin Laden or Al Zawahiri, we haven’t won the country, and we have given our forces suicidal rules of engagement.

And we are worried what the Afghans might think of us?

F’em and the camel they rode in on. Our people are worth more than theirs, period.

Kill the enemy and get the hell out. We won a World War on two fronts in half the time we have been in Afghanistan.

Enough already.

[Salvation]

Prayers for their families. This is such a sad story.

[3IDVET]

It breaks my heart to see how our Brave Men and Woman have been forgotten since bambi came to power, they are nothing but pawns. Just like Somalia with slick willie exact same thing happening now..GOD BLESS EM ALL.

[Gritty]

It's time to pull the plug on Afghanistan. Our civilian leadership will do nothing but get our troops killed with no discernible goal in sight. All we will do is bleed blood and treasure.

Obama has no intention of winning this war. We can't succeed with an anti-American traitor in the White House. We need an real, patriotic American with American goals to fill the slot of Commander in Chief - not a Kenyan fraud who was raised at the knee of the Communist, Franklin Marshall Davis.

We can't win with a closet Communist with Muslim sympathies who wants to tear this country apart and take it down.

Bring the troops home. The enemy at home is now more dangerous than the one abroad.

[penelopesire]

DA&* OBAMA PING!

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESS PEOPLE TOMORROW AND DEMAND THAT THE OBAMA INSANITY STOP!! This is treasonous!

[bray]

This Blood is on LBJbama’s hands.

Prayers for these Brave Marines

[Jet Jaguar]

Obama has yet to publish his National Security Strategy.

[444Flyer]

"...U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village."<.i>

PULL THEM THE HELL OUT IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO BACK THEM UP A#S@%&@S!!!

[EDINVA]

Documented blood on his hands for sending those troops into harm’s way without support simply to placate his anti-war leftist fellow-travelers. Disgusting.

And our soldiers who question his right to issue orders are mocked in our courts ?

[n2dubes]

The AP mentions the McClatchy story but does not mention the ROE aspect. Despicable.

[Halgr]

A pox upon the house of OBAMA

---

I stand and salute these Marines....may they find the heavenly gates wide open.

[antceecee]

This particular method of waging war is unique to Democrat administrations.....
They care not for the loss of our troops.....

[Lancey Howard]

(( ping ))

Get ready to be sick.
This asswipe McChrystal has to go.

[EternalVigilance]

I’m ANGRY.

[Reagan's My Hero]

I would like to see our troops out of this hellhole immediately. What a mess, and it makes one wonder... where is all the anti-war outrage from the leftists about what is going on over there?

[spectre]

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

I am sick.

sw

[Eye of Unk]

Whatever happened to “overwhelming force”?

Get Obama out of the referee position and call in some real experts and just get’er done!

To me it appears like Obamas long range goal is to get as many American soldiers killed that he will have to declare an emergency so as to create a “private” army of his own.

Its no wonder there are soldiers defying the false POTUS when given orders, Obama is throwing them away like expendable nose wipes.