Posted on 10/16/2009 3:47:46 AM PDT by MestaMachine
KABUL (AP) - The U.S. military says four American service members have been killed in a bombing in southern Afghanistan.
A U.S. statement Friday said that two of the service members were killed instantly in the blast and two others suffered fatal injuries in the same explosion.
The latest deaths bring to 25 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this month.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
"The latest deaths bring to 25 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this month."
It is ONLY October 16.
Is Iran supplying the explosives for these attacks. , They build their nuke and they supply IED’s while we si back and do nothing. Hope and Change arent working in foreign policy.
Prayers Up...
There were 40 American servicemen killed in Afghanistan between July and August, 43 between August 30 and October 1. 25 American Servicemen killed between September 30 and now, October 16.
We are on our way to surpassing last month which was the worst month for American deaths than in ALL of the preceeding years. The worst previous month for U.S. forces was in September 2008, when 26 were killed.
Since McChrystal has taken over in Afghanistan, our casualties have skyrocketed. He seems deaf and blind to the carnage he has inflicted on our Troops. The obama administration is killing us and McChrystal has helped him do it.
I was GOING to say, “immeasurably.” But we CAN measure, can’t we?
I should have known you’d be here before I pinged you.
Prayers for ALL our Servicemembers and their families.
Everyday another way...to lose!
7:20 AM EDT, no updates thus far.
Heartbreak.
I think it is a bunch of things that is causing this,
1. The overt weakness of our president. The enemy knows that he will cow tow to the international community, Human Rights Watch, UN, etc. That means they can do whatever they want.
2. Rules of Engagement. I know for a fact that you cannot fire on anyone or anything unless you actually SEE the person with gun in hand shooting at you. So if you are taking a barrage of fire from a house, and you can’t see whose firing at you too bad.
3. IF we changed the rules of engagement, let our military do what they are trained to do and had their backs, a larger presence could work. The Taliban are emboldened and take over the villages at night. They intimidate through death. They have no problem going in at night and killing a few locals to get their point across.
4. This insanity of the Democrats wanting the Afghans to take a more prominent role in their own defense. That is all well and good but the majority of the Afghanis are ILLITERATE!!! They cannot even sign their name.
5. Understand that the Taliban are not Afghanis they are a fanatical religious cult looking for power, to even insinuate that they could be part of the government just fuels them, it sends the message that they ARE winning!!
6. The Afghanis are not Iraqis, in the cities they are somewhat modern but the outskirts, they are nomadic and tribal, the war lords are like our Mayors, work with them but they need support. They are so war weary that they are just trying to survive.
This is just my opinion, from talking to people who have been there from the beginning to just recently.
Obama is an ASS but we all know that.
The blood is on his hands for his indecision. If he does not have the heart to do what needs to be done, then get them all out of there and live with the ramifications.
Even for sad news,,,
The way this war is being fought must be changed!(ROE),,,
Iran should be the main target,,,
These EFP’s all come from there,,,
Better F-16’s than M-16’s,,,
Waaay past time to burn the poppy fields and kill the
poppy farmers,,,
Sadly,,,That ain't gunna happen...
It’s a seasonal war. Enemy activity increases during the summer and plateaus around November/December before decreasing during the winter in much of the country. In warmer areas like Khost and out in the southwest it will remain fairly constant.
There are more friendly offensive operations than before. That means more contact, which sadly often means more friendly casualties.
My condolences to the families of these brave troops.
Obama should hang his head in shame.
“Another Obama delay, and families pray.”
Where are all the masses of left-wing peaceniks screaming at the top of their lungs about this ‘illegal, immoral’ war?
Oh, that’s right - a liberal is President now. My bad.
Hussain changed the Rules of Engagement to Vietnam era Verifies before shooting.
Our men are being killed.
Hussain is killing our troops to make some bigger point internationally.
What kind of pampered puff is he?
Fight it or GET OUT
In the mean time this shit for brains president ponders what to do about this war between holes 8 & 9 of the golf course and halftime of his pick up basketball game.
No hurry though, the rush is saved for shaking all the money out of the pockets of the American taxpayer.
When is America going to wake up to the take over of their country? Half are still singing Kum ba Yobama.
Sorry for the language in last post, just so angry with this president.
In ALL of our years in Afghanistan, there have NEVER been this number of American deaths no matter what the season. And it isn’t just us. Other countries are experiencing the same thing. It IS MCCHRYSTAL and his changes to the ROE that have caused this. HIS changes.
NATO Commanders have complained bitterly about how badly they have been hamstrung.
bam could give less of a damn. He fiddles and plays at being intelligent while our Troops die!
This has been a strategic mess from start to finish and it was PLANNED. If you can get the American people to clamor for an end to this war, you can walk away and leave ANOTHER RADICAL ISLAMIC STRONGHOLD which is what obama is all about from day ONE!
McChrystal was picked for his “hearts and minds” strategy that killed millions of Vietnamese and 10s of thousands of Americans back in the day. He was HANDPICKED because he was bitter about not being promoted under the Bush Administration, therefore, in order to get his Stars, he could be COUNTED on to go along to get along.
He has done immense damage to the morale of our Troops in theatre. He is a disgrace to the uniform and should be court martialled for his malfeasance.
If you think for a second he went there for any other reason, you have not been paying attention.
THIS IS BULL CRAP!
THEN BRING THEM HOME!
I WANT THEM TO COME HOME! THIS IS NOT WORTH IT ANYMORE!
obama knows freaking NOTHING about war or the Rules of War.
He know how to follow directions. He can’t make a decision on his own.
He listened to his “advisors” to Mirandize and allow legal representation to prisoners of war, but the ROE belong to McChrystal. I have posted them here a half dozen times.
McChrystal even suggested that our Troops NOT wear their body armor to show “trust” to the Afghans.
Please!!!
No apology necessary. I got wayyyy stronger words in my head, which is about to explode with all of this crap, but I am saving up. Because when I let go, Jim Robinson will have to blow me right off this board...or at least the admin moderator will bounce my post faster than I can post it.
“When is America going to wake up to the take over of their country? Half are still singing Kum ba Yobama.”
**********************************************
As long as the state run media continues disseminating propaganda to the public, many will remain uninformed.
Unfortunately, the entire country does not listen to Rush Limbaugh, Jim Quinn and Mark Levin.
The entire country does not read Free Republic or the Canada Free Press.
The sheeples are hooked on network TV- Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, and the Network Evening News.
Damn the drive-by media. Keeping Americans stupid and misinformed.
Good imitation of playing at being intelligent. Still unconvincing. The pr!ck imitates Denzell Washington better.
Well it’s Obi’s rule of engagement (ROE) - American troops cannot fire back.
Also the Hamas and muslim brotherhood moles in the white hut are probably feeding intel back to the taliban and al qeada. Afghanistan is now about humiliating the American military in front on Islam and the Saudi king. The will require more dead americans.
Judge Carter are you paying attention?
Finally an “update.” THIS is how the B@ST@RDS are playing it!
US military says 4 Americans die in blast
By HEIDI VOGT (AP) – 58 minutes ago
KABUL — Four more American troops died in a bombing in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Friday, as a U.N.-backed panel completed most of its investigation into whether the level of fraud in the August presidential election would require a runoff.
Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States says he expects a second round vote will be required.
Rising death tolls and the political crisis brought on by a fraud-marred election have prompted the Obama administration to review its entire Afghanistan war strategy.
Two of the U.S. service members were killed instantly in the Thursday blast and two others died of their wounds, the U.S. said in a statement. No further details were released.
The deaths bring to 25 the number of American service members killed in Afghanistan this month, according to an Associated Press count.
Elsewhere, four Afghans, including at least two civilians, died during a firefight Friday between militants and a joint international-Afghan force in Ghazni province. There were conflicting accounts of the gunbattle.
The NATO-led coalition said two militants fired from a two-story building and troops returned fire, killing a pair of gunmen. “When the joint force entered the building, they discovered two civilians who subsequently died from their wounds,” the coalition said in a statement. “It is unclear if the enemy militants or the joint force are responsible for the deaths.”
*******************************
OH!!! THE POOR CIVILIANS!!!!!!!!!
WTF!!!!!!!!!
When Bush was President, the troops overwhelmingly supported the mission, not now. No idea what they are supposed to do, they are trained to fight the enemy not be social workers. To ask a person to sit back and not defend themselves is immoral, it defies all human instinct, an instinct that has been honed through training. They know they are sitting ducks, that is disgusting.
McChrystal the politically correct General=guilty as heck!
“When Bush was President, the troops overwhelmingly supported the mission, not now.”
“They know they are sitting ducks, that is disgusting.”
I hear this over and over from US military members.
So do I.
Obama should hang his head in shame.
>>
That basterd has his arrogant nose too far up in the air.
He has NO shame.
If four abortionists had been killed we would have heard from Obama by now.....
are you trying to snuff out all the news about Salsa Daning Zer0?
Wearing Out America's WarriorsAnd I've read your other coments, you're 100% spot on -- it's McChrystal and "his" ROEs that are killing our troops. When he was first picked I waa overjoyed given his experience as an SF Officer, now I'm sickened. It's like he's taking STOO-PID™ pills.
NY Post
His tactics and strategy guarantee defeat. The Taliban are following Sun Tzu's, 'The Art of War' almost chapter by chapter and McChrystal is ignoring it. The sad part is McChrystal has studied 'The Art of War' at the War Colleges he's attended, its required. So it must be the STOO-PID™ pills he's taking.
(And Sun Tzu has never been wrong, not in 2,500 years.)
“In the later years of the Vietnam War, the weekly casualty rate was slightly under 100 U.S. troops killed a week.”
War is not a game.
More 0bama-weakness inspired deaths.
Obama the tinpot has:
Here is a letter about the ROE’s USMC (26 years) Veteran John Bernard wrote to his Congressman Mike Michaud on 7/23/09. His son Lance Cpl Joshua Bernard’s unit was ambushed by the Taliban on 8/14/09 only a few short weeks after the letter had been sent.
The Lancy Cpl. was fatally wounded in the attack. It was all caught in a photograph taken by Julie Jacobson, on assignment from the Associated Press, and published and distributed, regardless of the pleas of his father John Bernard and the rest of the Lance Cpl.’s family NOT to publish it ( it is a war crime in my book, but that’s another story):
The original letter written by John Bernard:
Congressman Mike Michaud 7/23/2009 08:01
1724 Longworth HOBWashington, DC 20515-1902
Dear Sir;
I am writing to you today as an American citizen, 26 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, committed Christian, Husband, Father of two and a businessman. I am also writing to you as the Father of a Marine who is, as all of his brothers in arms are, in harms way. That by itself is not a cause for concern for me because as a Warrior I understand two things:(1) it is the very nature of the calling to which we have been called that we will be thrust into dangerous, even life threatening situations to fight the enemies of our country and (2) that there could not possibly be a safer place to be than in the company of fellow Marines. In any case, that is the nature of the business and those who serve in this capacity have long since dealt with the realities of life in uniform.
There are, however, certain expectations, an unspoken trust within the ranks of those of us who serve and have served in this capacity. One of those is that we have a belief that as Americans, our leadership will not frivolously spend our blood on unworthy pursuit. To those of us who serve, let me be very clear to those of you who hold our lives in your hands; this means that the reason we may die can ultimately be defined as protecting homeland, family and fellow American lives (spelled US citizens). We also assume we will not be used as pawns in some personal vendetta or worse some career building scheme; that we will not be asked to spill our blood in a foreign land to defend the indefensible. We expect we will be able to do that for which we were trained; export violence with ferocity and drive our enemies to their knees with the ultimate goal of ending the conflict by forcing them to do our will. Such are the dreams and aspirations of the Warrior. Men like this seek to serve side by side with like-minded men prepared to meet their destiny on the field of battle; living a life of honor while testing personal courage in the forge of combat. Our nations Warriors have no other expectations, no visions of grandeur, no careers to bolster, no kingdoms to lord over, no sovereignty to subvert. These men just seek to serve their country.
Now that you have ever so basic an understanding of the intrinsic nature of the Warrior; I hope to encourage you to show them at least the dignity of thoughtful and painstaking decision-making when considering when and where to thrust them into the fires of hell. My demand is that you emphatically understand that this decision will have eternal consequences for the men involved and their families. I also expect this decision to be for the simple reason of defense of country and countrymen (again spelled United States Citizens).
If any part of you still understands that you were sent to Washington DC for the sole purpose of defending these shores and to defend the ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’ of the citizens of this nation; and if you still believe you are first a servant of all, then you yet may possess the ability to understand the immorality of what I am about to share with you and the necessity to change this policy NOW.
President Obama has seen fit to replace the sitting ISAF commander with a General McChrystal (see Bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal). Suffice it to say that Gen McChrystal’s understanding of the Warrior ethos is somewhat askew from the mainstream. Also let us cut to the chase and identify him more as a political mouthpiece than a field commander. Add to this the dubious addition of General James L. Jones (see bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Jones), who unlike McChrystal has actual combat experience but still shares the same ultimate goals and one world vision as both McChrystal and Obama. What you have here is an unholy trinity injecting their shared philosophy of ‘spare the civilians at all cost’ – even though those civilians are not US citizens and are in fact complicit in their own misfortune. The new ROE presented by McChrystal and under which operation Khanjar was mounted is nothing less than disgraceful, immoral and fatal for our Marines, Sailors and Soldiers on the ground. The Marines and Soldiers that are ‘holding’ territories of dubious worth like Now Zad and Golestan without reinforcement, denial of fire-support and refusal to allow them to hunt and kill the very enemy we are there to confront are nothing more than sitting ducks. Denying them even the ability to fight, which is their only purpose for existing, to defend themselves in a foreign land that sees them first as agents of the devil is detestable to the secular world and immoral to the rest of us. And for those of us with ‘vested interests’ thrust into that foreign land; it angers us. The links I have provided will give you some indication of the insanity of the current situation and the suicidal position this administration has placed these Warriors in. I admonish this administration and all those currently in public office whom we have entrusted with our security, well-being and the very lives and well-being of the best of us, our Warriors to start acting like you actually care or even understand the consequences of ludicrous decisions like this one. I then hold you responsible to actively seek to change this immoral policy to one that allows our Warriors the opportunity to do what they were trained to do; destroy our enemies and protect our citizenry.”
“Let Them Fight or Bring Them Home”
http://letthemfight.blogspot.com/
“No Rush to Escalate (”war kills off great reform movements”)”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2355050/posts
Ping.
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/official_texts/Tactical_Directive_090706.pdf
“...I recognize that the carefully controlled and disciplined employment of force entails risks to our troops...”
“...The Taliban cannot militarily defeat us - but we can defeat ourselves...”
______________________________________________________
This is all that comes to my mind when I read that:
“We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We’ve lost today,” Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter’s repeated demands for helicopters.
“’We’re pinned down:’ 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335142/posts
O spent the night in San Francisco.
Crowds of for and against O were robust.
Meanwhile, ..
When’s the next War Council meeting,, what will that be, the 6th?
>McChrystal even suggested that our Troops NOT wear their body armor to show “trust” to the Afghans.<
I read somewhere that they’re sending the truly patriotic soldiers to the front lines and leaving the ones who just follow orders stateside to deal with dissidents.
A suggestion that outrageous fits the scenario.
What??????
I read it on the tinfoil site, but it really doesn’t seem too far out of line considering...recent events and the general atmosphere around 1600.
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