Things are really sounding bad in Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0309/01/ldt.00.html

<snip>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it is Afghanistan that is heating up.

Several hundred U.S. combat forces are now conducting a major operation in south central Afghanistan in very rugged, mountainous territory. They are on the hunt, we are told, for what they believe may be hundreds of Taliban fighters. This operation, called Operation Mountain Viper, is being conducted in Uruzgan and in Zabul Province in the very remote Dai Chupan Mountains.

This is where troops conducted a very little-noticed air assault into the region over the weekend, a longtime Taliban stronghold. Now, military force sources tell CNN the mission was launched after many intelligence reports that there were large numbers of small groups of Taliban operating in the area with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s. But they wanted to go after these Taliban groups very specifically because of concern over many attacks in the region in the last several weeks and concern that, if they went on unchecked, they might pose a threat to the central government of Hamid Karzai.

Now, this is the second combat operation being conducted by U.S. forces in recent days. There is another operation ongoing a bit to the east along the Pakistan border. That is called Operation Warrior Sweep. That has been going on since mid-July, and it remains ongoing. In the -- Gardez area, U.S. troops are conducting patrols between coast and Gardez, looking for any other suspected Taliban or al Qaeda members.

But, John, it is Afghanistan that is proving to be equally deadly to U.S. forces, as you say, two U.S. troops killed over the weekend -- John.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[paulsbc]

1. why

do we have 130,000+ troops in Iraq and <20,000 in Afghanistan when the person and his group responsible for 9/11 are most likely in Afghanistan???

it makes 0 sense to me. Get out of Iraq, put those troops in Afghanistan and get those bastards once and for all. why are we fighting the wrong war?

[never cry wolf]

2. Actually the nation that supported the bastards

we are just completing a complete pull out of, saudi arabia. If we went in anywhere after Afghan, it should have been there.

[paulsbc]

3. well...

no offense, but Saudi is 2nd tier IMO. Afghanistan and the members of Al Qaeda are first to die, then the bastards funding them in Saudi. Given we haven't taken care of the former, lets get that done first...

[paulk]

8. if the u.s. was really interested in going after al qaeda

they wouldn't have to look any further than Pakistan.

Oh, wait... they're our ally, aren't they?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Wanna bet the Russians are laughing their

asses off? How long did it take THEM to discover how impossible it was to defeat the Afghanis? 10 years or thereabouts, I believe...

[Ein]

6. That was when we armed & trained the forces they were fighting....

[Ilsa]

5. Aren't they naming all their babies "George Bush" there?

I thought everything was peachy-keen in Afghanistan. At least, no one ever talked about it on the news...

[NNN0LHI]

7. This last senance sounds like something General George Custer would say

>>>At the moment, they are going, though, after relatively small concentrations, so they think that they are fine.<<<

[Yupster]

9. No one will ever eliminate the Taliban

It is a fundamentalist religious group.

If you think they should have disappeared by now, you're being unrealistic.

The best we can ever hope for out of Afghanistan is to not let the terrorists train openly, eventually make it a viable self-sufffcient nation many years from now, and keep the Taliban running around the mountains.

That's the best case there.

But we were right to invade that place. It was intollerable for terrorists to be openly training thousands a year and shipping them around the world. That had to be stopped.

[NNN0LHI]

10. The 9/11 perps did not learn how to fly planes in Afghanistan my friend

They learned how how to fly planes right here in the good old USA. And the planning for 9/11 was done in Germany.

Don

[Yupster]

12. And Auschwitz wasn't in Germany

so what?

[NNN0LHI]

13. So we bombed the hell out of a few trenches dug into the ground...

...and a couple of sets of jungle jims. Where does that get us? Now they are actually getting on the job real life training on how to kill Americans and we are supplying the moving targets for them to practice on. I have difficulty seeing how that is such a great improvement.

Don

[Yupster]

14. Not such a "great" improvement?

Okay, I can handle that.

First I thought you were saying there wasn't any improvement in our situation with the Taliban out of power and Osama hiding in the mountains, from the previous situation of the Taliban in power and Osama openly running a series of terrorist camps.

If it's just a matter of degree, I can agree with you and add that my expectations for Afghanistan is I guess below yours. I just don't think everything is going to ever be great in Afghanistan in my lifetime. As long as there are large groups of people seeking a radical theocracy, and as long as Pakistan doesn't control its tribal regions, there's going to be trouble in Afghanistan, and I don't see us ending that soon.

[angka]

11. the russians understand what is happening.

i'm sure they're privately feeling some satisfaction after the way we ran them down for the same thing in the same country....