25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town Off Map

[n2doc]

By Spencer Ackerman January 19, 2011 | 3:45 pm | Categories: Af/Pak


An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar’s Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It’s hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America’s counterinsurgency strategy — which supposedly prizes the local people’s loyalty above all else.

But it’s the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.

Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Petraeus biographer, described the destruction of Tarok Kolache in a guest post for Tom Ricks’ Foreign Policy blog. Or, at least, she described its aftermath: Nothing remains of Tarok Kolache after Lt. Col. David Flynn, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 1-320th, made a fateful decision in October.

His men had come under relentless assault from homemade bombs emanating from the village, where a Taliban “intimidation campaign the villagers out” to create a staging ground for attacking the task force. With multiple U.S. amputations the result of the Taliban hold over Tarok Kolache, Flynn’s men were “terrified to go back into the pomegranate orchards to continue clearing ; it seemed like certain death.”

more

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/25-tons-of-bombs-wipes-afghan-town-off-the-map/

[malaise]

1. This is no longer

unfuckingbelievable. Raw naked power and aggression on display and there is no war to win.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I hope civilians were allowed to leave first

[ShadowLiberal]

18. I doubt it, annunce you're going to bomb a village full of your enemies and your enemies will leave

[Tx4obama]

32. Yes, they were all told to leave. It was a deserted village.

It says so in the full article on the link in the OP.

[kenny blankenship]

36. So we atomized their village as revenge?

Because they knew and associated with people we don't like. And I suppose they all checked in to a Holiday Inn Express with their advance intelligence after evacuating with all their belongings.

America, you are a monster. Find a cliff and throw yourself off.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. thank goodness

[earth mom]

51. Sorry, but I'm not buying that propaganda/disinformation. nt

[Catherina]

3. Peace. Nobel Peace Prize. Hope. Change. America God Damn!

How many lives and for fucking what?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[virgogal]

9. He's the CIC. The buck stops with him.

[scarletwoman]

10. Yeah, how "hateful" to feel disgust when people's lives are destroyed!

I can't speak for the OP, but I care about EVERY village on the earth. No human beings deserve to have their homes wiped out by foreign invaders.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. It's Obama's "necessary" war that destroyed the village and will destroy more lives.

[Catherina]

13. Excuse me now, and just WHO is the Commander-In-Chief? The hate fellow poster

is from the ones who obliterate entire towns and incinerate children, mothers, fathers, brothers, grandmothers on the depraved excuse that it protects some precious sort of freedom nobody can put their finger on.

Talking about hateful, an entire village was wiped off the map, courtesy of the US of A. USA! USA!

[Fumesucker]

17. The funny thing is that people on DU were saying the exact same thing when Dubya was CIC..

So were we here at DU "hateful" about Dubya?

Or is it now only "hateful" because the CIC has a D after his name?

[Autumn]

21. I would say it's already connected to Obama.

This is Obamas war now. it has been his for quite a while now. Talk about ridiculous and void of any thought.

[johnroshan]

25. WTF...

You might want to do some of that "thinking" part yourself.

This IS Obama's war now. Every single bomb dropped, every single shot fired rests its responsibility on his shoulders now.

[Better Believe It]

27. You're right! President Obama has nothing to do with military operations in Afghanistan.

He's only the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elocs]

4. Now this is something of which to be proud. We must destroy them to save them.

If that is true then god, or the spaghetti monster save us from U.S. salvation.

[scarletwoman]

5. We had to destroy the village in order to save it. (nt)

[Puregonzo1188]

6. Did we have to destroy that village in order to save it?

[purrFect]

8. 'just' showing the rest of the world what we're capable of

since 1945. and before...

[Hannah Bell]

11. kr

[Major Hogwash]

14. We should just get up and go now.

Get the hell out of Dodge.
We're not doing any good over there.

[hootinholler]

15. AfghanisNAM n/t

[Bigmack]

43. I like Vietghanistan... nt

[arcane1]

16. "Taliban " = generic term for anyone who shoots back

Seriously, can anyone still believe this is all about going after a small group who is harboring Bin Laden???

[Autumn]

22. We liberated them,

to death. This is a fucking disgrace.

[Tx4obama]

33. It was a deserted village. Read the full article on the link in the OP. n/t

[HEyHEY]

23. Not even, anyone not western.

[Swamp Rat]

19. Shock and awe, baby!

[Monsoon]

26. Cute, but WTF does this have to do

with the chimpenfurer?

On edit: Oh I just got it, Obama = Bush. Nevermind.

[Swamp Rat]

35. You think "Obama = Bush?" ... Good luck with that.

Welcome back to DU. :hi:

[displacedvermoter]

48. McCain didn't get elected

President Obama is the one dropping all the bombs.

Sorry.

[Swamp Rat]

52. "President Obama is the one dropping all the bombs" .... okay...

So, what are you sorry about? :shrug:

I find a lot of the replies in this thread rather vague, if not confusing.

[leftstreet]

20. Yay! Those people are all free now!

:grr: :cry:

[roody]

24. Wasn't this done in Vietnam?

[Canuckistanian]

29. Same playbook

Same results. Zilch, zero, nada.

The bombing destroyed a half-dozen enemies and created 2 dozen NEW enemies.

[Catherina]

37. Yes. Same bullshit lies that no civilians were harmed too. n/t

[Scruffy1]

28. Out of Afghanistan Now

This has got t be the most cynical war ever fought. we all know it's just about making money for defense contractors and oil companies. The military command has admitted there are probably fewer than 100 Al-qaeda in the whole country and they were a police problem anyhow not a military one.

[maryf]

59. Don't forget all the precious minerals

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan
By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

more at link, of course the idea that this is a new discovery is pure hype...Reasons for eternal war/occupation...

[Canuckistanian]

30. FUCK, this is insane

If you have to destroy whole fucking villages to gain a TEMPORARY advantage, what the fuck are you REALLY gaining?

These people have memories that will last LONG AFTER the Americans have gone. And they'll REMEMBER shit like this.

The whole damn western world better pull out of Afghanistan NOW. There'll be no peace here as long as they remain.

[hulka38]

34. I feel much safer now.

[truth2power]

38. Who are these people of the deleted messages..

who apparently support these atrocities???

[Enrique]

41. maybe David Petraeus is a DUer n/t

[hootinholler]

44. Name Removed seems to post the same spam all over DU n/t

[Enrique]

40. one villager had a 'fit of theatrics'

those Afghans are so theatrical!

As Broadwell tells it, the villagers understood that the United States needed to destroy their homes — except when they don’t. One villager “in a fit of theatrics had accused Flynn of ruining his life after the demolition.”

An adviser to Hamid Karzai said that the 1-320th “caused unreasonable damage to homes and orchards and displaced a number of people.” Flynn has held “reconstruction shuras” with the villagers and begun compensating villagers for their property losses, but so far the reconstruction has barely begun, three months after the destruction.

“Sure they are pissed about the loss of their mud huts,” Broadwell wrote on Facebook, “but that is why the BUILD story is important here.”

[Nihil]

60. It's hard to believe the mindset of people who write that stuff ...

> “Sure they are pissed about the loss of their mud huts,”

... much less the bastards who order and perform the operations that cause it.

And more is promised for the future:
> Petraeus, having visited the village ... told his commanders in the south
> to “take a similar approach to what 1-320th was doing on a grander scale
> as it applies to the districts north of Arghandab.”

"They Hate us for our Freedom."

[devilgrrl]

42. When is this LIE going to end?

eom

[Uncle Joe]

45. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[Prometheus Bound]

46. His men were terrified to go back into the orchards so they leveled the town and left the orchards.

And now they will rebuild the town.

Sounds like a plan. Or maybe NOT!

[maryf]

47. k&r

wtf. :cry: :grr:

[Blue Owl]

49. lovely

Let's carpet-bomb the freedom into them.

[Lucinda]

50. Costa Rica looks better every day.

This is depressing beyond words.

[Swamp Rat]

53. Until Nicaragua wants Guanacaste back,

and is willing to take it by force, which they could do sometime in the future, unless the USA intervenes. Same applies to the areas from north of Liberia, La Fortuna (north of Arenal), to the San Juan delta on the Atlantic.

As much as I love it there, I also remind myself things could change for the worse in Latin America, and living conditions could become very harsh for a variety of reasons.

[Lucinda]

54. True...everything can turn on a dime.

:(

[StarsInHerHair]

55. how about Panama, I've read only a little but it's advertized as a great

retirement choice for Americans.

[Lucinda]

58. I haven't researched it.

I have friends in Costa Rica so it's why it made the list :) Couldn't hurt to look at Panama though!

[StarsInHerHair]

61. yeah, I read an aticle in some magazine that said Panama has a half price

senior discount on movies, trains, some other stuff........sounds good for retirees.

[Lucinda]

63. I still have a way to go before i'd be eligible for discounts

but good land prices are appealing. :)

[OwnedByFerrets]

56. Doesn't our military and our leadership just make you so proud to

be an American.:cry:

[northamericancitizen]

57. Recommended nt

[Odin2005]

62. That is a war crime.