zzwt: Musa Qal'eh, Afghanistan

Monday, January 21, 2008

Musa Qal'eh, Afghanistan

gunners from the airplanes
were targeting fleeing children."

The MILITARY claims:

“They understand that you can’t come in here and blow up all the buildings
and kill everyone in front of you...."

“They understand.......price for entry to get in here to do what’s important,
which is earn the consent of the people toward the government...."

By Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 21, 2008 9:10:09 EST

Jason Straziuso included one sentence, "The U.S. forces were supported by fighter aircraft during the battle." to represent bombings. He is irresponsible to omit the true terror and carnage of these bombings, they bring the worst fear, damage and tragedy. Straziuso puts the civilian deaths at three. A very romanticized version of Musa Qa'leh, Helmand Province Afghanistan, December 2007, with lots of omissions.

PARATROOPERS- VS- THE TALIBAN
Posted in 82ND AIRBORNE DIV., freedom watch, military, paratrooper, special forces, terrorists on January 21, 2008 by paratrooper

excerpts
MUSA QALA, Afghanistan — Chinook helicopters dropped Capt. Don Canterna’s company of soldiers on the dusty outskirts of Musa Qala as evening fell. Loaded down with weapons, food, and water, his men walked through the night.

Musa Qala

For the 600 paratroopers who air assaulted into northern Helmand province — the world’s largest opium poppy growing region — the Dec. 8 sunrise ambush was the first volley in what battalion commander Lt. Col. Brian Mennes said was almost 72 hours of continuous fighting.

On Dec. 11, after U.S. troops had closed in on Musa Qala’s outskirts, Afghan soldiers poured into town, allowing NATO and Afghan officials to say the country’s fledgling army had retaken the Taliban-held enclave, a major symbolic victory.

But American troops still stationed in Musa Qala more than a month after the battle said they in fact did the majority of the fighting, and some chafed a bit that U.S., NATO and Afghan officials downplayed their role.

“We didn’t get credit for it, but it was a good mission,” said Capt. Jesse Smith, a 26-year-old medic from Lorton, Va. “Taking Musa Qala was the Afghans. Securing the perimeter of Musa Qala was the Americans.”

One American was killed on Dec. 9 by an improvised explosive device. Twelve men were wounded, from shrapnel and gunfire. The U.S. forces were supported by fighter aircraft during the battle.

Star Telegram
http://www.star-telegram.com/466/story/421678.html
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December 18, 2007
Use of Air Strikes in Afghan Conflict 'Rising Sharply'

In Afghanistan, It's About Air Power, Too

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