US bombs Pakistan

[techumseh]

Muslim law requires immediate burial of the dead.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

yeah but why only 12 outta the total? you tellin me the rest werent muslims? and why did they bury all eight foreigners first and not the locals?

[techumseh]

Source?

[MOBIUS]

What everyone here on Poly seems to be ignoring is why, when Al Qaeda and the Taliban were seemingly on the back foot after the invasion of Afghanistan and running to the mountains, the US admin decided to use the 'local help' instead of going in hard with ground troops and assaulting the **** out of Tora Bora.

They knew right from the beginning which way Bin Laden would flee - the escape routes were obvious.

Was it really that difficult for the most powerful military nation in the world to helicopter in forces to interdict his line of retreat from Tora Bora to the Pakistani border!!?

Perhaps if the bungling idiots in the Bush administration had done their job properly in the first place - we wouldn't be in this situation?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/01/16/pakistan.strike/index.html

The remains of about 12 bodies, including as many as eight foreigners, were quickly retrieved by a group of men after the airstrike and buried elsewhere, sources said.

[MOBIUS]

You guys are idiots aren't you!?

Right from Che defending the Bush Administration's bungling to dickheads arguing the toss about the effect of why we're bombing innocent women and children inside the borders and against the wishes of an ally state and ignoring the initial cause in the first place...

Quite how is it anti-US to be exasperated about how one of the most incompetent, corrupt and distasteful administrations in US history has been single-handedly destroying the reputation of your country from practically since the moment the were 'elected'...?

If there is one thing I will condemn the American people for is how they could be so stupid as to let Bush in for a second term...

[DaShi]

It always comes to that.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
What everyone here on Poly seems to be ignoring is why, when Al Qaeda and the Taliban were seemingly on the back foot after the invasion of Afghanistan and running to the mountains, the US admin decided to use the 'local help' instead of going in hard with ground troops and assaulting the **** out of Tora Bora.

They knew right from the beginning which way Bin Laden would flee - the escape routes were obvious.

Was it really that difficult for the most powerful military nation in the world to helicopter in forces to interdict his line of retreat from Tora Bora to the Pakistani border!!?

Perhaps if the bungling idiots in the Bush administration had done their job properly in the first place - we wouldn't be in this situation?

On top of that half of the Paki intelligence network is still sympathetic to the Al Queda cause and they even helped with two assassination attempts on Musharaff.

It is corrupt to the core.

It's a wonder that whole place hasn't gone to hell the past 5 years.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
yap, yap, yap

[Sikander]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
What everyone here on Poly seems to be ignoring is why, when Al Qaeda and the Taliban were seemingly on the back foot after the invasion of Afghanistan and running to the mountains, the US admin decided to use the 'local help' instead of going in hard with ground troops and assaulting the **** out of Tora Bora.

They knew right from the beginning which way Bin Laden would flee - the escape routes were obvious.

Was it really that difficult for the most powerful military nation in the world to helicopter in forces to interdict his line of retreat from Tora Bora to the Pakistani border!!?

Perhaps if the bungling idiots in the Bush administration had done their job properly in the first place - we wouldn't be in this situation?

The reason they are "ignoring" it is that it isn't germain to the situation at hand. The fact is that only one brigade of U.S. forces were available during the battle of Tora Bora, and only a fraction of that force could be carried to the battle zone. The reason is that only the heavy cargo copters (Chinooks) could operate at that altitude. There simply weren't enough of them to carry more troops into battle and taxi them around as the situation warranted. Significant portions of the battle field were over the operational ceilings of even the Chinook. Every landing zone near Tora Bora was covered by some combination of mortars, heavy machine guns or infantry with RPGs. We lost one helicopter in the first day/s of the battle and had several more damaged.

You seem to forget that the reason the Taliban et al were "on the back foot" in the first place is that we attacked almost immediately after 9/11 using a combination of bombers and local allies even as the intricate pieces of our air bridge to Afghanistan were being assembled. Had we waited to deploy many thousands of our own troops we would have created more enemies in Afghanistan by our large presence while giving the Taliban a lot more time to react to our attack. Your appraisal of the situation seems to be uninformed by many of the military, logistic or local political considerations which shaped and constrained the actions of the real commander.

IIRC you were one of the gloom and doom boys who predicted that we'd get our asses handed to us in Afghanistan. Instead a brilliant lightning campaign completely at odds with any predictions I can remember from that time occurred. The Taliban were swept from power in Afghanistan in no time, and only now are they managing to put together any serious capability for attack from their more or less safe havens in Pakistan. You'd be better off not reminding us of how weak your prognosticating was on this issue or your real lack of knowledge about the situation at the time that "supports" your claims of incompetence.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


On top of that half of the Paki intelligence network is still sympathetic to the Al Queda cause and they even helped with two assassination attempts on Musharaff.

It is corrupt to the core.

It's a wonder that whole place hasn't gone to hell the past 5 years.

It's sorta been hell for the past 57 years.

[KrazyHorse]

Indeed.

One Flag, One Fleet, One Empire!

[Saras]

Take India back!

[Lawrence of Arabia]

aaha, AP reports at least 4 foreign born terrorists were killed in the bombing. They now say that the bodies of the men dragged away were done so to hide the fact that they were there in the first place.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/01/17/pakistan.strike.ap/index.html

They do not think however that Zawahiri is there. Maybe there is a God lookin after him after all.

[Arrian]

Again, while not ideal (what is in this "war" or whatever you want to call it?), it was an attempt to target people we really do need to kill. And it looks like we got a number of them, but not the primary target. That's unfortunate. As are the deaths of any innocents.

But MOBIUS, techumseh, et al. would have us just go away and pretend that our enemies won't hurt us if we act like nice guys.

Look, our foreign policy has been messed up for as long as I can remember. It should be reviewed and, when warranted, altered. Doing so may or may not help us down the road. But in the here and now, you are NOT going to satisfy the hardcore militants who want to kill as many of us as possible by working harder to negotiate a deal between Palestine and Israel, or by withdrawing from Iraq.

Ack, why am I bothering? No matter WHAT we do at this point, MOBIUS and his ilk will whine and cry about it.

-Arrian