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The Spectacle Blog
NANGALAM, Afghanistan — Less than six months after mostly abandoning the deadly Pech Valley in what U.S. military officials dubbed a “realignment” of forces in eastern Afghanistan, the Army has begun rebuilding its presence in the heart of Kunar province. Since the start of the Afghan war, more than 100 American troops have been killed in mountainous terrain so treacherous that previous U.S. commanders openly questioned the need to secure such a remote region.
But in late July, the first wave of troops from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division arrived at Nangalam Base, formerly known as Forward Operating Base Blessing and once the hub of U.S. military operations in the valley.
By September, a company of soldiers from the division’s 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment will occupy the post, which was renamed after the U.S. turned it over to Afghan control in February. They will join an Afghanistan National Army battalion stationed at the base in the village of Nangalam, about 25 miles west of Asadabad, Kunar’s capital.
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More Blog Posts by Shawn Macomber
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/09/does-this-sound-like-were-on-o
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Grzmlyk| 8.9.11 @ 2:49PM
I wonder when we're going to figure out that you can't nail jell-o to a wall no matter how big your hammer is.
My guess is right after Americans are reduced to living like Afghanis in places like Detroit, Chicago, LA, NY.
Which ought to be in about six months.
W| 8.9.11 @ 3:35PM
Why are we still in Afghanistan after ten years? This is the Dems war, so the MSM never criticizes this useless war. Why are we still in Iraq? The MSM stopped criticizing this war when Obama adopted it. We are squandering our young men and wasting money we don't have. Last week, there was a report that the Iraq congress does not want us to stay after 2011 and we are trying to persuade to let us stay so we can lose more men and money. Why are we in a country where its government does not want us there?
Occam's Tool| 8.9.11 @ 6:31PM
You can't nail jello, but you can vaporize it with sufficient fire, especially if you didn't care about collateral damage. Just saying that I care more about the safety of 1 US serviceman than 10 million Afghan civilians.
Clint| 8.9.11 @ 8:41PM
You're One Of The Screwball Fanatic Traitor Bastard Israel Firsters ,Who Act As Apologists For The Israeli IDF Attack On Our U.S.S. Liberty, Which Killed 34 Of Our Seamen & Wounded Another 170.
Shove Off Traitor Bastard Tool Job.
W| 8.9.11 @ 9:34PM
To win the war we would have to destroy the enemy's will to fight. Our first problem is that neither Bush or Obama have identified the enemy other than to say terrorists or evildoers. They refuse to identify the country that is at the heart of terrorism, which is Iran and Saudi Arabia. There is absolutely no chance that we will invade or bomb either country into submission. Bush invaded Iraq but gave reasons such as WPD and creating democracy. The Dems and the MSM turned against him and savaged him.
So now we are fighting a smack the mole type war. We kill lots of so-called leaders and they seem to be replaced without any difficulty. These leaders and terrorists do not mind getting killed, they want to be martyrs, therefore we are not destroying their will to fight. We can go on indefinetely killing these terrorrists, and having our men also die. Israel faces the same problem.
So what do we do? There is no possibility that Obama or any other president will bomb Afghanistan like we bombed Germany and Japan into submission. Maybe if enough civilians die then they will not support and provide safe havens for the terrorrists. The Japanese vowed to fight to the last man, but once we brought the war home to them with the saturation bombing of Tokyo and the two A bombs, they gave up. During our Civil War, Sherman destroyed many farms and cities in his march to the sea.
We do not have the will or national consensus to fight a war to win in this manner. One answer is to attack the funding of these terrorrists by having Saudi Arabia stop the funding, either voluntarily or involuntarily. We could stop buying their oil if we had the brains to drill here in Alaska and offshore. We could embargo their oil until they stop the funding, including the funding of the radical mosques in our country.
Unless we do something to win, we are just getting our brave men killed without any plan to win.
PattyMor| 8.9.11 @ 3:46PM
If you can't win a war in ten years, then its NOT winable. And what is there to win anyway? Karzai only controls Kabul. The tribal leaders control the rest. The people are illiterate. Just how are they supposed to be trained when they can't read and write? And their country is basically living the Fred Flintstone Stone Ages. There are tribal allegiences that cross the borders. So people shift back and forth; they hide in the mountains. They protect each other. They owe allegience to their tribe; not Karzai.
Oldefarte| 8.9.11 @ 4:10PM
I never thought I'd reverse course but I hope they're on their way out of this quagmire beginning to resemble Viet Nam. Our military are sent to fight with one arm behind their backs unnecessarily. We should have carpet bombed with our most potent atomic bombs post 9/11/01, instead of sending our patriotic/valiant military on this worthless mission. Just like with Nam, we could have ended this terrorism problem in the middle east quickly [just as we ended WWII with Nigasaki/Hiroshima] but we didn't due to political correctness of our political leaders!!!!
Grzmlyk| 8.9.11 @ 6:22PM
The truth is, Oldfarte, we would rather be conquered, murdered and decimated than hurt our enemies. I mean, it's ok to be "at war," as long as you don't become violent with your enemies but instead fight them with great big hugs while showering them with taxpayer dollars.
There is literally no point to being in Afghanistan, except, I guess, to preserve a misplaced sense of honor.
This is insanity. We keep on fighting a pointless war in a region for which bombing it into the stone age would be a step forward, yet we will allow Iran to develp a nuclear arsenal with which to hold us hostage, to annihilate Israel, to become the dominant hegemon in the Middle East; we will pay for China's brand new navy ourselves and then roll over as it becomes the world's biggest economy, we will allow Islam to encroach upon our own culture, and all in the name of political expedience, tolerance and diversity.
If I weren't so sure that we are already dying from the inside, I'd be worried about these external threats.
TennesseeVolunteer| 8.9.11 @ 5:03PM
I agree Oldfarte, someone has to give me concrete facts as to why 100,000+ of our best and brightest should be there. There aren't but a couple of hundred Al Quaeda there...makes no sense.
Someone explain to me what would happen tomorrow, ten years from now if we pulled out there safely and surely.
PCP Smoker| 8.9.11 @ 9:19PM
About darn time. Let's leave those red bearded inbreds, their mud huts, and their covered women to themselves.