What are we fighting for.....?The US suffered its worst single loss of life in the nearly 10-year Afghan war when a helicopter carrying 31 special forces soldiers crashed on Friday night in the east of the country.
Both the Taliban, via a spokesman reached by telephone, and Afghan officials in Wardak province, to the west of Kabul, said insurgents had shot down the Chinook helicoter with a rocket.
Nato would only confirm that "there was enemy activity in the area" and that the US-led alliance was still trying to work out what had happened. US air force captain Justin Brockhoff, a Nato spokesman, said: "We are in the process of accessing the facts."
A western official said 37 people were on board, all of whom were killed. The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said the helicopter was carrying 31 US special forces and seven members of the Afghan national army.
It is very unusual for Nato deaths from a single incident to reach double figures. The previous most deadly day for foreign troops was in June 2005 when 16 US soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket hit a Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar.
The crash happened at 3am when the helicopter was hovering over the town of Tangi Joi Zareen, in the district of Saidabad, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said Nato attacked a house in the district where insurgent fighters were gathering. He said eight insurgents died in the fighting.....
7 hours ago
And: "More than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden were among those lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan today. The Taliban claimed responsibility."
ReplyDeleteNothing surprises me anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to find out later the helicopter was shot down mistakenly by our own or Afghan forces.
ReplyDeleteIn all the discussion of the debt ceiling, did anyone discuss the role that our costly wars have played in driving up the deficit? Noble prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz has put the true price of our wars at well beyond $3 trillon, when considering not just the direct costs but the impact on the U.S. economy and the cost of caring for the men and woman who have served in these wars after they come home.
ReplyDeleteBut even beyond the numbers, how about the human cost of these wars? And why are our very bravest men still getting shot out of the sky? And why is our country’s debt being downgraded at least in part because of the financial cost of embarking on the wars on terror in the Middle East?
Messenger, right on. Here's what's baffled me - the fact that the country is willing to send its kids overseas to die but we're not willing to pay for it.
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