I listened to "Lone Survivor" while driving home from No. Wyoming couple of weeks ago. It is the saddest story I've ever heard. I have children about the same age as the young men that were shot and killed that day. I can't even imagine how their families felt when they learned the details of how their precious sons suffered and died.
I'm certain Biden's words opened many wounds for these families and in particular Marcus Luttrell. What a complete idiot the current ursurper of the White House has as his sidekick. Last I heard our troops are still taking shots from the Taliban.
After letting the goatherds go, the team moved to their first observation point so as to throw off anyone attempting to intercept them at their old location. Here, Dietz continued attempts to reach HQ via radio for immediate extraction, but was continually unsuccessful. Approximately an hour after the goatherds disappeared over the mountain ridge, the SEALs were confronted by a force of Afghan fighters, estimated between 150-200 strong, causing Luttrell to believe that the released herders had given away their position. The large variant in the number of opposing Taliban is due to differing accounts of the size of the enemy force. The team had been told that as many as 200 fighters could be protecting Shah, and according to Luttrell, the SEALs killed a significant number of enemy fighters during the subsequent engagement, however their numbers never seemed to diminish. This led Luttrell to believe they were receiving almost constant reinforcements.[1][9][10]
The insurgents set up a "well organized, three-sided attack", which forced the SEALs to begin running down the slope of the mountain, all of them receiving injuries during the descent, either by gunfire and/or the fall. Even before reaching a new defensive position behind some felled logs, Murphy had already been shot in the abdomen, Luttrell had received a spinal injury, and Dietz's thumb had been blown off. Nevertheless, they all continued fighting, attempting to attrite the Taliban forces enough to cause them to retreat.[1] [5][11] After 45 minutes of fighting, Murphy moved into the open, after noting the team's radio transmitters weren't functioning properly in the mountains, and placed the emergency call for support from his cell phone. He was shot in the back during the conversation.[5][10] Nevertheless he returned to his cover after the call and continued to battle.
After two hours of fighting, only Luttrell remained alive, the other members of his team succumbing to multiple gunshot wounds. Eventually he was blown off the mountain ridge by a rocket-propelled grenade, knocking him unconscious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wing
You'd think by now that Barry would have VP Biteme's handlers under strict orders not to allow Biteme to address the press or the public directly... I guess Barry isn't worried about who his running mate will be in 2012.
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
"Taliban" --- is simply an Islamic student activist organization
("Talib" means "student" - and "Taliban" is simply the plural form).
There was a historic form of the Taliban in Afghanistan - which was militant, abused women, and killed so-called infidels.
(I think the Vice President would agree - these particular individuals are very likely our enemy).
The Vice President's words were well chosen. He's trying not to alienate the benign forms of Taliban.
bailey bud wrote: well --- there is no such thing as THE Taliban.
"Taliban" --- is simply an Islamic student activist organization
("Talib" means "student" - and "Taliban" is simply the plural form).
There was a historic form of the Taliban in Afghanistan - which was militant, abused women, and killed so-called infidels.
(I think the Vice President would agree - these particular individuals are very likely our enemy).
The Vice President's words were well chosen. He's trying not to alienate the benign forms of Taliban.
Dang it BB, don't confuse me with the facts - I had just made up my mind! I think the bigger problem for most Americans is that most of the general public doesn't know enough about the region and/or who's who. What most of us do know comes to us through the boob tube with a spin this way or the other depending on the point that needed support.
Let's boil it down a different way. Provided I am present in a nation to execute a mission that is endorsed by the majority of the nations in the world (or maybe just my own Gubment), those who shoot at me with the intent to kill me and my bretherand had better have superior weapons and training. The opposition may shoot first but if the initial shots are not fatal I will return fire and do so with as much accuracy as I am capable of.
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
bailey bud wrote: well --- there is no such thing as THE Taliban.
"Taliban" --- is simply an Islamic student activist organization
("Talib" means "student" - and "Taliban" is simply the plural form).
There was a historic form of the Taliban in Afghanistan - which was militant, abused women, and killed so-called infidels.
(I think the Vice President would agree - these particular individuals are very likely our enemy).
The Vice President's words were well chosen. He's trying not to alienate the benign forms of Taliban.
Student or Historic - they all read the same Koran and they all are instructed to kill the infidels. As I mentioned, I doubt there are many families of slain soldiers feeling good about what Biden said today.
bailey bud wrote: well --- there is no such thing as THE Taliban.
"Taliban" --- is simply an Islamic student activist organization
("Talib" means "student" - and "Taliban" is simply the plural form).
There was a historic form of the Taliban in Afghanistan - which was militant, abused women, and killed so-called infidels.
(I think the Vice President would agree - these particular individuals are very likely our enemy).
The Vice President's words were well chosen. He's trying not to alienate the benign forms of Taliban.
Exactly. Joe Biden is laying the framework for a negotiated peace treaty with the Afghani Taliban supporters.
Imagine how all those maimed US troops will feel when Obama is signing a treaty with the IED people.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
<snip>So today when I read that Vice President Joseph Biden, a man I respect, voted for, and plan to vote for again, told a Newsweek reporter that “the Taliban, per se, is not our enemy”, I was floored. I felt an immediate sense of anger and betrayal, both to the sacrifices my peers and I have borne in prosecuting this long war, but even more a sense of betrayal to the core values that our country holds, of protecting and promoting liberty and freedoms for all.
My mind rushed to the Afghan women I have met who lived in constant fear and a semi-state of slavery under Taliban rule, who would be thrust back into the darkness should the Taliban ever return to power. I thought of the Afghan musicians and artists I have befriended, who were tortured by the Taliban for creating music and art during the dark days of Taliban rule. And lastly, I thought of the stalwart Afghan soldiers I fought alongside, who committed acts of bravery that are why I am alive today. They fully expect to be hung from the street posts should the Taliban ever return to power.
How the hell could the vice president say such garbage?! I wondered.
But the truth is that I knew the answer to my own question before I even asked it.
The vice president can say such a thing because the vice president is absolutely right.<snip>
