Just how brave were those US soldiers in Afghanistan who got killed

[applegrove]

or wounded? Here is a warning from early morning today
EST CNN 5 Things:

"SNIP.....

US diplomats in Kabul warned American citizens early this morning to immediately leave several gates into the airport following what one US official called a "very specific threat stream" from a branch of ISIS

.....SNIP"

[greenjar_01]

1. Marines

And one Navy corpsman

[applegrove]

2. and the civilians too though they may not have known the danger.

[WarGamer]

3. Call me a cynic... but I doubt the actual troops knew about the threat.

Their commanding officers did... and mysteriously still sent them to the gates and their posts.

[applegrove]

4. Oh they would have know. No way the military sends them out to face a known threat

without instructions on what to look for. That is what military intelligence is for.

[WarGamer]

5. Cynical? yes I raise my hand. But I do hope they knew of the threat.

[NoMoreRepugs]

6. They are in a hostile land, they are Marines, the ones who run towards the gunfire not away from it.

Pretty sure the other Marines here know what I am talking about.

[tirebiter]

8. The job of a co is to minimize casualties and complete the task

Eliminating casualties is not feasible.

[sarisataka]

9. I have zero doubts

They knew of the threat and went anyway. It's just a part of the job to go in harm's way

[Baked Potato]

10. That, frankly is BS. These brave troops know full well the situation.

Your statement implies some sinister motives between Commanders and their troops.

What, exactly are you trying to say?

I won’t call you “cynic.” More like ignorant of basic military operations.

[WarGamer]

11. Maybe you misunderstand.

I'm saying the troops do NOT know the contents of the military briefings.

They only know what they're told.

And I'm right, btw.

[Baked Potato]

12. You implied they weren't briefed. So, what is your point?

These are high level combat troops.

What exactly are you right about?

[WarGamer]

13. You're arguing just for the sake of arguing.

[milestogo]

15. This is not the WarGames forum

Just so you know.

[Baked Potato]

16. Yes, I thought so, you flopped.

[WarGamer]

17. Hmmm...

Let's try again.

My original post was:

but I doubt the actual troops knew about the threat


Do you, for ONE moment think that the troops received a briefing where they were informed of the actual threat, the same briefing that the NSA and CIA provided?

OR do you think the CO's simply told the troops "Elevated Risk Level" and get to work?

Like I said... you're just looking for something to argue about.

You can drop an apology in my Inbox.

Thanks.

[haele]

14. That's not mysterious. They were doing their jobs, just with heightened security posture.

This sort of attack has killed Marines tasked with guard duty for decades.
On edit - from reports, they knew there might be an insurgency action, and having been in the military, they were briefed, but they still had a job to do. What do you expect them to do? Shut down the airport and retreat until danger was over, leaving thousands of Americans and Afghanistani support staff trying to evacuate outside the gates waiting to get mowed down?
If they had done that, there would be hundreds more dead civilians. They would have been safe, but those who were part of their mission - evacuation of civilians -will have suffered more. They would have failed in their mission and consider themselves cowards, to boot.

1983 - Beriut barracks truck bombs. Everyone knew something was going to happen, but they weren't set up to protect against
that sort of assault. But Reagan wasn't attacked viciously for the 200+ Marines and Sailors killed that day...

This sort of situation happens, especially when there's a civil war going on.

Isil-K just declared war on the Taliban.

Haele

[WHITT]

7. They Were Doing A Spectacular Job

Well over 100,000 evacuated.

[Johnny2X2X]

18. Marines are our toughest and bravest

They are so disciplined and work so hard. Truly heroes, doing their mission. Makes me so angry they were there at all this last decade.

I work in an office environment, a cube farm. I'm on the crisis team, it's my job to organize an evacuation if there's a shooter or other incident going on. My buddies near me joke with me. Well, I sit near 2 Marines, both were officers, one flew Marine 1 for the President. I joke back, "Hey, if there's a crisis, I'll just do what America always does, hide behind the Marines."

Marines are always first, they're always the ones in the most danger. they're always the ones doing the jobs that have to be done that no one else wants to do. They've gotten 100,000 people out of Kabul, there are virtually no Americans left to evacuate because of the Marines.

Thank you to this group.