5 U.S. Troops Among 50 Dead in Afghanistan

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: CBS

About 50 civilians, security forces and militants were killed in a wave of violence around Afghanistan, including a bomb that left 14 Afghan travelers dead in one of the country's most dangerous regions.

Five American soldiers died in two attacks using roadside bombs.

The attacks Friday and Saturday reached a broad swath of the country, demonstrating the spread of the Taliban insurgency, which had been largely confined to the country's south and east in the years after the 2001 U.S. invasion. Half of those killed in the most recent attacks were civilians, who often find themselves caught in the grinding war between the Taliban and U.S. and NATO forces.

Bombs caused most of the casualties - including homemade blasts in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and a neighboring province that together killed 20 civilians.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/12/world/main5305635.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel

[Thothmes]

1. 2 more notches in President Ogama's six gun

[Brundle_Fly]

2. if they'd paid attention to this war for the last 7 years

there'd be no cleanup needed.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Cleanup? What fraking cleanup you talking about? We need to get out of Afghanistan NOW!

The war is unwinnable, a fact that the Brits are quite open to admit (except for the idiot Gordon Brown).

[saigon68]

14. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[MissDeeds]

3. This is a disgrace

No matter who the president is, this continual blood letting is a disgrace. Enough. Bring our troops home. NOW!

[chelsea0011]

4. Can we leave now? I see no point to any Afghan war if bin Laden isn't

the intended prey, and he is in their sites.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. How do you explain to the families WHY these soldiers died?

[Thothmes]

6. The same way President Lyndon Johnson explained

to the families of the 36,000 Americans that he go killed in Vietnam

[Webster Green]

7. 56,000

[Thothmes]

13. Correct in the total, but by the time

LBJ left office in 1969, his total was around 36,000. A small part of balance are from before LBJ and the remainder belong to Presidents Nixon and Ford.

[saigon68]

15. IT SURE WAS WORTH IT? --------WASN'T IT?

I can fucking go back to Saigon tomorrow, and buy Nikis and cheap cotton shirts made in Nam at any store in the US by slave labor. They are now exploring for offshore oil there.

What the Fuck is getting made in Afghan? Oops, I keep forgetting about Puppet Charlie McKarzai and his UNOCAL Pipeline.

[Thothmes]

21. Opium poppies come to mind. lots of them

[Mari333]

8. knr

because Im sick of this shit so sick of it I could fucking scream
enough!!!!!

[liquid diamond]

10. I'm for bringing the troops home, but what about the hunt

for Al-Queda? Won't they be free to assembly and plot more freely once the troops are gone? I'm not trying to stir up shit--I'm really curious.

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. IMHO, the "hunt" for Al-Queda should NEVER have been

a military action, but instead treated as a crime. You cant fight this type of war with the military. Its never been done successfully and, like the USSR, will bring us to our knees.

[Skittles]

12. the presence of our troops is increasing their numbers

recruiting is through the roof

[saigon68]

16. Its their country

What the hell would happen here if 80,000 Taliban happened to set foot in the midwest and we (The citizens and a few old Vets) all had a ready supply of AK-47s

I rest my case.

[fujiyama]

17. It's at the point - we need to know why we're still there

and while I want to trust Obama's judgment on this, the objectives there haven't been explained or defined. How long are we prepared to spend resources and LIVES in that place?

This thing could go on perpetually. Are we fighting a movement? An ideology? A group? What do we plan on doing there? What is a rubric of success? What are the goals? What about a benchmark? Is Iraq one to follow? Has that been a success? And is that what we've come down to?

In the case of this conflict, I really figured we'd get a clearer idea of where we're going. I didn't expect withdrawal, but eventually Obama needs to come clean with the public and tell us why we're still there and how long this will be. Otherwise, this will just go on with no end in site and we'll be told the same story about 9/11 and the hijackers emerging from a cave repeatedly. This may never reach US death rates the equivalent of Vietnam and it may never call for a draft because no party would risk something like that politically, but ultimately that doesn't matter to the folks whose sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers will be killed over there. This is nuts.

By the next state of the union, he needs to lay it out. On October 7 it will be eight fucking years we've been over there!

[laststeamtrain]

18. Official: Dozens of Taliban killed after US deaths

Source: AP

Official: Dozens of Taliban killed after US deaths
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer 41 mins ago

KABUL – A battle in western Afghanistan that included airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban militants after an insurgent ambush left three U.S. troops dead, an Afghan official said Sunday.

The hours-long battle took place Saturday in the western province of Farah after a complex attack that killed three Americans and seven Afghan troops, said Afghan army spokesman Maj. Abdul Basir Ghori.

The insurgent ambush involved two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Sunday. Mathias confirmed that fighting in the west continued after the ambush, but she could not provide any casualty figures.

Ghori said about 50 militants were killed in Saturday's battle, but no other Afghan officials could immediately confirm that figure.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090913/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

[thunder rising]

19. When an armed force is reacting to the other sides actions ... well, it's called "you've lost"

[HysteryDiagnosis]

20. When an army lays down its weapons, are they still called enemy

combatants, Taliban, radicals, Mujahadeen, terrorists, freedom fighters etc? What conditions would be necessary in order for the boogeymen to lay down their weapons? What did it take for the American revolutionaries to lay down their arms? Just a stupid question for the stupid times in which we live.

[paparush]

22. Nearly 8 Years In

(October 7, 2001) and what the f_ck are we doing there? What are our measurable objectives? How do we measure progress? How many more lives are we going to snuff out? How many more billions are we going to waste?