Afghan and coalition forces have launched one of the largest offensives since removing the Taliban;
Military officials in Afghanistan said Operation Mountain Lion is part of the coalition’s ongoing series of offensives that aim to disrupt insurgent activities, deny them sanctuary and prevent their ability to restock.
“This operation is helping the government of Afghanistan set the security conditions so democratic processes can take root,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Allen Peck, deputy air component commander for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. “Our job is to bring airpower to bear on the anti-Afghan forces and support the coalition troops on the ground.”
Operations today began with predawn air-and-ground assaults in the Pech River Valley, an area notorious for terrorist activity, Combined Force Command Afghanistan officials said.
Soldiers from 3rd Brigade of the Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps are fighting alongside servicemembers from the coalition’s Task Force Spartan, made up of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division and 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Marines from Task Force Lava.
More than 2,500 Afghan National Army and coalition forces are involved in the operation.
“We’re taking the fight to the terrorists in their own backyard,” said Army Command Sgt. Maj. James Redmore of Task Force Spartan. “They gave their victims no sanctuary. They’ll receive none from us.”
Coalition leaders described the operation as a comprehensive effort to kill, incapacitate or capture terrorists operating in the region. It will continue as long as necessary, they said.
“Together, with our ANA brothers-in-arms, we’re eliminating the enemy’s remaining sanctuaries in Kunar province,” added Army Col. John Nicholson, Task Force Spartan’s commander.
Via Powerline.
Now, for something just as revealing, though, ultimately discouraging – examine which media outlets actually carrying this news item, according to today’s Google News – and how many are conspicious in their absence.
Let’s Roll!
Time to kick some more Taliban butt.
The tip of the spear in the arsenal of democracy.
Doug said: “Let’s Roll!”
Deadly force: Let’s Roll! +
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON – WHY THE WEST HAS WON
This book attempts to explain why Westerners have been so adept at using their civilization to kill others – at warring so brutally, so often without being killed. Past, present, and future, the story of military dynamism in the world is ultimately an investigation into the prowess of Western arms. The general public itself is mostly unaware of their culture’s own singular and continuous lethality in arms. Yet for the past 2,500 years – even in the Dark Ages, well before the ‘Military Revolution’, and not simply as result of the Renaissance, the European discovery of the Americas, or the Industrial Revolution – there has been a peculiar practice of Western warfare, a common foundation and continual way of fighting, that has made Europeans the most deadly soldiers in the history of civilization. +
http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/History/Hanson.html
Why would anyone expect the MSM to run this headline if we’re winning!
�We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to
visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
George Orwell
My deepest respect / admiration to the brave men and women who risk their lives to keep us free and safe.
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”.
John Stuart Mill (from ‘On Liberty’)
Does that last sentence evoke the mustachioed face of a Canadian politician to anyone else but me?
And the lack of MSM coverage still surprises you?
Sgt Major Redmore actually used the “T” word as in terrorists. Way to go kicking some Talibutt.
Great coverage in Pak press!
Mark
Ottawa
The Media is not covering this because G.W. said it was over. The Taliban had been defeated, remember? That is why G.W. went into Iraq.
I hope that everyone realizes that we will be there for generations. If, that is, we are going to be there until democracy takes root.
First,the Taliban will have to be eradicated
notjust pretend eradicated like G.W. accomplished. Then we are going to have to get rid of the tribal culture. Where the tribal leader is your “godfather” in the Mafia sense. Then you are going to have bring their religious notions of Islam into the 21st century from the Middle Ages. Then you have to raise literacy from 4% to at least 75% in order to have democracy in the true sense of the word. In other words, they are going to have to stop bombing and burning their schools, as the Taliban and Religious zealots have been doing.
Along the way billions will have to be invested in the infrastructure of the country. This, as usual, was promised but not delivered by the Americans.
So as I said, I think generations is a modest enough estimate given the tasks at hand. With endless patience and bottomless bank accounts I think it may be possible. However, there never has been a foreign occupying force that has been welcome to stay in Afganistan. I couldn’t find any example in my survey of Afgan history.
I know you will read this as pessimistic but I think it is truly realistic. Optimism didn’t defeat the Taliban, or Al queda or Iraqi insurgents. You see, optimism has to be built on a foundation of realism as opposed to fantasy.
Google News searches are interesting, if not quite reality reflecting. For instance, unfortunately for the likes of Texas Canuck and Debris Trail (up above), the search doesn’t reveal that the Toronto Star has covered Operation Mountain Lion extensively as has the Globe and Mail which actually had two positive stories on Afghanistan today, including one on the front page, as part of its extensive daily coverage.
Just on the off chance anyone is interested in what the Canadian “Mainstream Media” is writing about.
Ted
Cerberus
If war is the only way to ‘solve’ a problem then we are no more civilized than the caveman. You would think that throughout our history we could come to some other means of deciding differences. This justification for killing and maiming people, mostly the young, has no place in our lives. The old, who should have learned more than war in their life, have no problem in sending our children and grandchildren to fight and die. It is usually for money for someone, while the spin is ratchted to justify this immoral act. It amazes me that so many can be so milead so easily. War is always dirty, always destructive, no matter the spin of smart bombs and surgical strikes. Even to the making of the movie Flight 93–people will swallow this propaganda whole–while not even questioning the cellphone calls that were impossible to make in the first place.
Impossible?
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cellonplanes.html
George, how scary your world must be. Of course flight 93 and all of 9/11 was staged. This is becasue the evil (fill in the blank) don’t want you to know about (fill in the blank) and need secrecy to carry out their mission of (fill in the blank).
George…. you really must live in a bubble, if you truly believe what you just wrote. Down through history, war has never been a pretty thing. It is ugly and it is damn scary. In a perfect world, disputes could be solved through negotation. The people with whom we are fighting in this war, do not live even close to a perfect world.War has been a part of their lives for many generations. War is a normal part of life for many of these people.
We are fighting a group of terrorist thugs who would rather slit every Westerners throat rather than sit down to negotiate some differences. They believe Western civilization must be destroyed. The only negotation they understand involves guns, bombs and knives.
George, what do you suggest we do, in dealing with the Taliban? Should we just ignore them, and hopefully they will forget where we live and leave us alone? Should we wait until they have infiltrated our country and hope they ” see the light” and learn that our ways are the better ways to live? It won’t happen. The most radical of these groups that are determined to destroy everything we believe in, consider us worse than the Anti- Christ.
I, for one, dislike conflict in my personal life as well as in my country, about as much as anyone. I also believe that there comes a time, when you have to be willing to move out of your comfort zone to preserve and protect the freedoms we enjoy. The war we now are a part of, is one of these times, and we must stand up or we will lose everything our country believes in, by default.
I really get tired of the ” change the world by giving your enemy a hug” mentality. While this may siound nice, that is about all it is. I would suggest that it is time to wake up and join the real world. Life is full of jobs that are not fun to do. This war, is more than a job. It is necessary to preserve absolutely everything our Western society hold dear. I cannot think of any cause my deserving of us all rallying around.
Better a live caveman than a dead pacifist.
George
You are basically correct about war. War demonstrates a lack of imagination and creativity on our part. It is easy, especially when encouraged by the armament industry for chickenhawks, to send the young(not their young mind you) to war.
War is only militarily effective if the enemy has invaded a foreign state. This is why the first gulf war was successful. When you are attacking a country to get at a “cancer” within that country you are doomed to failure. Hence, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afganistan is the result. Endless engagement only profits the armaments industry and their shareholders.
Those that want to fight their way out of every tough spot are doomed never to learn from history but rather to continually repeat Vietnam over and over ad nauseum.
MSM give us coverage???! Not when there’s “biker” funerals to cover!! Sad.
Steve d., what if a country develops nuclear weapons and threatens to use them but has not yet “invaded” another country? Do we wait until they use them? Tests as to when a war is or is not justified are rarely black and white.
Congratulations Kate!
You have attracted a loyal following of libcomsimps.
paul from vancouver
Let me give you a tip. If you have a single bomb or a few bombs you would never attack a country with over two thousand of them. Unless you wanted your country and everything in it to be turned to dust. As stupid as some of these leaders appear to be I don’t think they are that stupid. That would be my bet. I take it you would pre-empt them just in case they were serious. In that case the US should start bombing Iran(they didn’t even say they were building a bomb much less attacking the US)and North Korea for starters.
Op Mountain Lion took place about 800 km from Kandahar, involved no Canadian troops, killed 6 suspected Taliban, and merited one single article (regurgitating a press release)in as dedicated an organ as the “Stars and Stripes” on 14 April.
Kate, would you mind letting me know why the Canadian “MSM” should have been all over this event?
Steve d, You are assuming that they have only one nuke. You are also assuming that they don’t plan to disrupt the US with localized terrorist actions. Nor is it safe, in my opinion, to assume Amadinnerjacket is entirely sane. He believes that the 12th imam will come out of hiding at the “end of time”. He just wants to move up the “end of time.” He has stated this on at least one occasion. Believe him about what he says about his beliefs.
Grant, I do not question your sincerity or your motives, but what events or facts led you into the state of war psychosis indicated in your 05:03 PM post?
steve d.,
I wonder who had more bombs, airplanes, warships, military personnel, guns, tanks etc etc – Germany or the rest of the world in 1939?
Besides, they don’t have to attack a country with 2000 nukes … better to drop it on a nuclear free zone country … no big deal … the left will rush to their defense (as they always do) – all they have to say is that they won’t do it again.
“”War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”.
John Stuart Mill (from ‘On Liberty’)
Does that last sentence evoke the mustachioed face of a Canadian politician to anyone else but me?
Posted by Bob Wood at April 17, 2006 02:05 PM
reminds me of Trudeau . . . . picture him in 1944, while hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens answer the call of the greatest moral challenge of their generation, who suffer, bleed and die in Europe to rid the world of facism, and Trudeau plays hooky, attends rallies in Montreal against Canada and roars around the city on his motorcycle wearing a WW1 German Army helmet.
So tell me why does the Liberal Party of Canada venerate this traitor, this moral coward, this intellectual rich kid dilletante that cavorted with mass murderers tryrants like Mao & Castro.
Does anyone know why he wanted Castro as a pallbearer ?? Un-frikin -real, and the CBC wnet aong with tle whole LPC state funeral charade without a peep of protest.
Only make sense to a Liberal. Only they understand their bizarre reality.
Trudeaupia . . still reaking havoc on Canada. Hopefully “Harperopia” will be the antidote to such moral and political deacy, malaise and studity.
rabidfox
Mr.A may not be too bright,but he is not stupid. He cannot attack the US without approval of others. He is not a dictator. He is merely the public face of a small oligarchy. The thing about oligarchies is that they like having a country to rule. As opposed to a pile of radioactive ash.
Remember what happened the last time the US got attacked? They hit two countries in return. If they actually had a certified target this time I have no doubt what they would do. Ask yourself if you would want the US raining down millions of pounds of bombs on your country. I just don’t think so. But if the US strikes first? Well then, you would have to expect something in return.
steve d.: “War is only militarily effective if the enemy has invaded a foreign state.”
What about those conquered by the Arabs after the death of Mohammed (can you even give a short list?)? The Anglo-Saxons in 1066?
The Baltic peoples in the face of German Crusaders?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades
The Aztecs and all the other North American indigpop? The Mexicans in the Mexican-American War? The Austrians in 1866? The Tibetans? What was Pakistan in 1970? Etc., etc., etc.
I fear your knowledge and/or research are lacking.
Mark
Ottawa
Steve d.
The mistake constantly made in the western world is that we are dealing with a population or leaders who are capable of what we would consider rational or logical thought.
Lee
We don’t understand them because we have put in no effort. We don’t want to know them. We don’t want to understand them. We have never been interested. There is only one reason we bother with them OIL. When the oil is gone so will we be gone. They know this. That is why so many of them dislike westerners. We are seen as exploiters. They are right.
Mark
Your examples come before the concept of nationalism. I think my statement is correct if the invasion happened after a people had internalized the idea of having a national identity. This is a relatively recent phenomena in history.
steve d.,
“We don’t understand them because we have put in no effort. We don’t want to know them. We don’t want to understand them. We have never been interested. There is only one reason we bother with them OIL. When the oil is gone so will we be gone. They know this. That is why so many of them dislike westerners. We are seen as exploiters. They are right.”
Please show me how you are an authority on this – facts preferred.
steve d.,
Can you also explain why strapping bombs to their children or using them as mine detectors helps anything in anyway? Please relate to the evil West. Again facts preferred.
Steve d. > �There is only one reason we bother with them OIL. When the oil is gone so will we be gone. They know this. That is why so many of them dislike westerners. We are seen as exploiters. They are right.”
What a crock of self-loathing BS! OIL is a commodity, a resource. Resources, commodities are meant to be �exploited� as in used for the BENEFIT of all. ‘We’ get OIL. �They� get paid for it (yesterday I paid $1.15 per liter) then they get to buy western goods, technology and know-how with the proceeds.
This is the reason �so many of them dislike westerners�?? Absolutely absurd! �They� dislike us because of our values, our various (non-Islamic) religions, our treatment of women and gays, our free expression (as interpreted by Clooney and Spielberg) – in short our culture of freedom. All these things run counter to their commitment to Islamofascist totalitarianism. For this they HATE us!
steve d
“I don’t think they are that stupid”
“They” may not be, however
I dont think anyone would want to bet civilazation on steve d’s ability to guess the motivation and the intelligence of a blind disfigured 10th century phycopath Islamist with his finger on the button.
richfisher
Okay lets put this into perspective. He has 3.5 onces of U235 he needs at lot more to have enough for a bomb. He is not near ready to push the button on even one bomb. Some experts say its still years away. One bomb with only a limited means to deploy it. Is a long way from being a big danger. They are 60 years behind the US in quantity and quality of bombs and delivery systems. To think that Iran is a danger to US security is about 10 years too early. I would try diplomacy until they actually were threatening and had something behind it besides hot air. Meanwhile, I would build the best homeland security technology and money could buy while at the same time working on having the best intelligence network money could buy. Now that would be using your time wisely instead of continually playing the Fear card.
steve d.,
“Okay lets put this into perspective. He has 3.5 onces of U235 he needs at lot more to have enough for a bomb. He is not near ready to push the button on even one bomb. Some experts say its still years away. One bomb with only a limited means to deploy it. Is a long way from being a big danger. They are 60 years behind the US in quantity and quality of bombs and delivery systems. To think that Iran is a danger to US security is about 10 years too early. I would try diplomacy until they actually were threatening and had something behind it besides hot air. Meanwhile, I would build the best homeland security technology and money could buy while at the same time working on having the best intelligence network money could buy. Now that would be using your time wisely instead of continually playing the Fear card.”
Please show us your sources of facts.
JR, if you truly believe that “they HATE us” because of “our culture of freedom” which runs “counter to their commitment to islamofascist totalitarianism,” you are wasting your talents worrying about international relations. You should be in business for yourself.
I can arrange a real sweet deal on a neat little bridge in one of the largest cities in the world …
…where are those christian peace activists when you need them?
tomax7,
“…where are those christian peace activists when you need them?”
Under “a neat little bridge in one of the largest cities in the world”
steve d.
Re “some experts say it’s still years away”
Please explain why western experts were so surprised by the Soviet testing of their first nucleur device when at the time all agreed that they were still years away.
Given Iran’s wealth and the determination they are showing I think these experts are at best optimistic.
Gerry
Steve d.,
Let me give you a tip, I didn’t suggest that the US should bomb Iran or North Korea. I merely made the point that your statement that you should only attack a country that has invaded another country is way too simplistic. As to your statement that you would bet that the leaders of countries are not stupid enough to attack the US, that may or may not be correct. Based purely on past history leaders often attack other countries even when logic would tell them they can’t win.
Also, to say we should try to better understand the Islamist extremists is also simplistic. These people hate our values and our whole way of life. Understanding won’t bridge the gap between us and people who are willing to blow themselves up to kill innocent civilians.
gerryinmontreal
There are more,you know how to google,i just googled “u235 iran” and got 80,500 hits. Here are a few on page one;
http://www.uncorrelated.com/2006/01/how_close_to_a_bomb.html
or
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/945/iran-focus-part-1-how-close-is-iran-to-the-bomb
or
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060413-015911-2917r
or
http://www.iiss.org/whats-new/iiss-in-the-press/april-2006/the-facts
Kate:
The media spew back inot print many press releases, b ut thery generally draw the line these days at blatant propaganda, which is what you are quoting.
It’s gotta have SOME semblance of believability before it receives widespread print.
Eliminating the enemies sanctuaries?
I’m sure that the Afghan and coalition troops who are putting their lives on the line in this operation are reassured by this breaking information – supplied by none other than the esteemed expert “Pittacus” – that they are chasing nothing about in the mountains in a propoganda offensive designed for blogosphere consumption.
Steve d… I find some of your comments complete mindless reteric. You say we have never tried to understand the people who are plotting to bring terror and death to our streets. If you don’t believe that Canada is a target for a terrorist attack at some point in time, you must live under a rock. I don’t think we as Canadians have any arguement with the peace loving hard working average Afghan. Our problem is with the lunatic fringe, the radical Moslem, who truely believes that the West must be destroyed. I know several Afghans living in Canada who are wonderful people and they are truely thankful for the opportunity to live here and become citizens of this country. Many of those I have talked with feel that Canada needs to be in Afghanistan.
Your comment about all this mess is due to the West’s obsession with oil. That is laughable. Do you think the forces from numerous countries would be fighting in these countries if 911 had not taken place?
We are now living in a new world and unless we are ready to defend the beliefs and freedoms that this country and many others were built on, our future looks rather bleak. I believe that that is truely a cause worth standing up for at any cost. If we don’t, I hate to think about what this country will look like for your and my grandchildren.
Kate
Sorry about this. Just had the TV running on the Space Channel (no baseball on tonight). They are running something called Conspiracy Theories.
I’m cancelling – these LW moonbats are way to much for me. These wackjobs are to much to handle … the announcers even sound like they believe it.
Bush planned it all (911). Makes you wonder who is more nuts – LW or ME.
paul from vancouver
Look if you think you can avoid 1.3 billion Muslims thin again. They are not going away any more than we are. Now what? We are both stuck on the same planet which is getting smaller by the minute. From a practical stand point the only choice we have is to begin to find a long term solution. The long term solution will involve the millions of moderate and reasonable Muslims. There is no way to solve this without involving them. So the sooner we find ways to build bridges the better.
Attacking the US is not simply losing but being destroyed completely. I know them at least well enough to know they don’t want their country destroyed, especially by America.
I am trying to remember when a mouse country attacked an elephant country first and I can’t. You will have to help me with this one.
They have stereotyped us just as we have stereotyped them. This is why we need to find ways of building bridges of understanding. A hundred years from now dozens of countries will have the bomb so we have to develop ways of solving our problems without war. We must. We have no choice.
I say nuke them all…
…before the world series start of course…
…first we need an announcement from a high flying AWACS with a megaphone, something like how it was done in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Citizens of Iran, due to a new pipeline being made via Aftganistan, your country needs to be removed to allow for an ocean going port…
Grant
If oil has nothing to do with this and it is really about 9/11, then maybe you can explain that if 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia why wasn’t it attacked????
I know we don’t have anything against the average Afgan. The trouble is in a guerilla war the person who smiles and waves one day will take up a gun and shoot at you the next. This frustrates the soldier and pretty soon to good Afgan is getting shot at by us.
I recently read about an American just home from Iraq. He said after a few IED’s you just start jumping out of your truck and shooting at anyone who is near. He said he saw several farmers get killed that way. So now your friend and his family have become your enemy.
The only way to begin to win is to back off and help the moderate fight their own battles. As long as we are mixing in we are making the problem worse and proving the radicals point.