U.S. abandons Afghanistan base. Taliban: We drove you out. U.S.: no, we left.
By Robert
Whatever the case may be, there is no clear mission in Afghanistan, no clear idea of victory, and no understanding of the jihad doctrine that motivates not only the Taliban but others in Afghanistan -- and all that is a recipe for disaster. "U.S. troops abandon remote Afghan base where 8 were killed," by Laura King for the Los Angeles Times, October 10:
Kabul, Afghanistan - American troops have abandoned an isolated firebase where eight U.S. soldiers were killed in a fierce assault by insurgents last weekend, military officials said Friday.
The departure from the base in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, in northeastern Afghanistan, was part of a previously planned "repositioning" of troops, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
The Taliban, in its own statement, said it had driven the Americans out.
The daylong battle Oct. 3 in Kamdesh, in which at least four Afghan troops and 100 attackers also were reported killed, was reminiscent of a much-scrutinized engagement in the area in July 2008. In that battle, nine U.S. soldiers were killed and their remote firebase was nearly overrun.
In last week's attack, insurgents managed to penetrate the base's perimeters, military officials have acknowledged, a rare occurrence in clashes between Taliban fighters and the much better armed Western forces.
The pullout from the battered Kamdesh base was described as part of a larger strategy laid out by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of Western forces in Afghanistan. His counterinsurgency plan calls for troops to concentrate their attention on populated areas rather than continue to staff isolated outposts that are vulnerable to attack and have little effect on the insurgents' ability to move in a given area.... |
