To: cnyndwllr who wrote (9920 ) 10/28/2001 2:30:14 PM From: JHP Respond to Ground attack a near disaster, admit defense bosses THE much-hyped first American ground attack on Afghanistan ran into fierce unexpected resistance and almost ended in disaster, senior defense sources have disclosed. The public admissions by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State for Defence, and US Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem that they were surprised by the toughness of the Taliban gives a glimpse of how badly things could have gone wrong.The attack was meant to be a purely cosmetic exercise against a relatively safe target.But there had been a failure of intelligence and the troops from the elite 75th Rangers Regiment ran into such heavy fire near Kandahar that they had to beat a hasty retreat.A Chinook helicopter airlifting them lost its undercarriage and had to make a forced landing.The Pentagon presented the operation as a complete success and evidence that Operation Enduring Freedom was going according to plan.There was blanket and mainly adulatory media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic with the prognosis that the ground war had begun.But, instead, what happened last weekend made US and British planners at central command in Tampa, Florida, reappraise the military campaign, and continue with air strikes rather than carry out any more missions on the ground.Within 24 hours the Pentagon has requested special forces troops from Britain and Australia. And the British Government was forced to consider a much larger deployment of ground troops than envisioned. The near shambles on the first Afghan ground mission had unhappy memories for the Americans of Somalia, where 18 soldiers died when their two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by militiamen. One senior defense source yesterday said: "The intelligence had been quite clear that the target near Kandahar was pretty easy to take out."But what the Rangers discovered was that the Taliban force were fighting back quite hard. The enemy regrouped very well and their counter attack was such that the Rangers made a tactical withdrawal. "Some of us are surprised that such senior US figures are surprised at the tenacity of the Afghans. They had been fighting for the last 20 years."Yesterday, the British chief of defence staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said that to beat the Taliban would need serious long-term commitment. Pointedly, he added: "The quick pinprick operation will be valid for certain targets where you have really good intelligence. "Sometimes one might have to stay longer to achieve a proper reconnaissance of the area you are looking at."Sir Michael's views were contrary to that of Mr Rumsfeld who had been repeatedly declaring that this was going to be a "new kind of war" of sophisticated commando operations.( Independent News Serviceshttp://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=31&si...
