Afghan Attacks 9/13 On AmEmbassy/NATO HQs

[Richard]

And so it goes...

Richard

Militants Launch Attack on U.S. Embassy in Kabul
NYT, 13 Sep 2011

Insurgents launched a complex assault against the United States Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters on Tuesday, pelting the heavily guarded compounds with rockets in an assault that raised new questions about the security of Afghanistan’s capital and the Westerners working there.

At least 10 explosions — apparently from rockets launched by militants — and waves of automatic weapons fire were reported amid the drone of sirens and English-language warnings telling Americans inside the embassy to take cover.

It was unclear whether anyone — Western or Afghan — had been hurt or killed in the attack, but it appeared that one rocket had struck a minibus belonging to the Tak Beer private school, and witnesses said that young adults had been carried away bleeding and apparently unconscious.

Afghan officials said several attackers were behind the assault, but it was unclear precisely how many assailants there were or whether they were attacking from a single or multiple locations. The attackers were holed up on several floors of a tall, partially built concrete building that offered a bird’s-eye view of the secured diplomatic and military compounds about a half mile away. Flashes from gun barrels could be seen as the militants fired from their perch. Afghan security forces returned fire from the ground, sending puffs of concrete dust into the air as bullets slapped the building.

“We don’t know how many suicide bombers are in the building,” said Col. Abdul Zahir, of the criminal investigative division of the Kabul police. “They’re shooting at the embassy. We’re still in fighting position. We can’t say anything.”

Two explosions were also reported near the Afghan Parliament, but it was unclear whether militants were specifically trying to attack the government building, or other targets.

The embassy assault, which began around 1:15 p.m., was the latest in a string of attacks that have chipped away at a tenuous sense of security in the capital. In August, militants killed eight people in an attack on a British cultural center, and in June, nine suicide bombers breached layers of security to attack the hillside Intercontinental Hotel.

By 3:10 p.m., two Blackhawk helicopters circled the building, but did not immediately open fire.

The streets surrounding the site of the attack, normally choked with the traffic of minibuses, bicycles and Toyotas, were deserted on Monday afternoon of all but security forces and people racing for cover.

“We don’t know what’s happening,” one Afghan soldier said. “Everywhere you can hear shooting.”

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message, saying the Taliban had set out to attack the embassy, a NATO base and Afghan government buildings. His claim could not be immediately confirmed.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed there were ongoing attacks against the embassy and ISAF headquarters, and said in a Twitter message there were “forces responding quickly,” but provided no other details. The attack came less than two months after Afghan forces assumed formal responsibility for security in the capital, one of several corners of the country where security was officially handed over in July.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/wo...ghanistan.html

[rdret1]

Good luck to the Marines and Embassy personnel. Hopefully, the Afghan Security Forces will be able to deal with this problem.

[Richard]

The fighting around ISAAF HQs today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZtYM...layer_embedded

And so it goes...

Richard

[greenberetTFS]

We've got to get out of there ASAP......... Not one more American life should have to be lost over that country.......

Big Teddy

[kgoerz]

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

We've got to get out of there ASAP......... Not one more American life should have to be lost over that country.......

Big Teddy

I believe we have totally went in the wrong direction with that country. After kicking the shit out of the Taliban and disrupting their safe haven. We should of just left. So what if they come back. If they start to set up again. We just go back and do it again for a few months. A lot less costly then setting up camp for ten years.
But that will never happen. Not enough money to be made by the ultra rich who control the Military industrial complex. They could care less about anyone who came back in a box. As long as they make their money.

[DevilSide]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

I believe we have totally went in the wrong direction with that country. After kicking the shit out of the Taliban and disrupting their safe haven. We should of just left. So what if they come back. If they start to set up again. We just go back and do it again for a few months. A lot less costly then setting up camp for ten years.
But that will never happen. Not enough money to be made by the ultra rich who control the Military industrial complex. They could care less about anyone who came back in a box. As long as they make their money.

With respect sir, when we assisted the mujahideen fighters in ousting the Soviet Army and did'nt help rebuild and send more aid it added to foreign resentment that the taliban used as a recruiting tool. I don't know what the right thing is but I dont know if just leaving is.

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by Richard;413936 [url

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/world/asia/14afghanistan.html[/url]

The attackers were holed up on several floors of a tall, partially built concrete building that offered a bird’s-eye view of the secured diplomatic and military compounds about a half mile away. Flashes from gun barrels could be seen as the militants fired from their perch. Afghan security forces returned fire from the ground, sending puffs of concrete dust into the air as bullets slapped the building.

Nobody who went up in that "partially built concrete building" is going to be leaving unless in a bodybag. And they don't have view of much, either. I know that for a fact.

[BOfH]

Originally Posted by DevilSide

With respect sir, when we assisted the mujahideen fighters in ousting the Soviet Army and did'nt help rebuild and send more aid it added to foreign resentment that the taliban used as a recruiting tool. I don't know what the right thing is but I dont know if just leaving is.

Maybe so, but their culture, ideologies and what they cling to as the absolute truth isn't gonna change. To put it in starker terms: If America was completely isolationist, if we didn't believe in spreading democracy, liberating the oppressed, supporting Israel etc. 9/11 still would have happened, may 50 years later or so, but it still would have, 9/11/1683 should ring a bell. So we might be guilty of accelerating that resentment, and sometimes rightly so, but to consistently apologize for our foreign(and domestic) policy, our culture and our way of life, no matter how far off course our moral compass may be at times, is indefensible. My .002, YMMV

[DevilSide]

Originally Posted by BOfH

Maybe so, but their culture, ideologies and what they cling to as the absolute truth isn't gonna change. To put it in starker terms: If America was completely isolationist, if we didn't believe in spreading democracy, liberating the oppressed, supporting Israel etc. 9/11 still would have happened, may 50 years later or so, but it still would have, 9/11/1683 should ring a bell. So we might be guilty of accelerating that resentment, and sometimes rightly so, but to consistently apologize for our foreign(and domestic) policy, our culture and our way of life, no matter how far off course our moral compass may be at times, is indefensible. My .002, YMMV

No one's apologizing for our way of life or policies, we do what we do because we are America. At the end of WW2 we rebuilt Germany, as well as France, Belgium, Italy, etc etc *I dont know about Northern Africa* even in Afghanistan today we do this. What sort of resentment would have showed up in post-ww2 Germany if we had not done so and what would it have led to? Not comparing Germany to Afghanistan but I think the same idea applies.

[Foggy Bottom]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

I believe we have totally went in the wrong direction with that country. After kicking the shit out of the Taliban and disrupting their safe haven. We should of just left. So what if they come back. If they start to set up again. We just go back and do it again for a few months. A lot less costly then setting up camp for ten years.
But that will never happen. Not enough money to be made by the ultra rich who control the Military industrial complex. They could care less about anyone who came back in a box. As long as they make their money.

These attacks are near unprecedented in Afghanistan in that they are directed towards America's diplomatic mission (not the military). A diplomatic mission will not only remain after a military pull-out; it will grow.

[BOfH]

Originally Posted by DevilSide

No one's apologizing for our way of life or policies, we do what we do because we are America. At the end of WW2 we rebuilt Germany, as well as France, Belgium, Italy, etc etc *I dont know about Northern Africa* even in Afghanistan today we do this. What sort of resentment would have showed up in post-ww2 Germany if we had not done so and what would it have led to? Not comparing Germany to Afghanistan but I think the same idea applies.

I'm not arguing with the idea, IMHO, we did a very good job with Japan as well. My issue is with the application, what worked in those countries isn't going to work in primarily Muslim lands for one simple reason, we will always be the infidel, the 2nd class citizen, even if we have the upper hand...