US Special Forces now operating in southern Afghanistan

October 18, 2001 10:54 PM

US Special Forces now operating in southern Afghanistan Let's pray a repeat of Mogadishu doesn't happen and any innocents on the ground aren't harmed...
posted by mmascolino (4 comments total)

Mogadishu, it must be emphasized, did not happen because of lack of training or preparedness on the part of our fighting men in the Army Rangers and Delta Force.

Mogadishu happened because of mission creep, denial of necessary armor support, lack of integrated international command in a UN protection zone, contradictory goals (humanitarian & war-crime police), and primarily one overriding reason: We were already at war with Osama bin Laden, and we didn't know it. We thought we were facing a hungry rabble. In fact, we were facing a hungry rabble in which were hiding many trained al-Qaeda representatives with advanced weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, and who had an explicit mission to interfere with our goals and force us into shooting into crowds, both figuratively and literally.

This time, we hope, we're going in with our eyes wide fuckin' open.
posted by dhartung at 11:36 PM on October 18, 2001

Old Stingers could blow up in Afghan faces. Then again, old Stinger handouts could blow up in American faces. Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode of... War Against Terror!
posted by pracowity at 5:07 AM on October 19, 2001

So where are the stingers, anyway? I haven't read a single report of a shoulder-fired missile being fired at our planes. Are we still flying too high? What about the AC-130s? Surely they make a nice, slow, low-flying stinger target. Maybe we are only flying the AC-130s at night, and there is some problem targeting them in darkness?

Anyone have any speculation?

I would think that part of any preparation for large-scale ground raids would include dry runs intended to draw and waste shoulder-fired missiles. But, zilch from the press.

Also -- in Mogadishu, the bad guys were hiding in a dense urban environment. Pounding them with explosives before a raid was not an option. Here, I imagine, if we locate OBL and co., we will drop stuff like the "daisy cutter" before sending commandos in to identify the bodies.
posted by Mid at 6:46 AM on October 19, 2001

And a tip of the journalistic hat to Iranian state radio and TV who reported this on Wednesday.
posted by anewc2 at 2:52 PM on October 19, 2001