Myths About Afghanistan
Victor Davis Hanson on whether Afghanistan is really the "graveyard of empires ..."
In Wanat Video we saw from the U.S. perspective what the Battle of Wanat looked like, especially from the air. Courtesy of the NEFA Foundation, ABC News aired a video of the battle from the perspective of the Taliban. Taliban commander Maulvi Mandibula claims to have orchestrated the attack, but there some significant propaganda in this video. He claims that the locals “tipped off” the Taliban to the location of VPB Wanat.
This makes it sound like an ad hoc operation by the Taliban. In reality, the U.S. had planned VPB Wanat for approximately one year and the Taliban began massing troops long before the fight. As to the locals tipping off the Taliban, maybe. Perhaps they did long before the attack, since it’s obvious that they began massing troops weeks and even months before the fight.
But locals also warned U.S. troops that a Taliban attack was imminent. The Taliban listened to the locals – while we did not. Finally, there is some inaccuracy in the ABC report. The estimate of 150 Taliban fighters is low, and better estimates point to 200 – 250 fighters. Take note of the specifics of the fight that can be gleaned from the video (poor choice of terrain, initiation of the fight in hours of darkness, etc.). It isn’t often that one can get as much information on a single battle as we now have on Wanat. The first video combined with this one, along with the written accounts, add much to our stable of knowledge on the conditions and choices leading up to that fateful morning. The ABC News commentary accompanying the video adds little to nothing.
Prior:
The Battle of Wanat, Massing of Troops and Attacks in Nuristan
The Contribution of the Afghan National Army in the Battle of Wanat
On November 17, 2009 at 11:14 am, Warbucks said:
“Get out of my country!” is all we demand. “Foreigners go home.”
Who was it again? Who was that lone voice among the assembled, that broke protocol, sounding authentically impromptu,…. “You lie!”
This is the epitaph and legacy being written by this administration.
If there is any compassion to be found today, perhaps it is in realizing how lonely the radical-violent-fundamentalist Islamicist seems to be, and how no one can reach them, NOT EVEN THEIR OWN. And to fail to reach your own appears SHAMEFULLY COMPLICIT TO THE REST OF THE NON-ISLAMIC WORLD. After 10 years of this war, distinctions begin to blur.
We men of war know well the easy answer to the problem, and to that end, we can advise you effectively. We refer to the most likely war scenario and justify it as “compassion,” and “the just war doctrine.” On a deeper level we speak the truths that must be confronted as uncomfortable as they make men of peace feel.
In this life, in this dimension, in this world, choices must be made.
A violent-Islamic fundamentalist prefacing or qualifying any statement with “all we demand” is only worth of one western response: “You lie!”
The weakness and failure after nearly 10 years now of war, of the moderate Islamic mainstream to deal internally with their own, screams of complicity and contributes to the end game of war… which we men of war know well how to augment.
Do not test us further of our resolve. This is a war that must not be lost. It’s energy may fade in this President but know that we are not in a war for profit, we are in a war for our souls and the soul of our country.
If not this current President, then bring him, his cabinet, his lack of ability to protect us, the aura of his personal search for world power above our own national interest, to its quick political end.
We have a war that must not be lost.
On November 18, 2009 at 12:38 am, IntelTrooper said:
Some of this video is creative editing. I’ve seen some of these clips before, and they’re not from Wanat. A couple are obviously authentic (verifiable from the UAV/Apache footage) but several, like the Dshka, are from other attacks.
On November 18, 2009 at 12:52 am, Herschel Smith said:
I guess I should have pointed out that about the entire second half of the video had nothing whatsoever to do with Wanat. The first part did. Sometimes I assume too much of readers.
On November 18, 2009 at 12:11 pm, IntelTrooper said:
Just in case the above was directed at me, I was referring to the first segment.
On November 18, 2009 at 6:00 pm, Herschel Smith said:
IntelTrooper,
To be more specific, I believe that most of the video from approximately 1:00 to approximately 2:00 is Wanat (while interspersed with a few frames of other). The balance of the report I cannot vouch for.
If you know other information, then you need to give specific times.