U.S. sends team to probe Afghan chopper crash

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL261854.htm

KABUL, April 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. army team is expected to arrive from America on Saturday to investigate the cause of the deadliest crash of a U.S. military chopper in Afghanistan, a statement said.

The team is due to take over an investigation already under way by the U.S. military at the site of Wednesday's crash that killed 18 people, including 16 American servicemen, in the desert terrain of Ghazni province, some 120 kms (80 miles) to the southwest of the capital.

Local officials and the U.S. military said at the time that the CH-47 Chinook chopper, one of two on a mission in the restive south region, crashed in a sandstorm. snip

Several U.S. military helicopters have been shot down or crashed in Afghanistan since U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban in 2001, but Wednesday's was the deadliest.

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[leftchick]

1. uh, the "Toppled Taliban" claim to have shot it down...

how can they keep getting away with saying they are toppled when they are still all around Afghanistan and killing lots of people?

[cliss]

2. Really, Left?

That is hot news. Maybe you could find a link? It's not that I disbelieve you; in fact, I've been waiting to hear more details about this crash.....but they are scanty as usual.

I've been alarmed for quite some time about our equipment "failures" in Iraq & Afgh. I just could not figure out how SO many heli's could come down, due to "equipment failure", "sandstorm" "unknown causes", "operator error" or something like that.

I believe the Pentagon's position on this is: it's better to say that our troops went down due to nature, or the weather, or some act of God. I don't think they want the American public to believe that we are being "outdone" by "farmers with Kalashnkov's". It might hurt morale.

I think a lot of their propaganda is the "Cinderella" syndrome, or the "Bird with the broken wings" scenario. We go into a war-torn country. We help the people. We kick out the tyrant. We introduce democracy. The people live happily ever after. (closes book) End of story.

It's definitely not good PR to let the Americans know the Iraqis in fact have heat-seeking missiles, have infra-red and radar. Maybe they're just a bit more sophisticated than we are led to believe.

[meganmonkey]

3. From the article in the original post:

Lt. Cindy Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Kabul, said she was not aware whether teams from the United States had been dispatched to investiage previous crashes.

She said there was no indication that Taliban fighters were responsible for downing the chopper, as claimed by a Taliban spokesman, or of a powerful blast that some witnesses said they heard before the crash.

------

The Taliban is claiming responsibility. Whether or not it is true remains to be seen...and whether or not the 'investigation' would decide it is true is a whole different question ;)

But it is interesting that they are sending in a special team to investigate it.

[leftchick]

4. here you go.....

Members of the hardline Islamic Taliban, waging an insurgency in the war-torn country since the US-led forces removed them from power in late 2001, have said they shot the helicopter down.

But the US military has said there was no indication it was brought down by hostile fire.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=22&art_id=qw1113037201526R131

does not sound like they have been "toppled" to me. :eyes: