U.S. helicopter ‘crashed in Taliban trap’

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Agence France-Presse

The Taliban lured US forces into an elaborate trap to shoot down their helicopter, killing 30 American troops in the deadliest such incident of the war, an Afghan official said Monday.

A total of 38 people -- 30 US troops, many of them special forces, plus seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter -- were killed when their Chinook came down during an anti-Taliban operation late Friday.

The crash marked the biggest single loss of life for American and NATO forces since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban in late 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks.

The senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity that a Taliban commander, Qari Tahir, lured US forces to the scene by tipping them off that a Taliban meeting was taking place.

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/08/u-s-helicopter-crashed-in-taliban-trap/

[gratuitous]

1. Has the Secretary of State issued a statement about the "justice" in this?

An "elaborate" trap: Telling the trigger-happy flyboys about an enemy meeting at what amoutns to the end of a cul-de-sac. When they inevitably come roaring down the only avenue into the area, you blast them. That passes for "elaborate," does it? This incident shares many features of the celebrated assassination of Osama bin Laden (one minor difference is that the deceased in this case went to their eternal reward fully armed); has the State Department come out publicly about how justice has been served, just this time to us? Will we have a chorus of "Fuck 'em, they got what they deserved" and "They had every opportunity to give themselves up to the Taliban and didn't"?

There won't be any explanation forthcoming, I'm sure. But I figured I'd note the similarities, just for the record.

[11 Bravo]

3. I hear the Taliban is recruiting. If you hustle over there you can volunteer to help mutilate ...

girls and women who have the audacity to wish to attend school.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[11 Bravo]

5. What tilted me was your "trigger-happy flyboys" reference.

I haven't heard anyone describe the Taliban shoot down as an atrocity. It's a fucking war, and people get killed. That includes OBL and the SEALS.

But I have been in a helicopter receiving ground fire. I was 20 years old with a sucking chest wound, a compression bandage, a morphine syrette, a pat on the shoulder, and a "You'll be OK, troop".

A "trigger-happy flyboy" parked his sled in a hot LZ for a dust-off. That's the reason I'm still able to respond to the reflexive contempt for our military that some DUers seem to need to express.

[gratuitous]

6. Sorry about the reflexive contempt I have for all things military

But they've earned it many times over. It would be rude of me not to oblige our military, which sucks so much out of our society and gives nothing back.

[11 Bravo]

7. "And gives nothing back"

I knew a few guys who gave everything back. In any case, we obviously come from different backgrounds.

[gratuitous]

8. They gave everything back?

The villages were rebuilt, the crops burned were replanted, the killed civilians were brought back to life and returned to their grieving families? I've been misinformed about the benevolence of the military if those things have happened!

Or are you referring to something else when you say you knew a few guys who gave everything back? What did they give and to whom? As for "different backgrounds," my background is that I'm from the human race and bring you greetings on behalf of humanity.

[11 Bravo]

10. What did they give? Their fucking lives. We wore the green suit back when there was a draft.

No doubt had you been faced with our choice, you would have headed to Canada. And I would have respected your decision.
But until you realize that "trigger happy fly-boys" is an unfair characterization of the men who died, then you can eat shit and die.

(See what I did there? I gave you a sure-fire way to get my post deleted. I was fucking rude to you! And just like the rest of your life, you won't have to put a mother-fucking thing on the line except for a couple of fingers on a keyboard.)

[gratuitous]

11. I was faced with the choice

And was prepared to go to jail rather than take up arms against another human being. Others made a different choice, and for that I can call them trigger-happy flyboys, because they would indeed take up arms against another human being for no better reason than someone told them to.

I'm quite accustomed to the rudeness from people desperately seeking to justify their choices. I don't genuflect at the altar of Redemptive Violence, and it is the lot of those who choose to do that to be subject to the violence they reject. Sorry if your god was offended.

[Robb]

13. "Prepared to go to jail."

Didn't, though, I take it.

[11 Bravo]

14. Outstanding! Now you have God involved. You must be the most righteous lefty dude ever!

So tell me, if everyone who served is a trigger-happy flyboy; is everyone who didn't a pusillanimous piss-ant?
I personally never thought so, but you appear to prefer to deal in absolutes. (How was jail, by the way; because the A Shau was pure fucking Hell.)

[gratuitous]

15. I'd love to deal in absolutes

But for all its squared away West Point order, military stories seem to shift all the time, making commentary pretty difficult. Case in point, the deceased from this weekend: I don't think any of them were draftees, were they? (That's who we were talking about, after all, before you decided it was more useful to try to divert the discussion to the draft, which has been gone for more than 30 years, and engage in a little casual character assassination.) I don't know why they volunteered to take up arms and travel halfway around the world. I know that when I was faced with that decision, it was because someone wanted me to use a weapon against another human being. Maybe things have changed, but I haven't heard anything about that in any of the numerous ads put out by the military.

Based on the original report in this post, the helicopter was loaded up and flying out to blow the living bejesus out of some remote location because they got a tip that there was someone very, very bad down there. And it turns out they were led into an ambush, as they got shot out of the sky by people who surmised that they would act exactly as they did - that is, like trigger-happy flyboys.

Somewhere along the line, this story has changed a time or two (not unlike any number of other military stories), and the official line today is that this contingent of Navy SEALs was flying a relief mission to besieged comrades. It certainly sounds better than the first story, I have to say that. Whether it actually makes sense, I can't say. My characterization was based on the story originally told.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Lesson: Don't run with volunteered intelligence from the enemy.

Kinda dumb.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Real hard to tell the difference between planted information and the real deal

[Robb]

12. Same could be said of the tale from the unnamed Afghan official above. (nt)