Green Berets Recount Deadly Taliban Ambush

[Billy_H]

I didn't see this posted here and I'm not sure if this is the best spot for it. The article/video does talk about the Taliban's use of more sophisticated tactics and weapons.


This aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Joe Fuerst, one of the men killed, was a friend. I grew up with him, went to grade school and high school with him. We lived a mile apart and our parents are still in those houses and still friends. We were with his parents the night the new got delivered.

Here is the most telling story of what happened yet to put out by the media...

Green Berets Recount Deadly Taliban Ambush​

​

Special Forces Troops Tell 60 Minutes Taliban Fighters Better Organized Than They Expected​

With all the focus on the war in Iraq, we don't hear much about the war in Afghanistan any more, even though the U.S. is fighting the Taliban nearly seven years after they seemed to be defeated.

And we hardly ever hear from the elite, secretive U.S. Special Forces who are leading that fight. But a Green Beret team wanted to talk to 60 Minutes to honor the men they lost when they were ambushed by hundreds of Taliban fighters two years ago.

Not since "Black Hawk Down" in Somalia have we heard a story of a small band of elite American soldiers who were so badly outnumbered and fighting for their lives.

This is a story about valor. But it's also a wake-up call about the growing strength of the enemy in Afghanistan.

...Continued

Read the rest of the story HERE

You can also watch the video of the story, with footage from the firefight HERE.

Click on 60 Minutes and the video is titled: "Ambush in Afghanistan"

 

[bogie]

To me, it sounds like they ran up against a unit that actually learned from the fighting against the Russians...

We've had too many soldiers, and too many leaders, who have grown complacent with dealing with enemy who depends upon Allah to guide their bullets and form their tactics. Looks like they walked into a well-planned classical ambush, like we train our own folks to do. And you can't do a whole heckuva lot about that sort of thing.

Couple that with relying upon local troops of questionable quality for backup, and things can get ugly - "Oh, we are taking fire. We are going back now."

We need to go after these guys, from cave to cave, pushing a line, and denying them a place to regroup. Because they're gonna stay in those mountains, and keep launching stuff at us.

 

[XDKingslayer]

To me, it sounds like they ran up against a unit that actually learned from the fighting against the Russians...

You mean the ones our special forces trained years ago?

 

[kamagong]

We're fortunate that instances like these aren't more common. There are many experienced Muslim extremist fighters. Many of them learned their craft fighting the Russians in Chechnya.

 

[koginam]

I think the training is much more recent then from the Russian war with Afghanistan. its coming from countries like Iran and possibly from Chinese advisor's as well. they want to keep us tied up their and not paying attention to their build ups. I mention the Chinese because of the number of new Chi-com weapons and ammo being found their.

 

[shdwfx]

Chi-com weapons, eh? Where has that happened before?
We've GOT to maintain someone in the Presidency who won't turn tail and run on this.

 

[Big Daddy K]

I view any and everything with a big ole grain of salt that comes from 60 min.

 

[Tom609]

The soldiers told the story, not an Andy Rooney kinda guy. The fact is, President S for B has taken his eye off the ball. Seven years later and we continue to give Afghanistan minimal attention. These SF guys deserve all our support; and thanks.

 

[MechAg94]

How many troops could we realistically keep supplied in Afghanistan?

 

[yokel]

Some of our so-called allies appear unable or unwilling to send troops to southern Afghanistan, where the fighting is toughest.

This does not auger well for the future of our war effort in Afghanistan.

Our stubborn adversary still believes, I think, today that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist.

 

[Tyris]

Our stubborn adversary still believes, I think, today that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist.

I think this is correct. The current two front war will bankrupt the US with its $200B per year price tag. The fun really starts when we get our first failed treasury bill auction that the chinese or japanese thumb their nose at.

Running a government in perpetual and expanding debt does not work forever. Its either that, or we all shut-up and pay our War Taxes. Then we see how fast the elective wars come to a screeching halt.

-T

 

[dewage83]

THANK YOU for sharing this story

 

[XDKingslayer]

Our stubborn adversary still believes, I think, today that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist.

They can fight longer than we can. They don't have the things causing obstacles in their fight that we do in ours.

Politicians being against it for advance, the people becoming more and more against it, the money issues. Not to mention laws of war and how we chose to conduct ourselves.

They can fight infinately longer than we can because they don't fight under the red tape that we do.

 

[jrfoxx]

We need to go after these guys, from cave to cave, pushing a line, and denying them a place to regroup. Because they're gonna stay in those mountains, and keep launching stuff at us.

I think the biggest problem is that we successfully did just that real early on, but now they all just hide iside the Pakistan border where they are safe, protected, and autonymous, and there is little we can to about it unles s the Pakistani govt goes after them big time, lets us in to do it, or we invade a country that has nuclear weapons, and may be willign to use them on our troops on thier soil, or in Afghanistan. Sadly, all 3 of those options/scenarios stink bad for obvious reasons. Our only real hope is to pressure Pakistan to go after them and drive them back into Afghanistan for us, since I dont see them letting us across thier border to help or do it ourselves in any amount that will have any effect, and invasion is probly a REALLY bad idea if you dont want to see WAY more dead American soldiers than we already have, and nobody wants that.

Aside from all that, really good story.Thanks for posting.