25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town Off Map

[Thomas]

the way nato forces are going right now it seems like.

if you cant solve my problem - and help me get out of it .

just finish me off - the problem will be solved.

the title used by forces - collateral damage is insane and unhuman. because it makes the human being just a bunch of numbers not the name.

-x-xx

no matter what is the problem with afghan - they cant just kill the people. what are fighting for now ? the help afghan people get out of misery ?

or taleban's war against united states,

as usual the number of haters is on the increase. this war of terror has done no good to anybody.

We can if they are Taliban!

 

[Thomas]

Evidence of displaced numbers and where they were taken care of. Moreover, I don't care if the spawn of Satan has forcibly occupied my house, you can't destroy it.

Did you have the written consent from even ONE resident of that town? Man this is a sorry inhuman behavior and I just don't accept it - the behavior and the cavalier attitude that Americans have developed regarding bombing our countries and cry holy hell whenever there is an incident in theirs.

History does not support what you'r saying. Look at WWII when the allies landed at normandy and began to push inland. The Germans put up a stubborn resistance in many of the villages and towns. did that mean the allies simply stoppped and waited for the Germans to leave? No they did not, they pushed forward and did what ever it took to drive the Germans back. Even if that mean't destroying houses and at times whole villages in the process. The Taliban had throughly mined that village. and as one poster rightfully said it makes perfect military sense to do what was done.

Perhaps as much outrage should be directed at the Taliban for using villages in such a manner.

 

[Asian.Century]

25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town Off Map​

By Spencer Ackerman January 19, 2011 | 3:45 pm | Categories: Af/Pak
An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar’s Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It’s hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America’s counterinsurgency strategy — which supposedly prizes the local people’s loyalty above all else.

But it’s the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.

Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Petraeus biographer, described the destruction of Tarok Kolache in a guest post for Tom Ricks’ Foreign Policy blog. Or, at least, she described its aftermath: Nothing remains of Tarok Kolache after Lt. Col. David Flynn, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 1-320th, made a fateful decision in October.

His men had come under relentless assault from homemade bombs emanating from the village, where a Taliban “intimidation campaign [chased] the villagers out” to create a staging ground for attacking the task force. With multiple U.S. amputations the result of the Taliban hold over Tarok Kolache, Flynn’s men were “terrified to go back into the pomegranate orchards to continue clearing [the area]; it seemed like certain death.”

After two failed attempts at clearing the village resulted in U.S and Afghan casualties, Flynn’s response was to take the village out. He ordered a mine-clearing line charge, using rocket-propelled explosives to create a path into the center of Tarok Kolache.

And that was for starters, Broadwell writes. Airstrikes from A-10s and B-1s combined with powerful ground-launched rockets on Oct. 6 to batter the village with “49,200 lbs. of ordnance” — which she writes, resulted in “NO CIVCAS,” meaning no civilians dead.

It seems difficult to understand how Broadwell or the 1-320th can be so confident they didn’t accidentally kill civilians after subjecting Tarok Kolache to nearly 25 tons worth of bombs and rockets. The rockets alone have a blast radius of about 50 meters [164 feet], so the potential for hitting bystanders is high with every strike.

As she clarified in a debate on her Facebook wall, “In the commander’s assessment, the deserted village was not worth clearing. If you lost several KIA and you might feel the same.” But without entering Tarok Kolache to clear it, how could U.S. or Afghan forces know it was completely devoid of civilians?

As Broadwell tells it, the villagers understood that the United States needed to destroy their homes — except when they don’t. One villager “in a fit of theatrics had accused Flynn of ruining his life after the demolition.”

An adviser to Hamid Karzai said that the 1-320th “caused unreasonable damage to homes and orchards and displaced a number of people.” Flynn has held “reconstruction shuras” with the villagers and begun compensating villagers for their property losses, but so far the reconstruction has barely begun, three months after the destruction.

“Sure they are pissed about the loss of their mud huts,” Broadwell wrote on Facebook, “but that is why the BUILD story is important here.”


Broadwell writes that the operation is ultimately a success, quoting Flynn as saying “As of today, more of the local population talks to us and the government than talk to the Taliban.” That appears to be good enough for higher command. Petraeus, having visited the village and allowing Flynn to personally approve reconstruction projects worth up to $1 million, told his commanders in the south to “take a similar approach to what 1-320th was doing on a grander scale as it applies to the districts north of Arghandab.”

We’ve reached out to Petraeus’ staff to get a fuller sense of what the commander of the war actually thinks about the destruction of Tarok Kolache, and will have a forthcoming post on precisely that. But Petraeus has waged a far more violent, intense fight than many expected.

Air strikes, curtailed under Gen. Stanley McChrystal, are at their highest levels since the invasion. Tanks have moved into Helmand Province, rockets batter Taliban positions in Kandahar, and throughout the east and the south Special Operations Forces conduct intense raiding operations. Petraeus rebuked Karzai when the Afghan leader urged an end to the raids.

According to Erica Gaston, an Afghanistan-based researcher with the Open Society Institute, the level of property destruction at Tarok Kolache is “extreme” compared to other operations, so it doesn’t appear as if wiping out villages is standard procedure. The area is a “virtual no-go by civilian means because of the security concerns,” limiting the ability of analysts, including Gaston, to independently assess what happened.

But from what she hears, destroying Tarok Kolache — in order, apparently, to rebuild it — has meant jeopardizing whatever buy-in local Afghans gave U.S. troops for fighting the Taliban in the Arghandab, which has been the scene of fierce fighting for months.

And that’s precisely because it’s not standard procedure for U.S.-led troops to destroy whole villages. “But for this, I think [NATO] would have started to get some credit for improved conduct,” Gaston e-mails. “Some Kandahar elders (and I stress ’some,’ not ‘all’ or even ‘most’) who had initially opposed the Kandahar operations — due largely to fears that it would become another Marjah — were in the last few months expressing more appreciation for ISAF conduct during these operations, saying they had driven out the Taliban and shown restraint in not harming civilians.”

Perhaps that popular goodwill would have dried up anyway, Gaston continues, but “I think this property destruction has likely reset the clock on any nascent positive impressions.”

It’s also not like the coalition has an overflow of goodwill in the Arghandab. Last year, Army researchers warned that the locals there trust the Taliban more than Karzai.

And it’s where the infamous rogue “Kill Team” from the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division allegedly murdered at least three Afghans in late 2009 and early 2010. The commander of the 5th Strykers, unaware of what the “Kill Team” was doing, was none too keen on the restraint urged on him by McChrystal.

For reasons like that, Josh Foust writes, not every Afghan automatically believes the U.S. military has benign intentions.

And it’s worth remembering why counterinsurgency even took hold in Afghanistan among military theorists in the first place. Although counterinsurgency has always been a violent affair, the theory holds that popular sentiment will ultimately determine who wins in a guerrilla war, something that many in uniform thought was vindicated by the Iraq surge — which imposes restrictions on how to use force.

Popular Afghan dissatisfaction was the reason that McChrystal and his predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan, rolled back the air strikes. McChrystal’s men ultimately thought his restraint went too far. But if Tarok Kolache is to become a new model for the military in Afghanistan, then it’s quite an irony for Petraeus, the military’s chief counterinsurgency theorist-practitioner, to swing the pendulum in the direction of decimating whole villages.

Photo: Paula Broadwell, via Tom Ricks’ blog

Can American, UK NATO Criminals WIN like this ??? NOOOOOOO !!!!

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Typical really of the modern American military - first Mullen and Pinyata throw tantrums and spout lies because, heavens forbid, the US actually suffer casualties when engaged in a 'war' (apparently that was a surprise), and the US throws even more tantrums when the Taliban embarrass them by staging some high profile attacks on US military and diplomatic targets - but wait, what exactly did the US expect when it was trumpeting its own airstrikes and raids targeting Taliban leadership and insurgents?

Bunch of whiny sissies is what they come across as, and had Pakistan provided the current Taliban with even half the support it provided the Mujahideen against the Soviets, the US would be whining, crying and losing worse than the Soviets, and taking it out on the civilian population as it did in Vietnam, and as the Soviets did in Afghanistan.

 

[PacificBeach]

The usual cowardice displayed by US military commanders and personnel, nothing surprising at all...

The funny thing is that there was another one of those in another thread. He was arguing Taliban does avoid fighting and he was challenging them to meet in the battlefield. Go figure...

It is the US army that avoids fighting like men. Their understanding of war has been reduced to drone attacks and dropping heavy bombs from air. Meanwhile a couple of "insurgents" attacks US bases. If it continues this way, another ten years will pass but nothing will change in Afghanistan.

It is also no wonder US doesn't want China to get a aircraft carrier and other nations to develop similar weaponry to what US has. Once their technological advantages diminishes, thanks to the deep lack of courage of their army, they will not be able to fight new wars. If only one can buy soldiers courage with printed dollars....

 

[misterme2]

The usual cowardice displayed by US military commanders and personnel, nothing surprising at all...

The funny thing is that there was another one of those in another thread. He was arguing Taliban does avoid fighting and he was challenging them to meet in the battlefield. Go figure...

It is the US army that avoids fighting like men. Their understanding of war has been reduced to drone attacks and dropping heavy bombs from air. Meanwhile a couple of "insurgents" attacks US bases. If it continues this way, another ten years will pass but nothing will change in Afghanistan.

It is also no wonder US doesn't want China to get a aircraft carrier and other nations to develop similar weaponry to what US has. Once their technological advantages diminishes, thanks to the deep lack of courage of their army, they will not be able to fight new wars. If only one can buy soldiers courage with printed dollars....

Hey I guess if you cant produce Drones without Israel help, I guess I would pull the "courage" card......LOL

 

[bularab]

there will be times when american cities will be wiped off by chinese bombs... just matter of time.. and crusader satan will be wiped off the world map and all those countries helping this satan

Hell no. I am living in a country which basically licks USA a*s, but I am strongly Anti - Zionist.

 

[nForce]

Somebody loves the smell of napalm in the morning....

an apocalypse there indeed....

 

[RazPaK]

And aftr that ???? who will save Afghani women from wrath of Taliban, If USA leave the job Unfinished, It will tyranny ... We must not confuse Afghan with Vietnaam or Iraq. Afghan war is for survival of Human rights, while other two were for USA pride(false pride, adamant)

Unless Afghan get a stable govt, NATO+US must not leave that place.. India and Pakistan must help Afghan to build it...

Regs

Indians are always worried about someone else's women. What's wrong with you guys?

 

[KHIte]

Regardless of the tenor of the comments posted here and understandably so, what the American officer did makes excellent military sense. The village had been forcible evacuated of all its original inhabitants by the Taliban. The Taliban then occupied the village and turned it into a fortress. Blowing up the village was not only the sanest thing the NATO could have done, it was also the only tactically viable option available to them. No military commander in his right mind would like to send troops to clear such a built up area which has been fortified by the enemy to such an extent, if it can be avoided. Driving out the innocent villagers made this action possible without causing collateral damage and violation of human rights since the village at that point housed only the enemy.

One can understand the sentimentality of the posters here as not many of them have the slightest clue of how such military operations are conducted and the risk factors involved.

The NATO should now assist in the rebuilding of the village so that the villagers may return.

so where does the claim of talibans using human shields and brain washing the common afghanis goes???

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Regardless of the tenor of the comments posted here and understandably so, what the American officer did makes excellent military sense. The village had been forcible evacuated of all its original inhabitants by the Taliban. The Taliban then occupied the village and turned it into a fortress. Blowing up the village was not only the sanest thing the NATO could have done, it was also the only tactically viable option available to them. No military commander in his right mind would like to send troops to clear such a built up area which has been fortified by the enemy to such an extent, if it can be avoided. Driving out the innocent villagers made this action possible without causing collateral damage and violation of human rights since the village at that point housed only the enemy.

One can understand the sentimentality of the posters here as not many of them have the slightest clue of how such military operations are conducted and the risk factors involved.

The NATO should now assist in the rebuilding of the village so that the villagers may return.

I find it interesting that many Western and Indian commentators ridiculed and criticized the PA's destruction of a town/village in Bajaur, during the heat of battle, while justifying and supporting similar actions by the US/NATO.

Pakistani resort to such tactics is called 'incompetence and/or lack of COIN experience', while similar US tactics are justified as making 'excellent military sense' - the hypocrisy and double standards with respect to Pakistan just keep on going ...

 

[Donatello]

I see you guys have found a kinship with the author. He is a very well know left wing journalist known for his slanted vitriolic articles.

Bottom line however is the villagers were already displaced by the Taliban. They are being compensated and their village rebuilt. The construction of which as already started. You can choose to believe it or not. It doesn't make any difference if you do or don't really.

Hey man!

Why not bomb the entire Afghan region? I mean they have been displace since 1980s anyway......


Americans killing people.....normal...move on.

 

[Abii]

I see you guys have found a kinship with the author. He is a very well know left wing journalist known for his slanted vitriolic articles.

Bottom line however is the villagers were already displaced by the Taliban. They are being compensated and their village rebuilt. The construction of which as already started. You can choose to believe it or not. It doesn't make any difference if you do or don't really.

haha wait
so you went in there by foot/sent leaflets telling people that we're going to bomb your village and that you will be compensated? I bet they were also given time to move out. When they had all moved out, you bombed the village? Which means that you only killed mud houses without any actual taliban in them!!

you guys are either retards or this never happened and you raised a village to the ground with people inside.

Edit: oh wait, my bad, your claim is that they were already displaced by the taliban! HAHAHAHA that's even more hillarious. They bomb it to **** and then when questions are asked they come out with "butbutbuuuuuuut they were already displaced by the taliban"

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Seems like war crime to me I don't see anti missile or tanks or gunships or airports

Just some old town with people who made 2$/ day income and probably had no more then 2-3 pairs of clothes

But its nice uncle SAM will give two bars of TWIX chocolate , and 2 cans of COLA and a coupon for walmart to the survivors that should bring back mommy , daddy or grand pa for lost ones

 

[unicorn]

The people in the west only see things that they like to see and only talk things that they like to talk.It is of no surprise to us that whenever US Army have found themselves in a difficult situation against the Taliban they have just bombed the hell out of every one.That is only one thing that they are good at doing.