U.S. and Afghan forces launch major assault in eastern province of Konar

[Robb]

Source: Washington Post

A force of about 700 U.S. and Afghan troops launched a major assault along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in an attempt to destroy a growing insurgent haven and blunt rising violence in the area, senior Army officials said Monday.

The assault represents one of the largest in eastern Afghanistan in the past several years and reflects growing concern among U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders that Taliban insurgents are seeking to intensify pressure in the east as troops prepare for a tough summer of fighting in the south.

"The Taliban know we are bringing our surge of forces, and they realize they can't just let that happen, so they are pursuing their own surge," said Maj. Gen. John Campbell, the senior commander in eastern Afghanistan.

(snip)

In contrast to the lead-up to the major battle in Marja this year, U.S. and Afghan troops did not send any warning of the offensive into the mountainous border region, which has been the site of several deadly ambushes on U.S. troops in the past two years. "We needed the element of surprise in that terrain," Poppas said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062804376.html

[msongs]

1. Evidently nobody in the US military has ever read the history of afghanistan nt

[Catherina]

2. +1 When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.




I can't believe we have men and women, many of them not even old enough to order a beer, dying over there, killing innocent people over there. And for what?