Scores of Taliban Killed in Heavy Fighting

[tommie gorman]

I found this interesting.

SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan - British troops on Monday pushed into a Taliban stronghold awash with opium poppies, drawing mortar and machine-gun fire, in the latest NATO drive to help the government take control of southern Afghanistan.

As Operation Silicon got under way, the U.S. military reported killing 136 rebels during three days of clashes in the once-stable west, the deadliest fighting in the country since January.

The operation in the southern province of Helmand and the bloodshed in the western province of Herat show how Taliban militants have been able to regroup in the five years since a U.S.-led invasion drove them from power.

But it also shows how the growing number of foreign troops and Western-trained Afghan forces are confronting the militants in their rural heartlands.

The British soldiers quickly came under fire as they filtered among the mud-walled compounds and deep irrigation ditches of the militant-held lower Sangin Valley in Helmand. An Associated Press reporter saw the troops respond with artillery and fire from helicopter gunships.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in what NATO said was the latest installment of Operation Achilles, its biggest-ever anti-Taliban maneuver, which began in March.

For more.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,134085,00.html

[Roco]

and I thought they were watching your guys backs ?

I love the quote "pushed into " nothing much has changed on that,

in my day it was called shoved ,

joking aside , yes it is good to see NATO pulling together on this one ,

that is a morale deflater for the Taliban , they get to think the whole civilized world is against them , This I think was the big mistake we made in Iraq , we jumped in too soon, IMHO.

Still no turning back now , that would be seen as defeat of our countries , and western civilization in general , again just my thoughts on this sorry mess ,

a view I have be told, is also held by the British army , as a soldier recently said we can take the body count , but to walk away now is just takintg the piss out of those who have been killed ,

[tommie gorman]

Your right. If we had waited for UN it would have sent a complete different message to the taliban than just us few countries.

Strange enough, maybe just what I see, but doesn't the US get the big part of the blame when protest is done? We weren't the only one to go in. Okay though, I think we are used to it for the most part.(talking about Iraq here.) sddsI just merely noticed this for the first time. 

[Roco]

Your right. If we had waited for UN it would have sent a complete different message to the taliban than just us few countries.

Strange enough, maybe just what I see, but doesn't the US get the big part of the blame when protest is done? We weren't the only one to go in. Okay though, I think we are used to it for the most part.(talking about Iraq here.) sddsI just merely noticed this for the first time. 

us Brits are just hidding behind the "Bush " IMHO  , and Tony Blair is now paying the price for kissng ass , but my feeling is the UK under Gordon Brown "the Scot " will not change it's resolve to carry on ,  just my view on this ,

trouble with the UN is it is very slow to respond to anything , again IMHO,

but with  67,800 civilian deaths in WW2, we are slow in the UK ,tot get involved in wars again ,

but stangley enough most Brits are proud to be upholding the right to give freedom of choice

to all nations, even if that means supportin the USA  , 

Btw .I have just been reading a book on WW2, that uses just released UK Gov. figures , that indicates that , John Wayne , America , Winston Churchill , Britain, didn't win world war 2 

the eventual winner would have been Russia , we only shortend it by 1 year ,

[resopalrabotnick]

i'm getting to the point where i think in a lot of ways the way the conflict is handled is just too fucking political. the problem is i am also convinced that pulling out of the region would leave behind such a hellacious mess that it just can't be done.

damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[peepnklown]

Why are we in Afghanistan? 

[resopalrabotnick]

1: they made half their population walk around in beekeeper suits.

2: the government at the time of invasion was cooperating with and refusing to hand over known terrorists.

3: the taliban government at the time of invasion was a very despicable group. they were the ones that used all sorts of tanks to destroy masses of historically and culturally valuable buddhas carved into mountainsides, for example.