What's fascinating is the part of the story they didn't report...an amazing victory for our warriors overe the Taliban when they were outnumbered by better than 8 to one.As Jeff Emanuel relates:
Reporters were quick to point out that this battle, which began in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday and lasted well into the day, resulted in the highest number of American casualties in Afghanistan since sixteen were killed when a helicopter was downed by RPG fire.
However, when the smoke of the battle cleared, and there was no mounting total of dead Americans to cover, news agencies lost interest, and moved along to cover other, bloodier developments in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Had those mainstream reporters continued paying attention, chances are they would have noted something remarkable about Sunday's battle.
Three days before the attack, 45 U.S. paratroopers from the 173d Airborne, accompanied by 25 Afghan soldiers, made their way to Kunar province, a remote area in the northeastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and established the beginnings of a small Combat Outpost (COP). Their movement into the area was noticed, and their tiny numbers and incomplete fortifications were quickly taken advantage of.
A combined force of up to 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters quickly moved into the nearby village of Wanat and prepared for their assault by evicting unallied residents and according to an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry official, "us[ing] their houses to attack us."
Tribesmen in the town stayed behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight," General Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief, told The Associated Press. Dug-in mortar firing positions were created, and with that indirect fire, as well as heavy machine gun and RPG fire from fixed positions, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters rushed the COP from three sides.
The attackers quickly breached the outer perimeter, and, under a withering barrage of supporting fire, a contingent of a mere 70 U.S. and Afghan soldiers combined were forced to fight for survival on their own outpost against the all-out assault from nearly 100 assailants.
The overwhelmingly outnumbered U.S. troops called in artillery, as well as fixed and rotary-wing air support, to help the repulse the attacking forces.
As recounted by the AP and other media outlets, nine U.S. paratroopers lost their lives -- a full fifth of the American contingent.
Further, fifteen U.S. and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack, meaning that, against an assault and support force of nearly 500 militant fighters, only 21 U.S. and 21 Afghan soldiers were able to fight at full strength -- and they succeeded not only in killing dozens of attackers, but in repelling the onslaught completely.
The dinosaur media couldn't be bothered to report this amazing tale of heroism by our warriors except in the context of American casualties, defeat and 'quagmire'.
They have their script already written...if our enemies attack at all, it's a victory for them and an American defeat, no matter what the actual outcome is.And if things go too obviously well,they ignore it, hoping it will go away.
Someone, thinking to insult me once said on these pages that I 'wasn't a journalist'. And then was totally baffled when I thanked him for that compliment.
hat tip Ace
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