War in Afghanistan coming to an end?

[knapplc]

NATO signals end of Afghan war for the West

 

 

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - NATO leaders sealed a landmark agreement on Monday to hand control of Afghanistan over to its own security forces by the middle of next year, putting the Western alliance on an "irreversible" path out of an unpopular, decade-long war.

 

A NATO summit in Chicago formally committed to a U.S.-backed strategy that calls for a gradual exit of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014 but left major questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after the allies are gone.

 

The two-day meeting of the 28-nation alliance marked a milestone in a war sparked by the September 11 attacks that has spanned three U.S. presidential terms and even outlasted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

 

This would be excellent news for all the families of servicemen either stationed over there or on the deployment list. Let's get out of there.

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

I have a buddy that just got back the other day and is going through processing. He said the amount of time and money we are wasting over there is absolutely mind boggling.

[Excel]

Coming to an end and has been for some time, though it'll be never said so bluntly. "Retrograde" is the buzzword for Soldiers now.

[Army Husker]

I have a buddy that just got back the other day and is going through processing. He said the amount of time and money we are wasting over there is absolutely mind boggling.

If you only knew of the wastefullness going on here.

[JJ Husker]

I have a buddy that just got back the other day and is going through processing. He said the amount of time and money we are wasting over there is absolutely mind boggling.

If you only knew of the wastefullness going on here.

Could you elaborate or give some examples? I have come to believe, and often argue in this forum, that any large taxpayer funded beauracracy, especially our federal government, military, etc., naturally becomes highly inefficient and wasteful in regards to how they spend our money. Do you believe it is that or is the wastefulness in Afghanistan due to something else?

 

I occasionally bid on state and federal jobs and the specs and conditions you have to abide by are designed for no better reason than driving the cost up senselessly. As an example; I recently got a request from an elderly handicapped veteran needing a handrail installed at the front entrance to his home. It should've been a $400-$500 job (the guy lives only 2 blocks from our business and I really wanted to help him out). Then I found out he wanted to use a grant from veteran affairs and to use that the project needed to comply with federal regulations and ADA, be inspected by 2-3 different agencies, and the vendor must agree to wait 90 days to be paid. My price would've went up to $2,000 but, I simply apologized to him and told him I didn't want to do it if it had to be done that way. That was about 3 months ago and the poor guy still doesn't have a handrail.

[Army Husker]

I have a buddy that just got back the other day and is going through processing. He said the amount of time and money we are wasting over there is absolutely mind boggling.

If you only knew of the wastefullness going on here.

Could you elaborate or give some examples? I have come to believe, and often argue in this forum, that any large taxpayer funded beauracracy, especially our federal government, military, etc., naturally becomes highly inefficient and wasteful in regards to how they spend our money. Do you believe it is that or is the wastefulness in Afghanistan due to something else?

 

I occasionally bid on state and federal jobs and the specs and conditions you have to abide by are designed for no better reason than driving the cost up senselessly. As an example; I recently got a request from an elderly handicapped veteran needing a handrail installed at the front entrance to his home. It should've been a $400-$500 job (the guy lives only 2 blocks from our business and I really wanted to help him out). Then I found out he wanted to use a grant from veteran affairs and to use that the project needed to comply with federal regulations and ADA, be inspected by 2-3 different agencies, and the vendor must agree to wait 90 days to be paid. My price would've went up to $2,000 but, I simply apologized to him and told him I didn't want to do it if it had to be done that way. That was about 3 months ago and the poor guy still doesn't have a handrail.

I'll give you a really quick example. Where I am at is a fairly large place. To drive around that airfield to get to work, we are provided sh**ty, beat down Toyota Hilux vehicles. They are rusted out, beat up and break down all the time. Wheels fall off, windshield wipers dont work...you get the picture. The military rents these vehicles from the local economy at $1000US a month. There are about a couple hundred of these trucks running around between us and the other countries at this post. You could buy one of these used in the same condition for about the same price.

[knapplc]

Not that I agree with it, but isn't that essentially an attempt to boost the local economy and appease the indigenous population? Or does all that $10K go to the Afghani government?

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

I can get some more examples when I meet up with him this weekend. But last time I talked to him he really couldnt put it into words because it was that shocking to him. He said they are paying us to sit in the middle of nowhere and act productive, when it comes to half of the base where he was stationed. From the sounds of it, the government is throwing money left and right with little care over there. He runs supply something or other, and he said people will put in orders for big ass tvs on base, and get them if they can show even a little bit of need for one. When hes not working he plays Xbox on a 55 inch LCD, lets just put it that way.

[Excel]

Not that I agree with it, but isn't that essentially an attempt to boost the local economy and appease the indigenous population? Or does all that $10K go to the Afghani government?

 

Sure, like the APPF replacing contractors...now we pay local nationals to guard the projects we pay to build...and they have a 20% profit margin built in.

[Mavric]

For us anyway:

 

Afghan troops are in the midst of their deadliest fighting season since the war here began 12 years ago.

 

That is because, as U.S.-led forces withdraw, the Afghans are fighting a different war.

 

The Taliban are growing more aggressive. Coalition forces, taking with them their superior training and equipment, are leaving Afghan troops less able to fight and less able to save the lives of their critically wounded.

 

The Afghan forces—including the army, national police and village self-defense police—have been losing well over 100 men a week to insurgent attacks, with close to 300 injured, through much of the summer, according to numbers provided by coalition officials.

 

By contrast, coalition fatalities, which are reported precisely, have fluctuated between 13 and 27 troops a month since heavier fighting resumed in the spring.

 

To put it in perspective: The Afghan forces' death toll is as much as three times the combined coalition and Afghan fatalities in 2010 and 2011, when the U.S. took its heaviest casualties in the war.

 

Full Article

[knapplc]

To put that in even more perspective, that's about the same number of casualties suffered every couple of minutes during the heaviest fighting on Iwo Jima.

 

The modern press' version of "perspective" in war is sorely lacking.

[Mavric]

For the same reason, I was a little disappointed in Bob Kerrey with some of his comments about the casualties we were sustaining during the Iraq and/or Afghanistan wars. No one wants any of our servicemen to die, but I kept wanting to as "How many soldiers were killed each day when you were in Vietnam?" Seemed to lack some perspective, imo.

[Mavric]

Sorry for the necro-bump but I thought this was worth sharing:

 

A British sniper deployed in Afghanistan made a Hollywood-worthy shot last December after the bullet he fired at a Taliban suicide bomber struck the device’s trigger and detonated, killing another five surrounding Taliban insurgents.

 

The unnamed 20-year-old lance corporal from the Coldstream Guards struck his target from 930 yards out in the Kakaran region of southern Afghanistan. The event was only recently disclosed as Britain prepares to withdraw all of its combat troops from the country by the end of 2014, The Telegraph reports.

 

“The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and coming up over a ditch,” a Lt. Col. Slack told the Telegraph. “He had a shawl on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun.”

 

“They were in contact and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the guy exploded. There was a pause on the radio and the sniper said, ‘I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber.’ The rest of them were killed in the blast,” Slack said.

 

Royal Lancers commanding officer Lt. Col. Richard Slack said the corporal prevented what could have been a devastating Taliban assault after troops discovered another 44-pounds of explosives packed in a second suicide vest nearby.

 

It was the second of the young sniper’s impressive shots during his current tour of duty — his first killed a Taliban machine-gunner from 1,465 yards out.

Full Article

[BigRedBuster]

Sorry for the necro-bump but I thought this was worth sharing:

 

A British sniper deployed in Afghanistan made a Hollywood-worthy shot last December after the bullet he fired at a Taliban suicide bomber struck the device’s trigger and detonated, killing another five surrounding Taliban insurgents.

 

The unnamed 20-year-old lance corporal from the Coldstream Guards struck his target from 930 yards out in the Kakaran region of southern Afghanistan. The event was only recently disclosed as Britain prepares to withdraw all of its combat troops from the country by the end of 2014, The Telegraph reports.

 

“The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and coming up over a ditch,” a Lt. Col. Slack told the Telegraph. “He had a shawl on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun.”

 

“They were in contact and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the guy exploded. There was a pause on the radio and the sniper said, ‘I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber.’ The rest of them were killed in the blast,” Slack said.

 

Royal Lancers commanding officer Lt. Col. Richard Slack said the corporal prevented what could have been a devastating Taliban assault after troops discovered another 44-pounds of explosives packed in a second suicide vest nearby.

 

It was the second of the young sniper’s impressive shots during his current tour of duty — his first killed a Taliban machine-gunner from 1,465 yards out.

Full Article

 

 

Guys that can make shots like that absolutely amaze me.

[walksalone]

Guys that can make shots like that absolutely amaze me.

 

Didn't the History Channel have a good special on Snipers a couple years ago...