Posted by
Brian Peters on Saturday, September 26, 2009 12:11:22 PM
Dear reader - if Afghanistan mystifies you, join the club, even the Afghani's are somewhat clueless to a notion of a 'Nation called Afghanistan'. I have two great primers for you: One is this Pulitzer series by Steven Pressfield:
http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/
The second is a book by Marcus Luttrell:
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.
Here's the Cliff Notes version via Wikipedia:
On June 28, 2005, Luttrell and SEAL Team 10 were assigned to a mission to kill or capture Ahmad Shah (nom de guerre Mohammad Ismail), a high-ranking Taliban leader responsible for killings in eastern Afghanistan and the Hindu-Kush mountains.[5] The SEAL team was made up of Luttrell, Michael P. Murphy, Danny Dietz and Matthew Axelson.[5]
Luttrell and Axelson were the team's snipers, with Lutrell also being
the team Medic; Dietz was in charge of communications and Murphy the
team leader.
Three goatherders stumbled upon the hiding spot of the four SEALs.
The men were detained by the team but the SEALs were unable to verify
any hostile intent.[6]
Luttrell claims that Murphy, the officer in charge of the SEAL team,
put the fate of the goatherds to a vote. Axelson voted to kill the
Afghanis, and Dietz abstained. Murphy told Luttrell that he would vote
the same as him so with his vote it was decided to let the Afghans go.[5]
This account is denied by Murphy’s father, who believes that his son
would have never put such a decision to a vote and that Luttrell told
him a different account when he spoke to him. "He said that Michael was
adamant that the civilians were going to be released, that he wasn’t
going to kill innocent people," said the elder Murphy. "Michael
wouldn’t put that up for committee. People who knew Michael know that
he was decisive and that he makes decisions."[5]
The released herders disappeared and likely immediately betrayed the
team's location to local Taliban forces and within an hour the SEALs
were engaged in a gun battle against a force of 80-150 enemy fighters.
The SEAL team engaged the Taliban for over two hours in a running
gunfight through the region's hills and valleys. [7]
Team leader Lt. Michael P. Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor
for exposing himself to enemy fire to reach higher ground from which to
transmit a call for backup. The SEALs killed dozens of Taliban,
however, Axleson, Deitz and Murphy were all killed in the gunfight.
Luttrell barely survived after being blown off a cliff by an RPG.
An MH-47 Chinook helicopter was hastily dispatched upon receiving Lt. Murphy's distress call with a force consisting of eight SEALs and eight160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment "Nightstalkers" to rescue the team, but the helicopter was shot down by an RPG
upon reaching the site of the battle. All 16 men on the Chinook were
killed, including Shane Patton, whose place on Operation Red Wing had
been taken by Danny Dietz.[8]
Luttrell was the only survivor of the SEAL team. Badly wounded, he
managed to walk and crawl seven miles to evade capture, during which he
killed six more Taliban fighters. He was given shelter by tribesmen
from Sabri-Minah, a Pashtun village. (This was done because of "
Lohkay", a Pashtun belief that any stranger in need of shelter must be given it.)
[9]
The villagers sheltered him and provided medical aid, and refused
Taliban demands that Luttrell be turned over to them. After several
days one of the village elders trekked twenty miles to a US base to
reveal Luttrell's location, and he was finally rescued six days after
the battle by an US forces.
[8]
But you need to read the book to understand the whole story which will give you great insight as to how the people in Afghanistan think and live and perceive life.
(Sidebar: it also made me really angry at our 'Upper Level Commanders' who did not learn the lesson's from Blackhawk Down in Mogadishu, Somalia. One of the same reasons that British MajGen 'retired' in protest this past week.)
Dear reader, please do check out Steve Pressfield's link: http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/