Saturday, August 06, 2011
A Taliban victory in Afghanistan?
In the category of news that will hit you in the gut, 31 American soldiers and 7 Afghan friendlies died today when the Taliban apparently took out a loaded Chinook helicopter. The crash resulted in the worst single day for American fatalities since the war in Afghanistan began almost ten years ago. That's bad news.
The worst news? Apparently the "majority of those killed in the crash" were members of Navy Seal Team 6, the unit that took out Osama Bin Laden, "according to AP sources."
A typical Seal Team consists of six platoons, so it probably has between 250 and 300 men. That means that Seal Team 6 lost 10% of its ranks in today's fighting, a startling proportion by contemporary standards.
Of course, one is forced to wonder whether the Taliban did in fact kill soldiers who killed Osama Bin Laden. If so, that would be a substantial propaganda victory and a potential shot in the arm for allied jihadis.
All of which raises the next obvious question: Why did the Administration leak the obviously classified information that the men on that Chinook came from Seal Team 6? It makes no sense, unless its motive was to bum us all out and hand a public relations victory to our enemy.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Aug 06, 03:13:00 PM:
It was probably leaked by NATO staffers who actually resent US Military Power.
Hind sight is 20/20, but this target should have been taken out by a Drone or AC-130.
By 
Gary Rosen, at
Sat Aug 06, 03:44:00 PM:
This is the first I have heard about this. No political or geopolitical speculation from me for now. I just want to say this is a very sad day for our country and my heart goes out to the families of the troops involved.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Aug 07, 01:38:00 AM:
Like NATO staffers would know. My bet would be local Afghan sources. The same kind of sources that likely told the Taliban where to find Team 6 yesterday.
By pam, at
Sun Aug 07, 10:02:00 AM:
I agree, Dawnfire.
Godspeed....
By NavyOne, at
Sun Aug 07, 10:49:00 PM:
Great heroes, those guys. Not sure if this is bad blog etiquette, but here is a link to my one training deployment with the SEALs: http://themellowjihadi.com/?p=1778
V/R,
NavyOne
By www.caceres-3d.com, at
Thu Nov 10, 08:23:00 AM:
Thanks so much for the article, quite effective information.
