Taliban say 2 U.S. soldiers captured in Afghanistan

[carthagian]

And Im saying that Irans got probably close too two million afghans in Iran and is bearing the costs while being inflicted by economic sanctions.

Americas occupation of Afghanistan is being financed by China. Somehow in the future all that precious shyte Afghanistan got holed up under its ground needs to be extracted too feed a billion chinapeople. I'm not saying it'll be western/american corporations that would be the ones too reap the most off it. But that would've been all fine and dandy werent it for Iraq. Knowing Afghans, they'd settle for it.

I dont see anything about any major withdrawal happening in Iraq. It made sense for the very fact that troops are needed in Afghanistan and what better source then too rotate troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. I have said this before and you and I had this discussion; I do believe the US government is in Iraq too smooth the transfer of foreign oil companies/services in its favour and its trying too negatively influence the political process of Iraq by obstructing factions which are deemed anti american in Iraq. I dont see the Americans leaving Iraq by 2018.

I mean c'mon, the Saudis are sending in suicide bombers in to Iraq. And for years the Americans did nothing. Its like they support it too justify their presence. More violence, means more occupation.

[gisse]

Originally Posted by M1A1Tanker

Biggest problem of ANY army really. If you look on Youtube you will see tons of videos of drunk soldiers and sailors everywhere. mexico has a big issue right now...not only are their young soldiers getting caught up in a brutal war with the cartels theyhad some 30,000 soldiers go AWOL over the last 4 years and many have turned to the darkside.

Look the Afghan soldiers. They get hired trained then walk over the the Tallyban or they milk the US for their pay check. There are several videos on Youtube that show Afghan soldiers walking off the job. Look at what happened in Texas. Afghan soldiers went awol with the help of illegal Mexicans.

I didn't think only on US army but globally.

In war they searching for way to relax nerves and find it in alcohol. And then .... s**t happens.

Example: Two idiots got drunk. They saw house in empty village with satellite antenna on it and done what was strictly forbidden. They decided to go in and watch some TV. They didn't think that they can be captured during their "excursion". Newer returned to unit. This is real story from Kosovo.

[Chogy]

Originally Posted by [Ari]

That is largely nonsense stereotyping.

That is why I was very specific in my description. All I can tell you is that it is first-hand information, direct observation, by an individual who is there solely to aid the average Afghani farmer or businessman. This person went there excited and motivated to help, and now is disgusted and simply wants to come home, because all of the work and effort is being rejected.

Is it this way everywhere? Probably not. But the number of people is high, and I'd say it is a pretty representative sample.

People ask "Why isn't the U.S. providing aid, training, materiel, trying to win hearts and minds?" The answer is "They ARE. But the Afghans apparently don't want it."

[Kabuli]

Body of 2nd Navy sailor recovered in Afghanistan
By DEB RIECHMANN and AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers Deb Riechmann And Amir Shah, Associated Press Writers – 15 mins ago


KABUL, Afghanistan – The discovery of the body of a second U.S. sailor who vanished in Afghanistan last week only deepened the mystery of the men's disappearance nearly 60 miles from their base in a dangerous area controlled by the Taliban.

An investigation is under way, but with both sailors dead, U.S. authorities remained at a loss Thursday to explain what two junior enlisted men in noncombat jobs were doing driving alone in Logar province, where much of the countryside is not under government control.

"This is like a puzzle," said Abdul Wali, deputy head of the governing council in Logar.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley — father of two boys aged 5 and 9 — from Kingman, Arizona, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, 25, from the Seattle area, disappeared in the province July 23. McNeley's body was recovered there Sunday and Newlove's body was pulled from a river Wednesday evening, Afghan officials said.

The U.S. Navy confirmed Newlove death on Thursday.

At the Newlove's house in west Seattle, where children's chalk drawings adorned the sidewalk, a big sign on the door said: "The family has no comment. Please respect our privacy."

Officials at the NATO-led coalition headquarters in Kabul have not offered an explanation as to why the two service members were driving a heavily armored vehicle so far from their base at Camp Julien, a training facility on the western edge of the city.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case was being investigated, said it was unclear what the two were doing, what prompted them to leave their compound or whether they were on official business.

Senior military officials in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the sailors were never assigned anywhere near where their bodies were found.

The NATO official in Kabul shot down speculation that the two had been abducted in Kabul and driven to Logar — the same province where New York Times reporter David Rohde was kidnapped in 2008 while trying to make contact with a Taliban commander. Rohde and an Afghan colleague escaped in June 2009 after seven months in captivity, most spent in Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Samer Gul, chief of Logar's Charkh district, said the two sailors, in a four-wheel drive armored SUV, were seen Friday by a guard working for the district chief's office. The guard tried to flag down the vehicle, carrying a driver and a passenger, but it kept going, Gul said.

"They stopped in the main bazaar of Charkh district. The Taliban saw them in the bazaar," Gul said. "They didn't touch them in the bazaar, but notified other Taliban that a four-wheel vehicle was coming their way."

The second group of Taliban tried to stop the vehicle, but when it didn't, insurgents opened fire and the occupants in the vehicle shot back, he said. The NATO official confirmed that the vehicle had been shot up.

Gul said there is a well-paved road that leads into the Taliban area and suggested the Americans may have mistaken that for the main highway — which is much older and more dilapidated.

Wali, the deputy head of the governing council in Logar, insisted the Taliban did not plan the incident. Initially, the insurgents didn't know if they should claim responsibility or not, he said.

"The Taliban were just joking around with each other and they suddenly saw a big armored vehicle coming toward them," he said. "They thought it might be a trick — that if it got too close, there might be an airstrike against them — so they opened fire."

Din Mohammed Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor of Logar, said the governor's office was upset because the two Americans left their base without notifying Afghan security forces in Logar, which is the normal protocol. He called their presence in Logar an "abnormal situation."

The international force quickly launched a massive search for the sailors, setting up checkpoints and distributing hundreds of fliers, with reprinted photos of the two missing sailors. The fliers offered a $20,000 reward for information about their whereabouts.

The Taliban did not claim responsibility for the missing sailors for more than 48 hours after the ambush. A message posted on their website late Sunday claimed one American service member had been kidnapped in Logar and another was killed in a shootout.

On Thursday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that the Taliban, on Tuesday, left the "body of a dead American soldier for the U.S. forces" to recover.

U.S. officials did not provide details about how either sailor might have died. Darwesh, the provincial spokesman, said Newlove was shot once in the head and twice in the torso.

Mohammad Rahim Amin, local government chief in Baraki Barak, said villagers in the district called to report the body of a foreigner, clad in a uniform, in the river. He said coalition forces recovered it about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. He speculated the body could have floated downstream because the river was swollen by rain Tuesday night.

Amin said in recent days, security tightened around the Taliban, who were under pressure from Afghan forces, intelligence officials and coalition troops converging on the area in a massive search for the missing service member.

"It makes sense that the Taliban had nowhere to go, so they killed him," Amin said, referring to Newlove.

Newlove joined the Navy in March 2004, completed his duty and joined the reserve in December 2008. He was called back to duty and was in Afghanistan by December 2009. He was trained as a culinary specialist but it was unclear whether he was working at that job in Kabul.

McNeley joined the Navy in 2001 and deployed to Afghanistan last year. He was classified as a hull technician. The job entails skilled metal work to maintain ships.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/...as_afghanistan

[mustavaris]

More or less similar problems are rampant in many developing countries. The war is just one factor.

Originally Posted by Chogy

That is why I was very specific in my description. All I can tell you is that it is first-hand information, direct observation, by an individual who is there solely to aid the average Afghani farmer or businessman. This person went there excited and motivated to help, and now is disgusted and simply wants to come home, because all of the work and effort is being rejected.

Is it this way everywhere? Probably not. But the number of people is high, and I'd say it is a pretty representative sample.

People ask "Why isn't the U.S. providing aid, training, materiel, trying to win hearts and minds?" The answer is "They ARE. But the Afghans apparently don't want it."

[Chogy]

Originally Posted by [Ari]

No the question people ask is why don't they spend the money on aid and training. You see the majority of the money is spent blowing people to pieces.

They could spend ALL the freaking money on aid and assistance, and it still wouldn't work.

[carthagian]

Only regional solutions work in the end. Keeping Iran and Pakistan from holding discussions about regional matters is whats failing the US mission. American arrogance and denial of Iran's importance in Afghanistan is whats the sticking cross. I hate it when people try to fix a chain link between Iran and the Taliban. The last thing we want are more radical sunni loyalists to the Saudi state next too our borders. I mean we already got too deal with Pakistans ineffectiveness in guarding their own borders. If the US is gone, the next enemy will be Iran. I guarantee you that.

And get what I heard today these two guys were noncombatees. Did they think they were marines or something?

Thats another problem I think is wrong with the mission. Too much lazy ass army guys(no offense too vets; but quantity and cheap is the Army's branch these days). You need fecking marines. They are hardcore and so are the Taliban.

[Arslan_11]

almost 62 US soldiers died in july .

[M1A1Tanker]

Originally Posted by Arslan_11

almost 62 US soldiers died in july .

It is 66 and whats your point?

[Arslan_11]

Originally Posted by M1A1Tanker

It is 66 and whats your point?

They are losing tha War.

[mustavaris]

By bringing fight to the enemy territory, by fighting the enemy and finally forcing the rats to fight?

Originally Posted by Arslan_11

They are losing tha War.

[M1A1Tanker]

Originally Posted by Arslan_11

They are losing tha War.

You sound so Tallybanish...and the kill card shows 114 dead tallywhackers who were killed face to face not by planting bombs in a road and then setting them off 100s of yards away the way cowardly terrorists do it....

If the Tallyban actually put together an actual tactical formation they might be worth talking about....

[abu sulayman]

face to face not by planting bombs in a road and then setting them off 100s of yards away the way cowardly terrorists do it....

But airstrikes from 10 000 feet are still ok?

[M1A1Tanker]

Originally Posted by abu sulayman

But airstrikes from 10 000 feet are still ok?

I'm not sure you have ever read what I wrote but I do not condone Predator airstrikes unless the target is 100% identified if that turns out to be the case (100% ID) then eye for an eye.

[TSK66]

taliban can go to hell , and NATO needs to pull out its troops from afghanistan, let afghans rule their own country, when the afghani military is build up and well-trained, US and other troops can leave forever,