June 4, 2004
THE "PERFECT WAR":
U.S.-Led Forces Kill 17 Suspected Taliban (STEPHEN GRAHAM, 6/04/04, Associated Press)
U.S.-led forces backed by warplanes killed 17 Taliban in a fierce battle in the southern Afghan heartland of the former ruling militia, the American military confirmed Friday. Three Marines were slightly wounded.Afghan officials earlier said 13 Taliban were killed and eight were wounded and captured in the fighting that began late Wednesday in the mountains of Kandahar province and ended Thursday.
Military spokeswoman Master Sgt. Cindy Beam confirmed that 17 enemy combatants were killed and three U.S. Marines were slightly wounded in the joint operation and that U.S. warplanes joined the fray. She gave no other details.
Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial government, told The Associated Press on Thursday that some 300 Afghan troops and a smaller number of Americans skirmished with gunmen in Kandahar's Miana Shien district, some 150 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.
The kill-ratios since 9-11 bode ill for the Islamicists, no? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2004 9:06 PM
NPR is reporting the Sadr is down to 100 fighters, and thus is being forced to strike a deal.
Posted by: David Cohen at June 4, 2004 10:34 PMDavid:
You just wait, Derek and Harry assure me that all of Islam will flock to his cause....
Posted by: oj at June 4, 2004 10:37 PMoj:
It also works the other way too -- an IED takes out several U.S. soldiers with no terrorist casualties.
Posted by: jd watson at June 5, 2004 1:29 AMNo, it doesn't. We've lost 800 guys and gained three countries. They've lost tens of thousands and gained nothing.
Posted by: oj at June 5, 2004 7:35 AMYou forget, their lives, like the lives of the millions of Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean communist conscripts thrown into the American meat-grinder in human wave attacks, are worthless to their leaders.
They can afford to lose a thousand to one, because one dead American soldier is a tradgedy and a political liability, a thousand dead jihadis are only so much rotting meat, unmourned and easily replaced.
We're still going to win though.
Posted by: Amos at June 5, 2004 8:35 AMAmos;
The problem is that eventually the followers start caring about all that rotting meat.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at June 5, 2004 11:05 PMThe idea that the enemy can tolerate losses of such magnitude is false. Only the US media kept North Vietnam in the war after Tet. Likewise, the massive losses of China in the Korean War did not make them eager to fight the US again. The Soviets likewise soured in Afghanistan. And reports from the Jerusalem Post seem to indicate that the Palestinians in Gaza are finally accepting defeat due to invasive Israeli incursions and the wall.
It is not the losses alone that cause nations to give up. It is the futility of their cause.
And since so much of that is due to "who blinks first," the morale and propaganda war is important.
A heroic sacrifice to win your people victory is one thing. To die for failure is simply stupid.As MacArthur said, there is no substitue for victory.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 7, 2004 2:50 PMOJ,
Are you referring to a USMC Sgt. Stating:
It's a perfect war; they want to die and we want to accomodate them!
Bingo.
“This is the Perfect War. They want to die, and we want to kill them.” -Sgt. Major Henry Bergeron, 1st Marine Division, Iraq
Posted by: oj at June 8, 2004 12:10 AM