Five British soldiers killed

[Warspite]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8342488.stm

The Taliban have said they carried out the fatal shooting of five British soldiers in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the Commons.

Mr Brown said the Taliban could have infiltrated the Afghan police to carry out the attack in Helmand province.

Earlier the UK military blamed the attack on a "rogue" Afghan policeman.

The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, had been mentoring and living with the Afghan police in a compound.

The officer opened fire, injuring eight others, before fleeing the compound.

The mentoring and liaison teams have the toughest job of any coalition task at the moment. They operate on the sharp end, in small numbers, with less logistical and medical support than the rest of the army, with locals who can sometimes be unreliable or even downright treacherous. What they are doing right now is probably the closest thing to pure counter-insurgency out there.

[Razgovory]

Why is the violence really picking up this year in Afghanistan?

[Alcibiades]

Why is the violence really picking up this year in Afghanistan?

Insurgency in Iraq mostly collapsed.

[Strix]

Why is the violence really picking up this year in Afghanistan?

They realize Obama is weak and got elected on a promise that he would end the war. They probably figure a good push will help him speed up the process.

I wonder if there is any major Tet-like holiday in Afghanistan?

[grumbler]

They realize Obama is weak and got elected on a promise that he would end the war. They probably figure a good push will help him speed up the process.

Yeah, "they" have a great deal of difficulty telling Afghanistan from Iraq.

I wonder if there is any major Tet-like holiday in Afghanistan?

Eid ul-Fitr (at the end of Ramadan), and Eid al-Adha (near the end of the Gregorian calender) are the multi-day festivals of Islam.  The people of Afghanistan are Islamic.

[Strix]

Yeah, "they" have a great deal of difficulty telling Afghanistan from Iraq.

[PDH]

They realize Obama is weak and got elected on a promise that he would end the war. They probably figure a good push will help him speed up the process.

I seem to recall he was elected on a promise of ending another war and raising the stakes in Afghanistan because the focus was supposed to be on the Taliban...my bad, Hans will come along to say why I am wrong.

[Strix]

They realize Obama is weak and got elected on a promise that he would end the war. They probably figure a good push will help him speed up the process.

I seem to recall he was elected on a promise of ending another war and raising the stakes in Afghanistan because the focus was supposed to be on the Taliban...my bad, Hans will come along to say why I am wrong.

It's probably my mistake. I seemed to recall that he promised to withdraw from both places. Iraq would be first than Afghanistan. He is the Master of Change though, so he may have adjusted his goals at some point.

[Berkut]

I seem to remember that his settled on war claim was that Iraq was bad, but Afghanistan was good, and we should bail on the war we were losing to reinforce the war we could win.

Oddly enough, we ended up 'winning' the war he claimed we were losing, and now seem to be losing the war he promised he could win.

[Strix]

I seem to remember that his settled on war claim was that Iraq was bad, but Afghanistan was good, and we should bail on the war we were losing to reinforce the war we could win.

Oddly enough, we ended up 'winning' the war he claimed we were losing, and now seem to be losing the war he promised he could win.

Yes, that was pretty much it. I looked up what he said on CNN and it basically boiled down to he promised to withdraw from Iraq and set a date/time table. In Afghanistan, he promised to withdraw troops but left everything else up in the air. So, there was never a date or time table in play, so that he could do what he liked once he took office there.

I don't dislike Obama. He is what he is, a professional politician from a major city. I just have a feeling that he is going to botch both Iraq and Afghanistan which coupled with Healthcare is going to make him a one term President whose claim to fame will be his racial status.

[Razgovory]

I wonder if it's due to the situation in Pakistan.

[citizen k]

 

[CountDeMoney]

I wonder if it's due to the situation in Pakistan.

I wonder if maybe it's because they're just fucking crazy Muslims bent on killing Westerners, and really don't give a flying halal shit who's in the White House or what they said to get there.