Wanat

[Strange]

http://defensetech.org/2009/11/13/grim-wanat-footage/

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/ex ... id=9068156

one of the comments:
"Ok, I'm no General Schwarzkopf, but sending a dozen guys to camp out in hostile territory at the bottom of a ravine seems tactically brain dead to me. Had they been on high ground, they would have faired considerably better.

Question is, why did they chose such a bad tactical location? Bad officers? Or is the quality of training poor, so they simply didn't know any better? Or worse, sheer laziness: they didn't want to take the trouble to hike up the mountainside to establish the more advantageous CP?

I'm very upset to see our troops die for apparently stupid reasons."

i think its very sad, all the loss of KIA was unnecessary.

[Chanchu]

This may be the same firefight where the troopers 5.56 Armalite rifles failed.....
Article in the net news some weeks back ignored or spiked...

you are right Strange... me to

[Strange]

yes i think it is, there were 'some' discussion that the M4 would jam up in sustained auto mode firing...
but somehow, after viewing the footage, the issue seems to pale in comparison with the decision to station the forward base at a
low ground completely surround by steep hills

[Chanchu]

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/opini ... ve_better/

http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/ ... _us_s.html

Yeah best weapon is the mind, don't understand how it happened, looks like a very bad spot to be.... can't find the original article about the M-4/saw failures I think it was in the LA times..

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/ ... -16-rifle/

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/ ... -up-again/

[GrahamB]

"tunes" coming on? Isn't it "turns"?

Quite often what you think they're singing is often better than what they are actually singing

[Dmitri]

Um, wrong thread Graham, but you're right I believe. I typed that bit up by hand at 3 am, so...


This thread however is more about...