April 20, 2008
Green Berets Recount Deadly Taliban Ambush
Special Forces Troops Tell 60 Minutes Taliban Fighters Better Organized Than They Expected
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Play CBS Video Video Ambush In Afghanistan U.S. Army Special Forces say they were shocked by military tactics used by Taliban fighters who ambushed them near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in their first account of the unreported battle. Lara Logan reports.
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(CBS)
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Special Report War On Terror Complete coverage of the military's battle against terrorism.
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Fast Facts Afghanistan Learn about the people, economy and history.
Ford says the beam could be seen on night vision, but not by the naked eye.
"How far did you have to travel like this?" Logan asks.
"About 600 meters," O'Connor says.
"Have you ever seen that done before?" Logan asks.
"No, I have not," Ford says.
In a propaganda video, the Taliban showed off Matthew Binney's body armor as a war trophy and claimed victory, even though they lost an estimated 120 men in the fighting. But they surprised the Green Berets with their skill on the battlefield.
"The Taliban want to take Afghanistan back. They want to install their government, their system of life," Ford says.
"But, bottom line, a force that was defeated in the invasion is no longer defeated," Logan asks.
"Not at this time," one of the soldiers replies.
"But people will watching this how - wondering how did we get to this point? When this is the army that literally ran from U.S .forces. And now we're fighting them on this scale?" Logan asks.
"They've hid. And they've trained," Ford says.
"The kind of training that you use," Logan remarks.
"Right. Absolutely," Ford acknowledges.
"And now I'm sitting here and you're talking about a force that not only uses American style combat and infantry tactics, but is able to engage America's finest warriors," Logan remarks.
"That's correct," one of the soldiers replies.
At an emotional ceremony in Kandahar, the Green Berets honored the two warriors they lost in the fighting, Thom Maholic and Joe Fuerst. The team believes their whole unit would have been killed or captured had it not been for the bravery of individuals like Brendan O'Connor.
"I mean he's an absolute hero," says Ford. "He's what people want to be."
Later this month, O'Connor will become only the second American to receive the Distinguished Service Cross, for valor in Afghanistan.
The rest of the unit was honored at Fort Bragg late last year and became the most decorated Special Forces team for a single battle in the Afghan war.
Thom Maholic's Silver Star was presented to his son Andrew. He stood proudly in front of the men whose lives his father had saved.
Two years after the battle, the village where the fighting took place - and much of southern Afghanistan - remain under Taliban influence.
Produced by Tom Anderson, Max McClellan, and Jenny Dubin
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 241 Commentsfrom the bbc:
"The construction of the 850-kilometre pipeline had been previously discussed between Afghanistan''s former Taliban regime, US oil company Unocal and Bridas of Argentina.
The project was abandoned after the US launched missile attacks on Afghanistan in 1999.
Afghanistan plans to build a road linking Turkmenistan with Pakistan parallel to the pipeline, to supply nearby villages with gas, and also to pump Afghan gas for export, Mr Razim said.
The pipeline is expected to be built with funds from donor countries for the reconstruction of Afghanistan as well as ADB loans, he said."
Everyone (military and civilian) has the right and duty to investigate and question. The information is there for anyone who wants to seek it out. As we know "I was just following orders" did not hold in war trials. Just because one country''s leadership "legalized" an action (waterboarding torture), that too did not hold in Nazi or Japanese world war criminal trials.
Every family will "support the troops" with their $21,000 of the 3T bill as it is silently taken from their back pockets. Try to get that type of subsidy for alternative energy expansion and energy independence! It''s just like the crooks of enron, dynergy, el paso etc. who decimate pension funds or saddle rate payers with 30 years to pay off the exorbitant electricity rates for the shortages they schemed. The west as "nation builders" assures they will get the same types of crooks as the medical drug industry that deny the free market principles and force U.S. buyers to pay more than Canadians.
So remember, every country deserves an Independence Day. And as having done nothing since the ''70''s it remains: America is addicted to oil. And, addicts commit crimes to feed their habits.
So with 81% of americans saying the country is on the wrong course, the world consensus the west is wrong, a low 30% house/senate approval, 28% presidential approval etc, the question is how did this occur? Could another super power claim to be doing a similar "good" (say, to protect the world''s poor from global flooding, or to fix the corporate control over a decades old failed health system) and invade and displace the leadership and then likewise claim of an expensive occupation that "they have resources we can sell off to fund it"?
"THE GRAND CHESSBOARD", irretractably written before the invasions, speaks of of these countries that make the headlines today - iraq, afganistan, turkmenistan, ukraine, georgia, iran, syria, jordan, pakistan, israel, india, etc. Just color in the squares and recognize where the U.S.''s 700 foreign bases are, and recognize just who became the disposable pawns in iraq and afganistan. Realize that we still occupy a part of cuba and embargo them for the equivalent for what is going on today with Poland and Czechoslovakia. The U.S.''s 5% uses 25% of the world''s resources and 45% of the world''s gasoline while other countries demand their share. How far we have strayed. Imagine if the biblical story of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish miraculously could feed 5000 but instead 45% were kept for few disciples. Days before bremmer left he tried to sneak in the laws that absolves the west from war prosecution, a mandate that "minerals" become privatized and allows all companies to take all profits out of iraq. Iraqis objected.
The same oil agenda was exposed in iraq, where the opening invasion sent special forces to guard the in-operative trans-jordan pipeline while the museums were looted. Recall, how the administration even floated the idea of "laying a pipeline as they advanced north to resupply the troops". of course that would have later made a dandy drainage source to export oil for some multinational oil company. A similar thing occurred before, as taxpayer funded project turned privatized windfall bonanza - the "big inch, little inch" pipelines (likewise, and the texas rangers stadium).
Regarding AQ and "no distinction between them and those that harbor them", the U.S. does the same with terrorist killer Posada. "bringing democracy" is just an excuse for the public and the unquestioning military.
Posted by ranger1948 at 10:11 PM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse
*****
now they are fighting a more vicious enemy and a more vicious group of liberals..
Are you in the United States or some other country??
You wrote a pretty moving piece. And it would seem to me that anyone with much sense would want all war''s to end.
Thanks for your report. I found myself weeping uncontrollably throughout the story. There are no words for one that lays his life down before his brothers, without hesitation. That%u2019s why we serve. My civilian friends ask me why I don%u2019t separate from the military and find other work, this after three different trips to IRAQ and one to AFGN. I serve not for me, but for my brothers and sisters in arms.
I want the wars to end, and the killing to cease. But I will inflict my will as I am ordered to. After seeing much of the world through iron sites at the end of a weapon, I know that being different isn%u2019t necessarily wrong.
I completely lost it when I saw the son standing proudly in his place for his father that had been fatally wounded. I see my own son standing there and I pray to God that he spares my life for my children%u2019s sake. But I will not hesitate, not for a minute, to put myself in danger or sacrifice my life so that I won%u2019t have to see someone else%u2019s child standing in their place.
This thought process might seem foreign to you and your viewers, but it%u2019s a way of life for some. I don%u2019t see myself doing anything else, and I don%u2019t much want to either.
Again, thank you for your report.
Unfortunately times are a lot worse now than they were during nam.
To dixiecharms: Good post...
And to everyone else...We Will WIN this was at some point. Its going to take a long time yet. But from the input that I have heard things are getting better. No matter what we may hear on the liberal news..
Once again, I sing "I''''m proud to be an American" -- when I read a story like this one -- it is an awesome debt we owe these brave American soldiers. Their love of each other trumps anything I''''ve seen in this world. God Bless America - Land that I love.
Posted by dixiecharms at 01:24 PM : Apr 22, 2008
26, of Tampa, Fla.; assigned to 53rd Infantry Brigade, Florida Army National Guard, Pinellas Park, Fla.; killed June 24 when his Humvee came in contact with enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire during combat operations in Panjway, Afghanistan.
I Never new the National Guard was part of the Special Forces. I thought you had to be Airborne Qualified
If gates thinks the Air Force isn''''t doing enough then he should get off his *** and out of his airconditioned office and go there and correct th situation.
Posted by ranger1948 at 11:20 PM : Apr 21, 2008
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