{"id":1028,"date":"2005-08-22T22:37:30","date_gmt":"2005-08-23T03:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2005-08-22T22:37:59","modified_gmt":"2005-08-23T03:37:59","slug":"40-suspected-rebels-killed-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1028","title":{"rendered":"40 Suspected Rebels Killed in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been quite bloody in Afghanistan lately, and that bloodshed has been largely one-sided<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. and Afghan troops killed at least 40 suspected rebels in an offensive targeting militants who ambushed Navy SEAL commandos and shot down a special-forces helicopter — the deadliest attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Monday.<\/p>\n

The military declared the weeklong operation in lawless Kunar province near Pakistan a success, following the spate of insurgent attacks that already has made 2005 the bloodiest year for American forces in the country since the Taliban’s ouster.<\/p>\n

This year alone, 66 American service members have been killed — more than a third of the 187 who have died in and around Afghanistan since 2001. Four were slain Sunday when a massive roadside bomb blew up an under armored Humvee.<\/p>\n

The number of U.S. casualties is a fraction of those suffered in Iraq, yet the barrage of near-daily ambushes, bombings and execution-style killings here has raised fears that almost four years of nation-building is under threat.<\/p>\n

Most of the recent fatalities have occurred during coalition operations aimed at preventing militants from subverting crucial legislative elections Sept. 18, seen as Afghanistan’s next step toward democracy after more than two decades of war and civil strife.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that story, on its face the reporting of a successful series of offensive operations, quickly turned to a rather negative tone.<\/p>\n

Never one to be outdone in its negativity, the New York Times<\/em> devotes an entire piece<\/a> to the American losses for the year to date in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

This year is already the deadliest for American soldiers in Afghanistan since the war of 2001, and the violence is likely to intensify before the nation’s legislative elections on Sept. 18.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feel free to read the rest. As is the norm when the Times<\/em> covers the American military, anti-depressants are optional.<\/p>\n

This brings to mind a recent point<\/a> by Paul Mirengoff over at Power Line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Have you ever read a history of war that focused almost entirely on casualty figures (with an occasional torture story and grieving parent thrown in), to the exclusion of any real discussion of tactics, operations, and actual battles? I haven’t. But that’s what our self-proclaimed “rough drafters” of history are serving up with respect to Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So true. The first filters of the history of the day are, in my opinion, doing a great disservice to the public. The typical American is receiving no information about the overall competence and professionalism of our troops. Little is said of what life is like for our boots on the ground, their successes and sacrifices (unless they die, that is).<\/p>\n

Should the U.S. fail in its endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will not be because the mission could not be successfully accomplished. It will not be because the American fighting soldier was not able to attain victory after victory. Rather, it will be because the American public’s willingness to sustain the effort will have been sapped by the near-constant bleakness in the media and the harping of the far left. Should we fail, however, expect a rousing chorus of “we told you so” from these entities instead of the apology to the public and our future generations for the defeat, a defeat to which they will have contributed to as much or more than the terrorists our forces face in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been quite bloody in Afghanistan lately, and that bloodshed has been largely one-sided. U.S. and Afghan troops killed at least 40 suspected rebels in an offensive targeting militants who ambushed Navy SEAL commandos and shot down a special-forces helicopter — the deadliest attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Monday. The military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-media","category-central-asia","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}