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“Substantial Progress Without Casualties”



Feb 13, 2010 9 Comments ›› Pat Dollard

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WASHINGTON (AP) – The British commander of the massive force of American, British and Afghan soldiers hammering at Taliban insurgents in the strategic south Afghanistan town of Marjah says his troops have made substantial progress without any casualties.

Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, commander of the coalition force’s Regional Command-South, said early Saturday that the combined units, aided by more than 60 helicopters, made a “successful insertion” into Marjah between 3 p.m. Friday and dawn Saturday.

Carter, in a briefing to reporters broadcast from Afghanistan, said the operation went without a hitch.

Carter says the coalition offensive was “personally endorsed and sanctioned” by Afghan President Hamid Karzai during consultations the day before troops went on the move.


  • EL GONZO

    Love it but how about putting Mj. Gen Nick Carter in charge of a combined US/Nato insertion and capture and control of D.C. and arrest Obongo, that would be a huge coalition victory…… believe me, they will get help from many patriots….

    • Gaige Mosher

      Gonzo, you are a fuckin’ one trick pony.

    • EL GONZO

      No, there’s no trick to the obvious….

  • political.fish

    This is to be expected when you announce your plans publicly prior to taking action. The enemy simply dissolves into the civilian population, is allowed to leave, and regroups elswhere to fight another day. Never-the-less it will be touted as a ‘success’ under the Obongo worldview. Conclusion: Objective in coalition control, no tactical value.
    A worthless victory from a worthless administration.
    (I want to be clear that this condemnation has nothing to do with our fine soldiers in the field. I have no doubt that they can do what needs to be done, they are just receiving orders from an abject ignoramous.)

    • EL GONZO

      Political fish, I sooooooooooo agree with you. The enemy will strike back in more sinister ways……

    • Giorgi

      i can agree to the point, cause it reminds me of a second battle for Fallujah, when they annunced and gave corridor to the civies to flee the area prior to an assault. also i think given the infiltration of taliban in the ranks of afghani national army, and their particiption in the storming of the city, intelligence would have leaked out anyhow, and taliban would have used the civies as a human shields and blame it all on a “infidels”. that would suck. as far as effort goes, the whole winning the hearts and minds of locals.
      had a friend with the marines during the Fallujah battle, he said those who stayed in the city had a deathwish, some escaped, but we didnt give a fuck, we needed to take out the most hardcore ones. they dug foxholes inside the houses and when it was confirmed that a particular house was a stronghold they either shot a 120mm at it or leveled it with a catepilar bulldozer. same here, i think, the most dangerous and suicidal ones would stay to fight. believe my guys, what NATO is doing is done much cleaner than what russins did during their afghan venture. plus russians had the whole afghanistan wanting their blood 6 years in to the war.

      In March there will be a 700+ strong contingent of Georgian army in Helmand serving together with the Marines. We got about 200 already in Kabul with French. in 1700s, a Georgian King with his army defeated and took an afghani Shah as a prisoner, but he served for Persians who had our royal family members as hostages. For us, Georgians, going back to Afghanistan is like a “guess whos back, motherefuckers”. :twisted: plus get some action, prep up for eventuall fight with russians. shit, our boys need a real life training…

      May god protect all soldiers and bring them back to their families safely. (no liberal pun intended)

    • political.fish

      Giorgi,
      Its nice to see you posting again. Also, what a tragedy about your Olympic luger. My condolences.

    • Giorgi

      Thank you,
      we seem to have no luck with Olympics
      during the last olympic games we had russian tanks rolling around our countryside, now this…they said that the track was not a cause for a tragedy, but then it has been altered with a wooden wall being put on those metal beams…

  • bacon fat enema

    Before the operation began, I read that coalition estimates of enemy personnel in the zone ranged from 700 to 1000. What is the point of premature declarations of either failure or victory – let alone “worthless victory” (uh no disrespect to the troops there eh)?

    Let’s give these professionals their due credit for knowing what they’re doing over there, and not simply assume or imply that they’re just sad meat puppets dancing on the ends of a fistful of POTUS strings.

    Why not simply state your own personal view, based on the numbers, of what would constitute a success in your mind when Operation Moshtarak is written into the history books? 600 enemy dead or captured? 700? 900?

    Put your money where your mouth is. The soldiers are responsible for the success of the mission. The CIC is responsible for what happens AFTER the mission. GWB got this, and that is why I never held the gibbering MSM slander regarding “mission accomplished” against him. He was right. The mission WAS accomplished, and later it became evident to most thinking minds that is was indeed a stunning success.