In the first real crank-up-operation-and-get-some-people-killed offensive that the generals are so enamored of, to take a line from the classic Vietnam journal "Dispatches," since Obama's announcement, Marines have swept about a 100 miles of territory and proven the V-22 Osprey is worth it's contract. That was practically the lead-in for the article. This is why you need a war. To prove these damned things work. Madison Ave Marketing meets Pentagon. Thank you, Boeing.
You will be getting your dose of the real shit, (ok, Michael Herr I'm not) and the straight dope on this diary now that we got ourselves a real shooting war.
Herr reports hearing officers say in 'Nam, "don't knock it. It's the only war we've got."
Let me tell you wants really going on. This is a lot of noise.
Military spokesman, AP:
"Right now, the enemy is confused and disorganized," Pelletier said by telephone from Camp Leatherneck, the main Marines base in Helmand. "They're fighting, but not too effectively."
Give me a break man. They know this move they're friggin staying home and stashing their AKs under their favorite rocks. They just watching.
British troops who were once stationed there left graffiti dubbing the town "Apocalypse Now-Zad," a play on the title of the 1979 Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now. The British base was nearly overrun on several occasions with insurgents coming within yards (meters) of the protection wall. The area was handed over in 2008 to the Marines, who have struggled to reclaim much of the valley.
Uh huh. Here we go again. The Viet Cong used much the same tactics, biding it's time and giving fighters from surrounding areas time to get into position. A country of 30 million people, all of them raised on firefights like mother's milk, versus our 60,000, soon to be almost 100,000 if Congress let's Obama have his way. The hope is they'll see this is bad for everyone, even Obama, and put a halt to this nonsense.
Then it's the same shit. They surround you like ants and start shooting and keep coming, no matter how many go down, and you've got to call in airstrikes to save your ass. Kill a lot of people, probably civilians too, and 5 more families, and their extended clans, are against you. Taliban one, U.S. zero.