Last evening, 11/12/07, ABC’s Night Line had what I consider to have been the best MSM report on the Afghanistan War to date. The Report was sans propaganda and sugar coating, and demonstrated in spades, "War is Hell".
Ambush: Video Shows U.S. Troops Being Hunted, Killed.
Here is a Video Link, BUT NOT the entire Night Line Report of 11/12/07
Join me below the fold for more.
The November 12, 2007, ABC Night Line News Report, in conjunction with Vanity Fair, followed a company/platoon of American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as they engage in fire fights from their base of operations in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. The most poignant portion of the report was the filming of the platoon as it embarked on a planned assault through the Korengal Valley in pursuit of Taliban/Al Qaeda insurgents. The filming of the story shows the company’s/platoon’s preparation for the assault, including a miniaturized mock up of the valley in which the assault took place. This portion of the report was made even more poignant as the reporter tells the viewers, while the camera does a close up of a soldier, this soldier is killed in the subsequent assault operation. Seeing a living person engaged in living function while being told this person will be dead by the end of the news report creates a feeling unlike I have experienced in some time.
The report vividly films the heat of the combat action and culminates as two of the platoon's scouts are shot, one fatally. Following the death of the soldier, the filming could not have been more up close and personal. Upon seeing his fellow soldier having been shot dead, one of the platoon’s soldiers is overcome with extreme emotion, the likes of which you have not been seen on TV since Viet Nam. The finality of the deceased soldier is brought closer as the camera films four fellow soldiers, each taking one of the deceased soldier’s limbs, and carry the deceased soldier down the mountain.
I have had no success in locating a video link to the entire November 12, 2007, Night Line Report. If anyone knows of a link to this November 12, 2007, Night Line Report, it would be appreciated if you could share it.
Following are some related video links from the reporters and photographer who reported the story. Although each link has a 30 second advertisement introduction, I feel they are worth viewing.
Video of Photographer and VF Contributing Editor
Battlefield Wilderness
A Soldier's Perspective
The Fallen
My viewing of the report left me with the following impressions. First, Afghanistan, is Viet Nam all over again, as shown earlier in the report when the platoon comes upon a village bombed the night before and leaving 5 dead villagers. You see the village elders as they speak with the American soldiers following the night's bombing, and can feel villager elders agony. The enmity of the villagers was apparent and after a junior officer is unable to placate the village elders, a senior American officer is brought to the scene to attempt to sooth tensions created by the previous night’s bombings and resulting deaths. During this segment of the report you are most definitely left with the feeling the village elders have not been satisfied and that the previous night’s bombing, no matter how hard the soldiers attempt to justify/explain the same, did nothing but destroy any good will that may have previously existed, for the foreseeable future.
Although I have no military training, the news report in my opinion demonstrated it is absurd to think one can ever "win" a war with soldiers sitting in a base camp behind timbers and sand bags shooting at an enemy encamped in and/or around a village in a valley. My conclusions after viewing the Night Line Report: If the inhabitants of a region are either undisturbed by the alleged "enemy" or choose not to assist in the finding and/or fighting the "enemy", one can fairly surmise the enemy will never be eliminated, or alternatively, the so called "enemy" is maybe our "enemy", but not necessarily the local inhabitant’s "enemy".
Please correct me if I am wrong, but in the course of history, no foreign power or country has ever successfully occupied, pacified and/or conquered Afghanistan or its inhabitants. Accordingly, given Afghanistan borders America's ally(?) Pakistan, one must believe/think, that long term attempts to fight terrorism by occupying Afghanistan is at best misguided, or at worst, counter productive.
Misc. Links concerning ABC's and Vanity Fair's News Report:
Link 1
Link 2