More Lives Needlessly Squandered in Afghanistan

As regular readers know, I have opposed the continuing military disaster in Afghanistan for years - it's a situation that will never yield success, yet the USA continues to throw billions and billions of dollars down the rat hole and lives continue to be lost on a fools errand. The truth is that Afghanistan has been a largely lawless land of war lords and instability for thousands of years yet the USA military leadership, after watching the Soviets spend 10 disastrous years trying too subdue the area, is so filled with hubris that it still believes it can do what no one has been able to do for well over 2,000 years. Now, with the shooting down of Chinook helicopter an Saturday, 38 more lives have been thrown away, 22 from units stationed in the Hampton Roads area. Those lost were husbands, sons, and fathers - living breathing individuals, not just more statistics for those at the top who really don't give a damn despite their mealy mouthed lip service to the contrary.

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Don't get me wrong - I support the rank and file members of the military who merely go where they are ordered to go and try to achieve their ordered mission even if its impossible to achieve. The hubris and idiocy are at the top ranks of the Pentagon and military brass who will always claim to be making progress and claim that the task can be completed with more troops and more squandered money. The American people never seem to learn that war is a game to those at the top and that there's never a war that should not be fought. Now, local family and friends are mourning lives that were wasted on a fools errand. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

In the deadliest day for U.S. forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter Saturday, killing 30 Americans - including Navy SEAL commandos from the broader unit that killed Osama bin Laden - and eight Afghans, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The helicopter, on a night-raid mission west of Kabul, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, one coalition official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and they could hardly have found a more valuable target: U.S. officials said that 22 of the dead were Navy SEAL commandos from two different special teams, including Virginia Beach-based SEAL Team 6. Other commandos from that team conducted the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden in May. The officials said that those who were killed Saturday were not involved in the Pakistan mission.

Saturday's attack came during a surge of violence that has accompanied the beginning of a drawdown of U.S. and NATO troops, and it showed how deeply entrenched the insurgency remains even far from its main strongholds in southern Afghanistan and along the Afghan-Pakistani border in the east. U.S. troops had recently turned over the sole combat outpost in the Tangi Valley to Afghans.

Early accounts of the crash suggested that the helicopter was hovering near the target location when an insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Chinook and it went down, killing all aboard.

The casualties are believed to be largest loss of life in the history of SEAL Team 6, officially called the Navy Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. The team is considered the best of the best among the already elite SEALs, who number 3,000 personnel.

It makes me physically sick to think of the families who have lost loved ones. We'll hear a lot of disingenuous blather about how they died serving their country. In truth, they died because of the hubris of their senior commanders. And yes, I personally know members of the SEALS and their families.