Undisciplined Gun Play by ANA Troops
BY Herschel Smith
14 years, 5 months ago
The CBS News article is titled Wild Gun Battle, but that doesn’t even begin to describe what this video depicts.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A frontline U.S. military base in southwest Afghanistan was the scene of a wild gun battle Saturday morning, initiated by Taliban insurgents against a private Afghan security convoy, but which quickly drew in Afghan National Army troops and U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.
The gun battle lasted nearly an hour-and-a-half with Afghan National Army soldiers and armed contractors from the private Afghan security firm known as Compass, shooting light machines guns from the hip, Rambo-style and indiscriminately, across a wide open field where the initial Taliban attack began.
The fighting started when insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade into what appeared to be a large sports utility vehicle belonging to Compass. The destroyed vehicle was left burning about a quarter mile from the front gate of Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, a rapidly expanding, U.S. military compound in the Zhari District of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
Compass, which is contracted to protect trucks transporting materials to U.S. military installations in the region, is routinely targeted by Taliban insurgents, even more so than U.S. and Afghan troops, according to Lt. Col. Peter Benchoff, commander of the 2-502nd, part of the 101st Airborne Division.
Because of the indiscriminate firing by both Compass security personnel and Afghan army soldiers, some of which in several instances nearly hit passing civilian vehicles, Benchoff, concerned about potential civilian casualties, sent a quick reaction force out of the base in heavily armored vehicles to try to diffuse the situation.
But when the base itself was targeted by the Taliban, U.S. soldiers had to return fire.
No American soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack, but at least one Compass contractor was injured.
I have written extensively on the Afghan National Army: the incompetence, the drug abuse, the undisciplined behavior, etc. But the behavior is a good followup to that depicted below.
We are in the very best of hands when we turn over to the ANA on Obama’s time table.
On July 23, 2010 at 12:52 pm, Warbucks said:
To my shame perhaps, I’ve come to the point of splitting concerns with (a) being under the influence on-duty and (b) being under the influence in private life.
I’ve sadly come to the conclusion: legalize it, sell it with controls similar to alcohol and tobacco, and tax it. This unfortunately does have a condoning effect upon our children but my children and my grand children are my responsibility not yours (figuratively speaking).
I have to take my chances with them in gateway experiences on the markets now in (a) medicine cabinet additions, (b) illegal street drugs (c) alcohol and (d) tobacco (e) and the internet.
Mice in lab tests given free access to opioids keep sucking on the drug dispenser until they overdose and die. Many humans do the same. I’ll still take my chances.
Being under the influence on duty is another matter entirely.