Have you heard about this? It happened in Afghanistan on September 14th:
First Air Marshal Obama Leads U.S. Military to its Worst Loss of Air Power Since Vietnam
The U.S. Suffered Its Worst Airpower Loss Since Vietnam Last Week and No One Really Noticed
Untold Loss: Media Blackout on Military Disaster on Obama's Watch
Why, again, are American soldiers and Marines still in Afghanistan?
John D. Gresham puts the losses in perspective:
Whatever the organizational outcome, the Sept. 14, 2012 attack on Camp Bastion is arguably the worst day in USMC aviation history since the Tet Offensive of 1968. The last time VMA-211 was combat ineffective was in December 1941, when the squadron was wiped out during the 13-day defense of Wake Island against the Japanese. Eight irreplaceable aircraft (the AV-8B has been out of production since 1999) have been destroyed or put out of action – approximately 7 percent of the total flying USMC Harrier fleet. Worse yet, the aircraft involved were the AV-B+ variant equipped with the APG-65 radar and AAQ-28 Litening II targeting pods – the most capable in the force. Given the current funding situation, it’s likely that the two damaged AV-8Bs will become spare parts “hangar queens” and never fly again. A Harrier squadron commander is dead, along with another Marine. Another nine personnel have been wounded, and the nearby Marines at Camp Freedom are now without effective fixed-wing air support. The USMC’s response to this disaster will be a telling report card on its leadership and organizational agility.There's little point in speculating on how President Obama's response to this disaster will be a telling report card on his leadership and organizational agility. Does anyone expect him to comment or respond in any way, beyond acknowledging, perhaps, those irritating bumps in the road? (Then again, if you want him to chime in on the NFL referee crisis or appear as self-proclaimed eye candy on the worst show on television, he's your guy!)
Image courtesy of reader Pseud O'Nym
Mark Steyn mentioned the Camp Bastion attack in a recent interview, noting that "a bunch of goatherds destroyed a squadron's worth of aircraft" and "it didn't even make the papers." Which it didn't. Paired with the very successful attack on our ambassador and consulate in Benghazi (see "catastrophic intelligence loss" and "Benghazi consulate security didn’t meet minimum standards"), it's hard not to agree with Mark:
The “bumps in the road” (in the President’s exquisite formulation) are not just the corpses of real Americans but the charred husk of superpower credibility.Read the rest.
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Many thanks to Pewsitter for the link.
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Reader Abe Tolemahcs sent me this comment by email:
ReplyDeleteThis is more like a bump in the night telling the homeowner that he needs to get up, grab his gun and pursue whomever broke into his home.
In my Marine network there's been very little chatter about this which is surprising. Maybe there's an embargo similar to the discussion about "No Easy Day" imposed by the Pentagon.
Oh it gets better - http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/blaming_our_troops_gsNkgSOnejhkmabM2KA6TI
ReplyDeleteThey are being given sensitivity training - such as don't put your shoes on the table so that they can see the soles, as it is insulting to them. They are also being told not to show pictures of wives and children.
If our troops can't put their feet up on a table because they may get shot, it is time to bring them home.
Conservative girl, it's nothing new. We had sensitivity training before & during deployment to Desert Storm/Shield. Don't you support making your Infantrymen more sensitive and culturally aware?
DeleteNeedless to say, their near beer stinks, but we weren't even allowed the real thing in Iraq...