The Strange Battle Of Shah-I-Kot
Though U.S. commanders claim success in the war in Afghanistan
and, more specifically, the battle against al-Qaeda and Taliban
forces holed up in the Shah-i-Kot Mountains, writer Brendan O’Neill
argues that it’s nothing more than doublespeak.
Writing in Spiked-Online, the British online Webzine,
O’Neill questions the Pentagon’s assertion that commanders were
‘wrapping up the operation…in little more than 24 hours.’ Indeed,
the 24-hour conflict has lasted weeks.
‘As military commanders on the ground claimed to be ‘on top’ of the
battle,’ O’Neill writes, ‘a senior Air Force commander in
Washington said, ‘The way we lost those seven guys was a repeat of
Somalia’ – conjuring up images of 1993’s disastrous Battle of
Mogadishu where 18 soldiers were killed, otherwise known in US
military circles as ‘our other Vietnam.”
O’Neill doubts whether we’ll ever know the entire truth about
Operation Anaconda, but notes, ‘there are enough contradictory
claims and clashing reports to suggest that it wasn’t the
‘unqualified and absolute success’ claimed by General Tommy
Franks.’
–Sara V. Buckwitz
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