Marines held back after Taliban resurgance
- added July 6, 2008
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- rwylie
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More than 2000 US Marines fighting in southern Afghanistan have had their tour of duty extended, amid fears that a fightback from the Taliban will force next year's presidential election to be postponed.
Soldiers from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who are credited with "significantly easing the pressure on British troops in Helmand province", were due to be recalled at the end of September, but will now stay on for an extra month. This comes after commanders of the 60,000 Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan asked for an extra month to "milk the fighting season to the bitter end".
Although the Pentagon played down this "slight addition" to the Marines' tour, the announcement came after months of denials that they would be told to stay longer: Asked in May about the possibility of extending their tour the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said that he would be "loath to do that", and that "no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation".
June was the bloodiest month for forces in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001, with 45 coalition soldiers loosing their lives. It also marked the second consecutive month in which Nato forces' losses were higher in Afghanistan than in Iraq, even though three times as many troops are stationed in the latter. Between January and May, the Pentagon also reported a 40% rise in attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan compared wih the same period last year.
This attributed to "the Taliban and their supporters [growing] more effective and more aggressive in recent weeks."
Soldiers from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who are credited with "significantly easing the pressure on British troops in Helmand province", were due to be recalled at the end of September, but will now stay on for an extra month. This comes after commanders of the 60,000 Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan asked for an extra month to "milk the fighting season to the bitter end".
Although the Pentagon played down this "slight addition" to the Marines' tour, the announcement came after months of denials that they would be told to stay longer: Asked in May about the possibility of extending their tour the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said that he would be "loath to do that", and that "no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation".
June was the bloodiest month for forces in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001, with 45 coalition soldiers loosing their lives. It also marked the second consecutive month in which Nato forces' losses were higher in Afghanistan than in Iraq, even though three times as many troops are stationed in the latter. Between January and May, the Pentagon also reported a 40% rise in attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan compared wih the same period last year.
This attributed to "the Taliban and their supporters [growing] more effective and more aggressive in recent weeks."
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wow..jus when you think eveything is going so so..over there..stories like this...makes you think..are we really making a change over there
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what...is...this...all...about?
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The Shiite and Sunni Islamic word has been at war with itself for over 1000 years, killing each other fighting over the spoils gained by killing and forcibly converting Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians to their religion of evil. The fruit of Islam has always been bad. Muslims believe that they will be rewarded for killing anyone who does not believe exactly as they do, including other Muslims. Sending a modern army to fight makes no sense. Isolating them while allowing them to kill each other or convert to another religion is the only solution.
However we cannot isolate them AGAIN until we end the West’s dependence on their OIL. Our technologically ignorant greedy politicians are responsible for freeing them from 500 years of isolation. We would not need their oil if we started to seriously conserve energy and immediately started to replace 100 year old fossil fuel technology with modern sustainable renewable alternatives developed over the last 50 years. Greedy fossil fuel providers and ignorant environmentalists have joined to lobby power hungry politicians and encourage them to deceive uninformed voters.
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