Yup… They LUV us out there: “Afghan flag-raising in NATO offensive draws gunfire”

“Afghan flag-raising in NATO offensive draws gunfire”

(also contains a few bars of “When Johnny DID NOT Come Marching Home”)

MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. Marines came under intense fire on Sunday after taking over a building in the heart of a Taliban stronghold targeted by a NATO-led offensive designed to put the Afghan government back in charge.

Taliban fighters unleashed automatic gunfire at NATO helicopters flying in and out of the town of Marjah, and fired on Marines at a ceremony to raise the Afghan flag over a building to mark progress in the offensive.

Captain Ryan Sparks compared the intensity of the fighting to the U.S.-led offensive against militants in the Iraqi town of Fallujah in 2004.

“In Fallujah, it was just as intense… More @ Reuters (India)

H/t: MilNews, Taliban communique watch.

Meanwhile, we actively seek to lose the support of the civilian population:

12 Afghan Civilians Dead From U.S. Artillery Mistake In Helmand

Two rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launched at insurgents firing upon Afghan and ISAF forces impacted approximately 300 meters off their intended target, killing 12 civilians in Nad Ali district, Helmand province today.

ISAF Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal conveyed his apologies to President Hamid Karzai for this unfortunate incident.

“We deeply regret this tragic loss of life,” said McChrystal. “The current operation in Central Helmand is aimed at restoring security and stability to this vital area of Afghanistan. It’s regrettable that in the course of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost. We extend our heartfelt sympathies and will ensure we do all we can to avoid future incidents.” [ISAF press release via Firedoglake]

Our offensive in Helmand province is proving to be just that... offensive. Even as we scatter the 'insurgents' 'into the hills', we do our own sort of murderous PR with the civilian population, who are now more likely to help the rebel forces now than before.

This is how to lose a war, but for a while, the CIA's friends (Like Hamid Karzai's brother) will have control of the global Opium supply once again.

Expect the price of Heroin on the streets of the West to decline dramatically over the next few months and years. Just the thing to help those countries citizens forget about their disintegrating, looted-by-their-own-power elite, economies.

Why do they do it you ask?

President Obama said he was going to bring the troops home!

"In discussing President Obama’s expansion of the US attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is important not to focus on Obama as a personality but on the social system to which he is committed..."

"As has been pointed out, his stated reasons for the war do not make much sense: in order to get out of Afghanistan, the US will send more troops into Afghanistan. The US needs to fight Al Queda, even though there are now only about 100 Queda militants left in Afghanistan; the Queda base is mostly in Pakistan (which Obama slurred over by speaking of “the border”) but the US will not be sending troops there (just secret attacks by drone missiles and CIA operatives). More generally, the US supposedly has to strengthen the resolve of the government of Pakistan...by sending more troops to Afghanistan. The US hopes to win over the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan by sending more non-Muslim, only-English-speaking, troops, which is sure to antagonize the people of the region. In 18 months, the US forces are supposed to transform the Karzai regime from one of the most corrupt, incompetent, and illegitimate states on earth, to a stable government (never mind a democracy). The effects of the mistaken US policies of 8 years can be reversed in 18 months (on the assumption that US forces will really “start” to withdraw in 18 months; promises are cheap; the US is still in Iraq). All of this is simply unbelievable and it is hard to think that an intelligent man such as Obama believes any of it.

Why then, really, is the US sending more troops into the region? Closer to Obama’s thinking are the expressions in his December 1, West Point, address, when he announced..."

For more, see: Obama's Imperial War: An Anarchist Response, at The Anarchist's Library