30 US Troops killed by Taliban in single attack.

[Ironic Pirate]

The news over here said it was an "accident".

Then again, I never believed it was an "accident". I always thought it had been attacked. A multi-million dollar helicopter doesn't just malfunction like that.

And they say we have a "free press".

EDIT: Oh, NOW they're saying it was an attack. God, I really fucking hate the news media, bunch of lying, dick-yanking bastards!

Yeah, they never just make mistakes, do they? No, everyone in the news media is a soul-less, godless flesh eating zombie created for one purpose: lying through their teeth. That is demonstrably true, and everyone knows they're all payed off buy the government with tax dollars. There's no way they're just incompetent, they all have an agenda, every one.

Sorry if that was a little much, but the escapist has a seemingly massive population of Bill Hicks wannabes, and it's annoying.

It's war, people signed up to kill and be killed, this is just part of the process.
To me it's only tragic when civilians get involved, i.e. Oslo is worse, far far worse.

I'm not comparing this to the Oslo attacks, but it's only tragic when it's civilians?
You sir, disgust me, you may not like that, but i don't understand how you can say that.
I don't say that often.

The word tragic implies that a group of innocent individuals was harmed, since the people getting killed were soldiers whom are basically killers in employment of the American government. It's hard to feel sorry for people who are somewhere they have no business being in the first place and have (probably) murdered a lot of people themselves.

Couple things. A soldier is not "a killer employed by the government" and killing enemy combatants in a war is not "murder". The war in Afghanistan is a bad thing, yes, but that doesn't make all the participants baby eating monsters.

 

[sinterklaas]

Condoleances to their families. Can't say I support this war (or any war for that matter), but people dying is always tragic.

If only we could live together in peace...

 

[cryogeist]

I didn't know you could fit 30 people on 1 helicopter.

Well, those soldiers knew the risks when they signed up.

like i said before
chinooks are huge

 

[steampunk42]

news like this always make me bummed. i got a bunch of friends fighting over there, and a couple more in training who will be there soon. when ever i hear news like this where the shit only seems to be getting worse sucks for everyone. only hope my friends make it back safe, and those about to there are safe for their tour. i don't care if this war is right or wrong at this point, i just care that those i love can at least come back still living then it's a good war in my eyes.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Why does this still have to go on? What's our goal? What's their goal? Why are we still there? Why, why, why?

 

[Warforger]

That's the bloody truth of war folks, people die.

Yeah, but usually not in this large a number.
We all know people die in war, but does that make it any less tragic than a murder, or even a string of serial killings?
And if thirty people had died due to a serial killer, you wouldn't be saying that people just die.

Well it's one thing for a helicopter full of 30 people to be brought down and another for say each soldier being taken down on the ground. This would've been the equivalent of someone blowing up a passenger jet full of say 100 people, it's not that he or she have the super skill it's that they were in one vulnerable basket and no way out, now they would've have super skill if they went into say a restaurant and killed 100 people. The insurgents simply got lucky and it was a major mess up. But no when I saw the news I didn't care, I mean those things are reported all the time. Why not something different, like I don't know people criticzing the US for supporting Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan? You know some of the most oppressive nations on the planet that the US supports because of natural gases and terrorism? I mean I feel sorry for the families but this happens alot, but the addition of Seal Team Six makes it stand out.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

It's goddamn war, 30 people would have been chickenshit 40 years ago

they knew the risks anyway

 

[Kargathia]

That's the bloody truth of war folks, people die.

Yeah, but usually not in this large a number.

Actually, that's sort of depending on your perspective. When looking more than two months back it's more akin to "usually they don't die in these small numbers".

Well for the US military incidents this large haven't happened regularly since Vietnam.

US soldiers don't have a monopoly on dying in a war you know. And I hope you're not suggesting that it only matters when US soldiers die.

Why does this still have to go on? What's our goal? What's their goal? Why are we still there? Why, why, why?

Because you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.

 

[fundayz]

>implying that it's the dead soldier's fault they were deployed to Afghanistan

It IS their fault that they were deployed to Afghanistan.

They were not forced to go, they signed a contract that explicitly said they could be called to serve in areas of armed conflict.

Yeah, America should be ashamed of itself for going after the people who murdered thousands of civilians...

No, America should be ashamed for PERPETUATING A 10 YEAR WAR THAT HAS HAD ZERO RESULTS and cost their own people BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of dollars.

America should be ashamed for using their OFFICIAL military force to escalate unrest in the middle east and kill THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS. America should be ashamed for DROPPING BOMBS on CIVILIANS THAT HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH TERRORISTS.

The American Military is no better than the extremists they fight.

 

[Bunnymarn]

Can I ask something; would you still feel compelled to create a thread or even comment on this event if it had been 30 Taliban or Afghani civilians?

 

[The Virgo]

The news over here said it was an "accident".

Then again, I never believed it was an "accident". I always thought it had been attacked. A multi-million dollar helicopter doesn't just malfunction like that.

And they say we have a "free press".

EDIT: Oh, NOW they're saying it was an attack. God, I really fucking hate the news media, bunch of lying, dick-yanking bastards!

Yeah, they never just make mistakes, do they? No, everyone in the news media is a soul-less, godless flesh eating zombie created for one purpose: lying through their teeth. That is demonstrably true, and everyone knows they're all payed off buy the government with tax dollars. There's no way they're just incompetent, they all have an agenda, every one.

Sorry if that was a little much, but the escapist has a seemingly massive population of Bill Hicks wannabes, and it's annoying.

They knew that a helicopter fell out of the sky somewhere over 7,000 miles away and who was on board, but didn't know that a rocket hit it? Uh-huh, right. The news media has either lied or warped the truth so many times that I look upon everything they do with skepticism. At the very least, until they knew for certain, they shouldn't have said "accident".

By the way, surprise that you were the one who replied, because I had actually been looking for you. I have to ask you: where did you find that GIF, the one you're using as a profile pic? I have to know, it's so awful and evil it's fantastic! Bambi getting eaten by killer whale = win!

 

[Ithera]

Nice shooting from that Taliban gunner. I suppose this might net him a "Order of Bin Laden"?

When you hang around a war zone this is a risk one takes, a sad but an unfortunate reality. I wish their replacements better luck.

 

[DarkRyter]

War. War never changes.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

>implying that it's the dead soldier's fault they were deployed to Afghanistan

It IS their fault that they were deployed to Afghanistan.

They were not forced to go, they signed a contract that explicitly said they could be called to serve in areas of armed conflict.

Yeah, America should be ashamed of itself for going after the people who murdered thousands of civilians...

America should be ashamed for using their OFFICIAL military force to escalate unrest in the middle east and kill THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS. America should be ashamed for DROPPING BOMBS on CIVILIANS THAT HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH TERRORISTS.

The American Military is no better than the extremists they fight.

Um... no, we don't do that. At all. What America are you talking about? There have been some accidental civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan, but they are always just that: accidental. In the few cases that soldiers have gone rogue and killed innocents for fun, they are severely punished. And as for the bomb thing... American troops are routinely denied air support for fear of harming the local populace.

And if you honestly think that our military is no better than the Taliban, then you are frighteningly misinformed. Tell you what: go look up the actions of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Learn about what they routinely do, and what they stand for, and then come back and tell me with a straight face that they are the good guys.

 

[phelan511]

It was the same unit that got bin Laden, but it wasn't the same men or so we say. DEVGRU is a pretty big unit. Seems to me that having a bunch of DEVGRU operators in one heli means that whoever they were going after must have been one hell of a HVT. Thoughts and prayers go to the killed and their families.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Thirty US troops, said to be mostly special forces, have been killed, reportedly when a Taliban rocket downed their helicopter.

This is the largest single loss of life in the Afghan conflict.

Here's the official BBC link.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14430735

So, pretty tragic, and what's more, this is the same unit from the group that took down Osama Bin Laden.

What's your take?

[HEADING=2]EDIT:[/HEADING] Since people have just seemed to jump the gun here, this particualr unit were the ones that took down Bin Laden!
Is this just coincidence!?

Wait, was they involve with killing him or was it somebody else that was on the same team but did NOT kill Bin laden.

 

[Shock and Awe]

That's the bloody truth of war folks, people die.

Yeah, but usually not in this large a number.

Actually, that's sort of depending on your perspective. When looking more than two months back it's more akin to "usually they don't die in these small numbers".

Well for the US military incidents this large haven't happened regularly since Vietnam.

US soldiers don't have a monopoly on dying in a war you know. And I hope you're not suggesting that it only matters when US soldiers die.

Not at all, Im just saying thats why this is such a bid deal for Americans, this kind of loss of life in single incidents has almost been unheard of since Vietnam. Thats why the incident in Mogadishu was such a bid deal 20 years ago, even then Americans have gotten used to the lack of fatalities, especially out special operations troops.

 

[natster43]

Sucks for the families of the soldiers. Sadly this is truth of war, people dying. As to the whole same unit thing, I doubt it was anything more than coincidence.

 

[phelan511]

Yeah, America should be ashamed of itself for going after the people who murdered thousands of civilians...

America should be ashamed for using their OFFICIAL military force to escalate unrest in the middle east and kill THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS. America should be ashamed for DROPPING BOMBS on CIVILIANS THAT HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH TERRORISTS.

The American Military is no better than the extremists they fight.

Um. Not sure who you're thinking about but we in the U.S. Military do not intentionally target civilians. We attack combatants. Do civilians sometimes die? Sadly yes. Is there an investigation each time U.S. ordinance was involved in civilian casualties? Yes. Are there changes in procedure to prevent civilians from getting killed? Yes. But what makes us better? We provide aid to those we accidentally injure, we pay the families as an apology if they are killed. Whats the difference between the US military and the Taliban or the Mahdi Army or Al-Qaeda? The insurgents don't care who they hit. And they don't hit just US targets. They attack Iraqi civilians, they attack Afghan civilians. On purpose. Placing IEDs in schools, using car bombs on hospitals, shooting at innocent people that were thought to have helped the Coalition. And then when they do attack civilians and civilians die? They're considered infidels or collaborators and thus they deserved to die. Don't you dare impugn the honor of the men and women serving not just the US, or NATO, by lumping them in the same group as these monsters.

 

[Zeema]

So guys why are we there again?