U.S. Retreats from Afghan 'Valley of Death'- As If 5-Year Fight Was Tragic, Bloody Misunderstanding

Wednesday, April 14, 2010; 9:59 AM

KORENGAL VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN -- It was as if the five years of almost ceaseless firefights and ambushes had been a misunderstanding -- a tragic, bloody misunderstanding.

More than 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed, and scores more wounded, in helicopter crashes, machine-gun attacks and grenade blasts in the Korengal Valley, a jagged sliver just six miles deep and a half-mile wide. The Afghan death toll has been far higher, making the Korengal some of the bloodiest ground in all of Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

In the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, the American presence here came to an abrupt end.

The day before, Capt. Mark Moretti, the 28-year-old commander of U.S. forces in the valley, walked two dozen Korengali elders around his base and told them that the United States was withdrawing. He showed the elders the battle-scarred American barracks; a bullet-ridden crane; wheezing generators and a rubber bladder brimming with 6,000 gallons of fuel.

For U.S. commanders, the Korengal Valley offers a hard lesson in the limits of American power and goodwill in Afghanistan. U.S. troops arrived in 2005 to flush out al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. They stayed on the theory that the American presence drew insurgents away from areas where the United States had a better chance of fostering development. The troops were, in essence, bullet magnets . . .

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/04/14/ST2010041401263.html?sid=ST2010041401263
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Known as the "Valley of Death," Korengal was the scene of heavy battles in 2007 and 2008 between US troops and Taliban-led insurgents, who continually withdrew to their rear bases inside Pakistan after attacking international troops.

The valley is also known for attacks in 2005, in which three US soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush and another 16 troops were killed when a helicopter carrying US Special Forces to the area to evacuate the deceased was shot down by militants.

To control the area, a US outpost was established in the valley in 2006.

read: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318705,new-strategy-sees-us-forces-leave-afghan-valley-move-to-towns.html

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42 American troops died during the years of fighting in the area, which had become known as the "Valley of Death." (TIME has a good slideshow of the region.) The move away from the area is part of Gen. McChrystal's new focus on protecting civilian population centers rather than outposts in such isolated and sparsely populated areas as Korengal.

Here's the New York Times's Alissa Rubin on the significance of the move: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/world/asia/15outpost.html?ref=global-home

Closing the Korangal Outpost, a powerful symbol of some of the Afghan war's most ferocious fights, and a potential harbinger of America's retreat, is a tacit admission that putting the base there in the first place was a costly mistake.

It is also part of a new effort by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of forces here since last summer, to consolidate and refocus his forces in places where they might change the momentum of what had become a losing contest.

read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/us-forces-leave-afghanist_n_537121.html


"An Irritant to the People"

The Americans pulled out because they determined that instead of bringing a measure of stability to Korengal, they had largely proven "an irritant to the people," said the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

"We're not living in their homes, but we're living in their valley," Gen. McChrystal said on a visit to Korengal last week as the withdrawal was getting under way. "There was probably much more fighting here than there would have been" if U.S. troops had never come.

Asked about moving out of the valley after losing so many men here, Gen. McChrystal said: "I care deeply about everyone who's been hurt here. But I can't do anything about that. I can do something about people hurt in the future."

read: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304159304575183383654837248.html?mod=fox_australian

Clearly this was a faulty strategy that was implemented during the Bush warmonger administration. Its good however that the new Obama Afghan war strategy is eliminating dangerous and futile tactics like this.

. . . or less pernicious.

The untenable and counterproductive deployment in the valley mirrors the entire operation.

instead of sitting in a desolate valley to draw them in.

The troops (and their leadership) already conflate all resistance as a fight against their 'Taliban' nemesis. They will encounter the same resistance in the populated areas, now with more tragic opportunities for civilians to be caught in their way or determined by the troops to be a threat. Our troops are foreign occupiers who haven't much hope of being regarded by Afghans as anything close to the protectors they are presented as by the military leadership. They are an 'irritant' no matter where they deploy in Afghanistan. It's a shame they are so slow in realizing that. Over a year now with this new American administration in charge . . .

the taliban? "al-qaeda?" our presence there is creating the "enemy."

and somehow undermine the resistance.

What the American leadership doesn't seem to get is that people don't tend to like invaders, regardless of the smiling faces and ribbons on top we pretend to put on them.


Half a trillion dollars a year seems to buy plenty of cool military HW, but not much in terms of common sense. Then again, the purpose of this war is just to fight it... the means have become the ends. Just like other aspects of our society, capital for example.

Somehow, as a society we seem unable to pull our resources to help our fellow man, but we have no problem doing the same to bomb anyone we don't care for much back to the stone age. I can't think of a more morally bankrupt approach to life than what we have devolved into as a society.

. . . that there will be more acceptance and toleration of these foreign troops as they operate closer to the residents in the population centers. There looks to be even more opportunity in that strategy for mishaps and tragedy.

so that means they're coming home NOW right?

the fatcats making the cash off our our children's deaths wont let them end..and the fatcats own the govt

let's be realistic. If they wanted to chase insurgents around the desert and kill bad guys couldn't it be done with a dozen predaor drones in country and a couple hundred spec ops soldiers? WHY do we have ARMIES there? hmmm?

that may develop in that part of the world. This has nothing to do with "terrorism" or defending the average American.

We're an empire, we have been for a while. As long as people live in denial of that fact, very little if anything will change. In fact, we may meltdown and collapse (just like every other empire before or after ours) and most people in the US would be unaware of the fact that we have been an empire.

The US finally realized their presence in this valley makes conditions worse. When will they realize the same is true for the country as a whole?

This valley is used for the trafficking of weapons by the Taliban. Us pulling out could further open the transport of weapons used against US/NATO in other parts of the country. We need to get out.

...for your having to learn the lesson in futility for us.

We let you down. Again.

A civil war they brilliantly started and are continuing to broaden with their "new" strategies.

The new strategy seems to be to provide dazzling "victories" in cities while surrendering the countryside to the insurgents. A strategy that worked ever so well in that other lost war.

FUBAR.

I'd probably be irritated also.

God it gets depressing...

At least the SCOTUS nominations will be somewhat less heinous.
:kick: & R

. . . ask a different general or a different politician and get a different answer.

Gen. McChrystal said: "I care deeply about everyone who's been hurt here. But I can't do anything about that. I can do something about people hurt in the future."