Not to mention a repeat attack on an Afghan valley base.
Haven't learned the lesson.
The Associated Press: Afghan battle probe a reminder of war's challenges
By RICHARD LARDNER (AP) – 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama grapples with the way ahead in
Afghanistan, a decision to launch a new investigation into a deadly firefight is
a painful reminder of the challenges the U.S. faces in a country known as the
graveyard of empires.
Fought in the small village of Wanat near the Pakistan border, the battle
claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and wounded 27 others after their
platoon-sized unit was attacked by as many as 200 insurgents during the
early hours of July 13, 2008. Accounts of the battle indicate senior
commanders may have made serious mistakes, leaving the soldiers short-
handed and without critical support needed to blunt such an intense raid.
On Saturday, just days after Army Gen. David Petraeus ordered the inquiry,
U.S. forces in Afghanistan endured a stark echo of that tragedy: eight U.S.
soldiers were killed when several hundred militant fighters struck two
American outposts in the same rugged region in northeastern Afghanistan
where the earlier assault occurred.
The emerging story of the 2008 battle along with Saturday's attack adds new
weight to calls by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top officer in
Afghanistan, for thousands more American forces to deal with the dicey
political, cultural and geographical conditions there.
The efforts of Brostrom and others gained momentum when a military historian at the
Army Combat Studies Institute in Kansas wrote a detailed account of the battle at
Wanat, based on soldiers who were there, that contradicts many of the service's
conclusions. The 238-page study by Douglas Cubbison, though not yet officially
released, was obtained by The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Cubbison's report details a growing hostility toward the Americans in Wanat and a failure
by higher-level commanders to recognize the tension when they ordered the unit to the
village just a few weeks before the attack.
Concern had been expressed by 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom, a platoon leader, about the
number of troops he had and the mountainous terrain surrounding the outpost, Cubbison
was told during the interviews.
The commanders withdrew airborne intelligence-gathering assets from Wanat to another
location one day before the attack despite vehement protests from the unit. The
reasons, according to Cubbison's report, were that "nothing of consequence" had been
detected in Wanat and the equipment was needed elsewhere.