Loose Lips Sink Ships

Sometimes, the nature of the war made targeting easier. Many Afghan Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers were friends who had found themselves drafted into opposing armies. They would communicate over rudimentary radios, sometimes taunting each other in the heat of battle.

“Your bomb missed us,” one would say, recalled members of Team 555.

“Where did it land?” a Northern Alliance officer would respond with some coaching from the Americans.

Five hundred meters to the north, would come the answer. Or 1,000 meters to the south. The combat controller would immediately recalculate the coordinates and pass them to the nearest aircraft, which could restrike the target within minutes. Team 555 members said that in a week, they killed many Taliban commanders this way and destroyed much of their communications network.

Meanwhile, all these puffy propaganda stories are attempts to deflect and counter the growing pretend dissent in US media concerning the civilian slaughter in Afghanistan. Of course, it’s now acceptable to run these because most of the slaughter would appear to be complete by now.