Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
NBC
May 1, 2008 NBC Nightly News, 7:00 PM
BRIAN WILLIAMS: It is often called the other war, this nation’s war in Afghanistan, now in its sixth year. It may get less attention than the war in Iraq, but it’s no less dangerous, no less deadly, especially now during the so-called spring offensive.
NBC’s Jim Maceda is embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. You’re about to see what happened when they came under attack today as they moved deeper into Taliban-controlled territory. Here is the report he filed.
JIM MACEDA: We linked up with Alpha Company at dawn today outside Garmser, a dusty town controlled by the Taliban along a key route for opium traffickers.
[To Marine, from tape.] Anything so far?
MARINE: No, nothing at all.
MACEDA: Alpha pushed out the day before and so far had made contact with a chicken farm, but not the Taliban.
USMC LANCE CPL. WILL BAILEY: I don’t want anything to happen though. Hoping it stays quiet like this.
MACEDA: But it didn’t and all it took was a short patrol, only yards further south through poppy fields already harvested for their opium-producing paste. Alpha had crossed a red line. This was Taliban country. The five-hour firefight began with a burst from a Taliban machine gun. The 1/6 Marines responded to make a point.
The Marines say they have spotted the source of fire, now about 800 yards away they’re letting them have it with machinegun fire and with Hellfire missiles, but inside a mud brick compound Company Commander Sean Dynan was getting testy. The Taliban was now approaching and attacking from all sides, but it couldn’t match the Marine’s arsenal – helicopter gunships, Hellfire missiles, and a 500-pound laser-guided bomb.
No Marine casualties here, but the militants had pinned them down all day.
[To Dynan, from tape.] Is it frustrating?
USMC CAPT. SEAN DYNAN: Yes, because we did want to go out and meet with the people and find out what their needs were and how we could help. That’s why we’re here.
MACEDA: Hearts and minds would have to wait. Tomorrow there would be reinforcements and more supplies, especially water – in this heat, more than three gallons per Marine. Tonight, Alpha Company hunkered down while the fighting spread outside. The spring offensive is underway.
Jim Maceda, NBC News, with the 1/6 Marines in Helmand Province.
May 1, 2008 NBC Nightly News, 7:00 PM
BRIAN WILLIAMS: It is often called the other war, this nation’s war in Afghanistan, now in its sixth year. It may get less attention than the war in Iraq, but it’s no less dangerous, no less deadly, especially now during the so-called spring offensive.
NBC’s Jim Maceda is embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. You’re about to see what happened when they came under attack today as they moved deeper into Taliban-controlled territory. Here is the report he filed.
JIM MACEDA: We linked up with Alpha Company at dawn today outside Garmser, a dusty town controlled by the Taliban along a key route for opium traffickers.
[To Marine, from tape.] Anything so far?
MARINE: No, nothing at all.
MACEDA: Alpha pushed out the day before and so far had made contact with a chicken farm, but not the Taliban.
USMC LANCE CPL. WILL BAILEY: I don’t want anything to happen though. Hoping it stays quiet like this.
MACEDA: But it didn’t and all it took was a short patrol, only yards further south through poppy fields already harvested for their opium-producing paste. Alpha had crossed a red line. This was Taliban country. The five-hour firefight began with a burst from a Taliban machine gun. The 1/6 Marines responded to make a point.
The Marines say they have spotted the source of fire, now about 800 yards away they’re letting them have it with machinegun fire and with Hellfire missiles, but inside a mud brick compound Company Commander Sean Dynan was getting testy. The Taliban was now approaching and attacking from all sides, but it couldn’t match the Marine’s arsenal – helicopter gunships, Hellfire missiles, and a 500-pound laser-guided bomb.
No Marine casualties here, but the militants had pinned them down all day.
[To Dynan, from tape.] Is it frustrating?
USMC CAPT. SEAN DYNAN: Yes, because we did want to go out and meet with the people and find out what their needs were and how we could help. That’s why we’re here.
MACEDA: Hearts and minds would have to wait. Tomorrow there would be reinforcements and more supplies, especially water – in this heat, more than three gallons per Marine. Tonight, Alpha Company hunkered down while the fighting spread outside. The spring offensive is underway.
Jim Maceda, NBC News, with the 1/6 Marines in Helmand Province.