A study in contrasts: U.S. soldiers continued to salute during the gunfire, which started during the national anthem."Reporter: Soldiers, police flee gunfire at Afghan ceremony," from the Associated Press:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The first shot sounded sharply. It was clear something was wrong.
I heard the second crack, and a third, fourth, fifth, and at that point all the journalists were on the ground, ducking from the whizzing bullets. The Taliban were attacking a ceremony led by Karzai.
"Get down! Get down!" people yelled to each other.
Karzai and hundreds of Afghan and foreign dignitaries had been preparing to take their seats across from Kabul's largest mosque. They were marking the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet-backed communist regime in Afghanistan.
The gunfire broke out as a marching band was playing the national anthem.
Two U.S. soldiers who had been saluting in the bleachers near the president pointed to some nearby houses, from where the gunfire appeared to have come. They still put their hands back up to their caps in salute as the anthem ended. ...
I ran toward a 3-meter- (10-foot-) high wall with several other journalists clutching video cameras and tripods. To our surprise, uniformed soldiers and armed police followed us. Uniformed musicians of the marching band also ran away.
Well, no one wants to tackle gunfire armed only with a clarinet. But as for the armed police and regular Afghan soldiers: We can't want a free, stable country for you.
More information from "Karzai escapes deadly Taliban attack," from CNN:
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Taliban militants opened fire at a military ceremony in the capital Sunday morning. A lawmaker, tribal leader and 10-year-old child were killed, but President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt, according to an official and a statement from Karzai's office.
The attack also wounded more than 12 people, including a member of parliament, a Health Ministry official said.
The attack occurred at a Mujahedeen Victory Day ceremony, observing the 16th anniversary of Afghanistan mujahedeen fighters' overthrow of President Mohammad Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime.
Small arms fire erupted as a military band played the Afghan national anthem and as soldiers fired a 21-gun salute with artillery rounds.
The people standing did not react for several seconds, but security guards shielded Karzai and whisked him away from the reviewing stand. Other dignitaries quickly scrambled to safety.
Karzai appeared on state-run television fewer than two hours later and called on citizens to remain calm.
The Health Ministry official said lawmaker Fazel Rahman Samkanai died from injuries sustained in the attack. A presidential statement said Nasir Ahmad Latifi, a council head of the Qezelbashan ethnic group, and a 10-year-old child were killed.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed issued a statement, claiming responsibility.
"Six of our Fedayeen martyrs entered to the stadium for the ceremony. They were heavily armed with mortars and machine guns. This was an organized attack. When the national anthem started they started the attack. Three were killed and three have survived," the statement said.
The Taliban also claimed its fighters got within 30 yards of the stand where Karzai and other dignitaries were standing. A diplomatic source said a mortar round landed near the stand.
oh the irony!! Wasn't it just yesterday Karzai was telling us that he MUST talk peace with the Taliban??
Maybe this will wake him up, probably not but one can hope.
About US Soldiers: "They still put their hands back up to their caps in salute as the anthem ended. ..."
Is this correct? Is it a part of US Drill and Ceremonies regulations to salute a foreign flag when the foreign anthem is played?
"The Taliban also claimed its fighters got within 30 yards of the stand .."
what kind of security allows fighters armed with machine guns and mortars to get this close to the person you are "Protecting".
OH yeah, they sympathtic kind...
Karzai, just like Musharrif are prisoners in their own country...
and both countries are severly infected with the peaceful religion of Islam...
Islam, the disease without a cure...
sympathtic s/b sympathetic,
"Afghan soldiers and armed police flee with crowd"
I am not surprised...
Mujahiiddin Victory Day, huh? Well, the Mujahiddin provided the gun salute for the celebration, only logical. For decades, US big wigs boasted about aiding jihad in Afghanistan, gloating that Afghanistan is "Russia's grave". There is Russian saying "Don't dig a pit for someone else, lest you find yourself in it". Well, guesNow who is in the pit now?
To be sure, Russia was punished for decades of its own aid to jihad against Israel, as thousands of Russian soldiers and civilians were killed in Afghanistan, Chechnya, throughout Russia's own heartland, even in Moscow. Now, it is the United States' turn. Even as the Soviet KGB openly aided Palestinian jihadists, the CIA secretly did the same thing throughout the '70's and well into the '80s. It got even worse when the US and EUrabia ganged up on Israel pushing the bloody "peace processes" down its throat.
They then went to war on Serbia, bombing and destroying that country to please the Muslims. Even as Clintonite sociopaths loudly boasted on TV in summer of 1999 that "the Muslims are gonna love us" for murdering Serb Christians for Kosovar Albanian terrorists, bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad began implementing their "planes operation".
The chickens are coming home to roost.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
"Well, no one wants to tackle gunfire armed only with a clarinet."
Let me guess....but a guy armed with a saxophone would have kick ass..
The point is it was Mujahedin Day! What did people expect? I mean if I am going to Mujahedin Day..I expect to see Mujahedin.
"our surprise, uniformed soldiers and armed police followed us."
Shocker!
""Get down! Get down!" people yelled to each other."
and with that the people broke into a crazed dance session...to the tune of the Afghanistan national anthem...
pulsar182
The Roof is on Fire!
Karzai, with his corrupt relatives and cronies, just the other day -- see the article by Carlotta Gall in The Times -- critizied American troops for being too aggressive in going after Taliban members in Afghanistan.
Apparently Karzai thinks the Americans, and presumably other NATO forces, should go after Taliban members in Paksitan, but not in Afghanistan itself, because that makes his, Karzai's, job a bit harder. He doesn't see that he owes his position entirely to the Americans, nor does he seem embarrassed about the ineffectiveness and corruption in his own government, corruption that has been linked to people close to him.
No, he thinks the American troops should tiptoe around Afghanistan, because once a Taliban supporter comes back to Afghanistan from Pakistan a kind of amnesty should be declared, while those in Pakistan are fair game.
And in Pakistan, of course, as Karzai well knows, the government has refused to allow direct American attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda members, and prefers to offer its ineffectual, and meretricious, aid instead -- so if both Karzai and the Pakistani government were to be heeded, there would be no American attacks on the Taliban on either side of the border, yet somehow the Americans would magically deal with the Taliban, as with Al Qaeda.
Karzai had his run. Bedecked in a beautiful robe (one he still wears), he had his hours of mediagenic glory, thoughtful, smiling, seeming to be an altogether good guy. Oh, there were little things that rankled, such as his expression of complete enthusiasm for the anti-Infidel antisemitic rant of Mahathir Mohamed at a meeting of the O.I.C., when the wish was expressed that Muslims could unite for the purposes of "science" by which M.M. meant, it was clear, only weapons technology, the better to threaten those Westerners who had managed to pull ahead of the world of Islam somehow.
But still, Karzai has been presented as America's friend and ally, and his presumption in being both propped up by the Americans -- he wouldn't last a day without them -- while telling them how they should conduct their war, in a way that may make his job easier but makes their job much harder -- should be seen as one more example of what happens when the Americans choose to fight jihad through merely military means, and by sinking into assorted local swamps of those Muslims who must be understood to be not our allies, nor our permanent friends, but those who want something from us, can get it, and will continue to do what it takes to get it, without really considering how to make our own task easier, or less murderous for our own men. Karzai is not as bad as, is much better than, the assorted Iraqis still taking American money, and exploiting American military power, for their own ends, without sharing any of the Light-Unto-the Muslim-Nations goals of the Bush Administration. But if not a smyler with the knyf under the cloke, he's still a smiler, oleaginous, plausible, not someone, finally, to be trusted.
They should spell it correctly:
Mu-JIHAD-een Day Celebration.
It becomes clearer them.
"a council head of the Qezelbashan ethnic group..."
-- from the article
Related to the Red-Headed League of Kizilbashes?
*proud of our soldiers* :)
Mu-JIHAD-een Day Celebration.
-by profitsbeard
They celebrate victory in Islamic terms. Their own definitions of "mujahedeen" connote jihad. The two words come from the same family. Why, oh why, won't our government(s) use the same words they use?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mujahedeen
mujahedeen: Muslim guerrilla warriors engaged in a JIHAD
This is why Karzai has American bodyguards and not Afghanis.
Remember the first attempt on his life was by his American trained Afghani bodyguards, after that they were replaced by Blackwater freelancers.
Still if he was rubbed out, its not great loss.
"To our surprise, uniformed soldiers and armed police followed us."
Of course they should stand there and be bravely moved down by the terrorists thereby eliminating any chance at all for them to do anything in response. I think some are too quick to "judge" these people, of course the opinions may be dead on but there are numerous very good reasons to seek cover when under fire.
Karzai Phillips is however living on borrowed time I'm afraid.
DB, India's largest circulated Hindi daily had a picture. Bearded men bearing Kalashnikovs were running while two Allied soldiers were walking and smiling at the beardos. I found it odd that the two beardos at the front had both their feet in the air, and thought that "Man ! These guys seem to be flying ". DB explained the picture as "afghanistan security forces running to take their positions after an attack on the president karzai". I also thought it strange that the allied soldiers were not running to take "positions". Well, now I know. ROTFL.
Media businessman Saad Mohseni recently castigated an Italian colonel for ROE that were too soft. He's a fairly influential figure in Afghanistan, or so I've read.
Take that with yesterday's events, and you might see new demand for a more active stance against the insurgency.
When this first appeared on al-Jazeera, it was portrayed as a great victory for the Taliban, as an indication that they can strike anywhere with impunity.
on the flip side, is this the best they can do?
The reporting could have just as easily been that despite their best efforts, the Taliban did not hit their target and lost 50% of their assault force immediately.
Again, the sheep dogs, the warriors, protected the sheep from the wolves.
the remaining wolves are still out there, but so are the sheep dogs.
Kip, over at Abu Muqawama (a staggeringly insightful blog,) called this attack a shift in the Taliban's propaganda strategy. You can kill the gunmen, but not the narrative.
Sadly, this could turn out to be a pretty big event.