What have these soldiers died for? Pamela Geller outlines the grim reality: “But these boys are dying for the jihad. That’s all the war in Afghanistan is about. If there were no jihad, we would not be there. If jihadis had not taken down the Towers, we would not be there. But Obama won’t say it, Petraeus won’t say it, the NATO commanders won’t say it, no one will say it. And what do they say instead? Nothing. The war in Afghanistan has no purpose, no definition of victory. Obama is sending these boys to die for nothing. Nothing. The jihadis are killing them for jihad, and they are dying for no cause, no objective, no mission, no end in sight.”
“US helicopter ‘shot down’ by Taliban in Afghanistan,” from the BBC, August 6:
A US helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan has killed 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers, President Hamid Karzai’s office says.
US media reports that many of those killed were from the elite Navy SEALs.
Neither the US nor Nato have confirmed the cause, but witnesses, officials and the Taliban say it was shot down.
The incident is believed to be the biggest single loss of life for US forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001.
The Chinook helicopter went down overnight in Wardak province, the statement from President Karzai’s office said.
It was returning from an operation against the Taliban in which eight insurgents are believed to have been killed. […]
A Taliban spokesman said insurgents had brought down the helicopter with a rocket after US and Afghan troops attacked a house in the Sayd Abad district of Wardak where insurgents were meeting late on Friday, Associated Press said.
Sayd Abad, near the province of Kabul, is known to have a strong Taliban presence.
A Wardak government spokesman quoted by AFP news agency agreed with this, saying the helicopter was hit as it was taking off….