Drone strike kills an ISIS-K “planner”
“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” said Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement. “The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.”
The ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the “martyrdom attack” on Thursday that involved a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive belt at the airport’s gate, killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 110 Afghans. More than 100 were wounded in the blasts.
I think it’s quite astounding that as the Taliban marched through Afghanistan, claiming territory and setting their sights on Kabul, that the Biden administration did nothing. They just kept going forward with their plan to leave. And – contrary to Biden’s constant blaming and excuse-making – they were not the least bit bound by any agreement Trump had made, and one reason for that was that the Taliban had violated it in their push to conquer territory. The agreement was moot, and either Biden is so far gone he’s unaware of that, or far more likely he’s simply lying through his teeth when he implies otherwise.
Biden and company have managed to singlehandedly turn back the clock to September 10th, 2001, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. The release of thousands of imprisoned terrorists when the US abandoned Bagram at the behest of our hideously stupid and/or wretchedly traitorous president and his generals empowered the terrorists as much (or more) as the enormous amount of military equipment we left behind as an anniversary present.
Drone strikes cannot possibly change the picture in any important way, and we gave up our capacity to do much more, and I see no sign that the Biden administration has any plans to reclaim it.
I hope that the many people who are not committed leftists trying to bring this country down and yet who voted for Joe Biden in November because they bought the lie that he had some sort of competence – I hope they finally realize, or at least are beginning to realize, the enormity of the error they made in voting for a mendacious, weak, corrupt, stubborn, stupid, and now cognitively-challenged man. They voted for him because they either weren’t paying attention, or they believed the media that was covering up for Biden, or they just had grown to hate Trump so much that they decided to roll the dice and elect the obviously incompetent (or worse) Joe Biden to lead the country instead. I hope they learn that that isn’t ever the way to make voting decisions, and that they must pay more attention and never again trust the MSM or the party that led them so astray.
I don’t think they will – after all, a mind is a difficult thing to change.
But I can hope, anyway.
Would be nice if I trusted our ruling class enough to accept their report at face value. I recall Bill Clinton hitting some high value target in Egypt with a missile. Oh, wait. I think he also blew up some tents in Afghanistan, after dithering long enough for Bin Laden to leave and go his merry way.
If they did kill an ISIS thug I hope it was one who just got released from Bagram prison. Karma.
In other news, the Chief of Naval Intelligence issued a warning that under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) active duty and retired personnel can be prosecuted for disrespect to senior officials. If they had pursued that during the Trump era, they would have needed much larger jails. But, I will try to be respectfully disrespectful in the near term.
We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down, and make you pay.”
–Pres. Joe Biden
After all that big talk I figured the White House was in talks with Liam Neeson to reprise his role from “Taken”:
__________________________________________
I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
https://actingandactors.com/blog/2018/01/16/liam-neesons-speech-in-the-movie-taken/
“Drone strikes cannot possibly change the picture in any important way”
What are the odds that this “planner” is some schlub named by the Taliban? And he’s not really a planner, he’s just a guy the Taliban doesn’t like but it’s convenient to have the Americans kill him and/or they want to earn credit from the Americans
Oldflyer: “In other news, the Chief of Naval Intelligence issued a warning that under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) active duty and retired personnel can be prosecuted for disrespect to senior officials.”
Can it get much worse!! Maybe we should just go turn ourselves in at the nearest Naval Station. What the hell is “disrespect?” Not calling the official , “Sir?” Or pointing out your disagreement with their policies? Or just a hard-eyed stare? Threatening retired people with the UCMJ for “disrespect” is about as passive aggressive as you can get.
I’m heartened that we still have some sort of intelligence cap[ability in country. Gotta be someone inside the ISIS K to have that precise information. Or maybe they just picked a vehicle in the ISIS K operating area and blew it up. 🙁
The fact that they are getting warnings of impending attacks at HKIA also indicates some kind of human intelligence. The CIA supposedly lefts ix or seven weeks ago, but they seem to have left some “sleepers” in place.
The evacuation has been done ass backwards. It takes no tactical genius to discern that. This is a disaster in the making. That said, I tip my hat to the aircrews that are flying the many sorties in and out of Afghanistan. That is, at least as far as I can tell, going pretty well.
Stupid stupid stupid! We still have boots on the ground in Kabul. What’s to stop another more deadly attack? We have given then the incentive to do just that. If you believe that the Taliban did not know and abet the attack yesterday I have some very bad news for you.
As to keeping quiet, at least I am not Retired, not in long enough. And the threats just keep coming.
Don’t attribute to dementia, what can be adequately explained by secular interests. That said, take a knee, beg… America’s turn. All’s fair in lust and abortion.
They had to publicize this attack to keep up the pretense that the US can keep a lid on terrorism out of Afghanistan from “over the horizon” just like Biden promised.
After training our enemies for 20 years how to confuse SIGINT and dodge drone strikes, the idea that we can do anything useful from an airbase in Qatar just beggars belief.
The various reports of killing one ISIS-K guy who maybe, perhaps, might have planned or participated in the airport raid sound like Clinton’s aspirin factory strike.
On surface it makes it look like the administration is doing something, possibly about the Kabul airport bombing. Did it really have anything to do with it is anyone’s guess.
The Administration it looks is putting the bombing and opposition to his bug out plan on ISIS-K, are they really the only ones?
3 1/2 days to Taliban deadline
We have casus belli.To quote Gen. McAuliffe: “Nuts!” One hour to evacuate the ten blocks next to the Kabul Airport. Burn them down with napalm. Now mine the entire area. Bagram next.
Huxley,
Thank you for pointing out that Biden has plagiarize Liam Neesom in ‘Taken’! It is good to laugh during these crazy times.
To any and all who believe that the USA retaliated successfully against one of the “planners” of the bomb attack, please contact me. I have some waterfront property in Arizona that i would be happy to sell to you. Alternatively, you may contact my factotum in Nigeria, who happens to be a former prince with a large amount of gold in storage that he would also like to share with you, if only you would be so kind as to provide him with your social security number and banking information. That is all.
I’ll bet that this bunch smoke weed in the War Room.
I agree with your post 100%
Personally speaking, my mind has not changed, the leadership of the Democratic Party has changed drastically. They speak and write in a Stalinist manner. I don’t think the people who voted for Biden were paying attention at all. It is this strange idea that people find the ‘elite’ special or popular, and they wish to be part of their club. But they will never be part of that club.
It used to be common sense to not vote for cognitively weak minded people. But here we are with the stupidest and trampiest administration running our Country. It is really awe-inspiring how terrible our leaders and MSM are. The lies have been so blatant I no longer believe a word of what they say.
A quite significant % of the Democrats are people motivated largely by their anger, contempt, and even outright hate for large numbers of their fellow Americans. See Living in the Hate of the Common People:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/64707.html
and the continuation:
https://ricochet.com/868187/living-in-the-hate-of-the-common-people-continued/
ISIS-K was/is a cutout for the Taliban. Possibly directly controlled but more likely just maneuvered. HKIA for them is like rotting flesh to flies. Thousands of tightly packed people who by their being there are announcing they don’t like the Islam of ISIS-K plus many infidel soldiers in a land where explosives and full auto firearms are there for the taking. Who didn’t foresee this?
The reaction, of welding shut the gates, is just another in the cascade of actions that the Taliban want and have now gotten us to, once again, do their bidding without their having to ask.
Bagram would have been completely different, it wouldn’t have been an easy target. I don’t know which action was the first in the cascade or errors that helped our enemies, but closing Bagram like and when we did was a major and unforced one.
You left out “pedophile,” which Biden plainly is. Of course, the chain of succession is Harris, Pelosi, Leahy, so maybe we’re better off as is.
There are reports coming out of Kabul that many of the dead were actually shot by panicked American soldiers.
huxley correctly points out stealing a line from “Taken”.
And it appears “The Administration” has stolen the plot line from “Wag The Dog”. Unpopular at home? The President tries to gin up support by a foreign policy distraction.
Life once again imitates Art.
From Legal Insurrection today: “But it’s not just Biden who is the problem. The senior leadership of the military has lost credibility. And Biden in many ways is a figurehead for a deep-seated Team Obama and progressive visceral dislike of our country, our economic system, and our national pride. They are not troubled in the least by the Kabul capitulation, they engineered it.”
The Tree of Liberty must be watered….
Can you imagine the optics of prosecuting retired military for “ disrespecting” senior officials?
What kind of dictatorship are we descending into?
A wokerati dictatorship?
When it comes to disrespecting senior officials, does that apply to Lt Col Vindeman when he worked at the NSC and. lied about Trump’s telephone call with the Ukranian president? Oh silly me — that was a Democrat disrespecting a Republican. No harm, no foul.
“or they just had grown to hate Trump so much that they decided to roll the dice and elect the obviously incompetent (or worse) Joe Biden to lead the country instead.”
Yes, that’s it. And they’ll justify it to themselves forever.
I have rediscovered Eric Hoffer, who wrote much more than “The True Believer”.
I particularly recommend “The Ordeal of Change”, which is a scathing indictment of “intellectuals” in their opposition to the common herd, i.e. the Middle Class, the bourgeoisie. We have lived and suffered under “intellectuals” like Cuomo, Newsom, Obama, Susan Rice the liar, and the people behind the screen who run the present Administration and intend to destroy America, leaving only themselves and the Zuckerberg/ Silicon Valley types on top. Brainless Biden is their prop, their instrument.
Oldflyer, are retired military people still subject to the military justice code? I can see that people still attached to the service cannot publicly chastise the leadership, but surely retired people are no longer covered, are they?
Cicero:
Sowell also wrote a really good book on intellectuals. I think it was called Intellectuals and Society.
Yeah, this was all for show so our fake CIC could look tuff. All that ISIS ‘planner’ did was plan kids birthday parties.
The ‘President’ now says there will probably be another attack on the airport in the next 24-36 hours. Why the ‘President’ would say that publicly I don’t know.
And last I heard the airport gates are welded shut and the only people getting out are those who made it in before the ISIS-K attack.
Tick-tock.
So, the Biden Administration has used drones to off a couple of guys, they tell us, are responsible for the suicide bombing at the airport.
Whoopdi-doo!
What I see is just all fake, tough-guy bluster and Kabuki but no real, meaningful action.
Meanwhile, according to Biden and his spokesmen, they are relying on the fidelity and goodwill of the Taliban terrorists to allow trapped Americans and Afghans who worked for us to get to the airport, get through Taliban checkpoints, and board planes.
How about the lists of those Americans and Afghans that the Biden Administration wanted to evacuate that were reportedly given to the Taliban?
How is that working out?
In addition, there are reports that many of those Afghans who have been evacuated—reportedly 95% of all those evacuated so far—have never worked for the US, and have no actual connection justifying their evacuation.
Afghan refugees who will reportedly not be required to get COVID inoculations and, moreover, 50,000 of whom Administration spokesman have announced we are going to build temporary housing for at several US military bases.
How about the thousands of terrorists that the incompetence of the Biden Administration allowed to escape the prisons they were in who will be an increasing menace from now on?
Anything done about that?
Oh, wait, we can’t do anything about that, because our military forces are bugging out.
Has the Biden Administration taken any steps to destroy the several billions of dollars of lethal military equipment—reportedly including 600,000 rifles and associated ammunition, night vision goggles, body armor, anti-aircraft MANPADS, hundreds of attack helicopters and other aircraft, tanks, sophisticated communications equipment and top to the line fighter aircraft—that their gross incompetence has left sitting there for any old terrorist to grab and use against their enemies—ie us—or to transfer to the Russians or Chinese so that they can reverse engineer them?
Nope.
This has got to be the single largest, most comprehensive, and damaging cluster-f**k in U S history!
In addition, there are reports that many of those Afghans who have been evacuated—reportedly 95% of all those evacuated so far—have never worked for the US, and have no actual connection justifying their evacuation.
Snow on Pine:
I don’t mean to go all Zaphod here, but the priority does not appear to be getting Americans out of Afganistan:
______________________________________
The U.S. government says it has evacuated more than 95,000 people as of Wednesday, including at least 4,500 Americans, while communicating with 500 more on efforts to airlift them out. That leaves less than 1,000 Americans who have said they want to leave still stranded in the country, although it does not account for Americans who may be struggling to get in touch with the State Department.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/26/critics_admin_not_using_all_resources_to_rescue_americans_146310.html
______________________________________
I’m not against getting some Afghani allies out, but I do consider Americans should get the first seats.
Apparently if you have ever worked with the US (or not and just lying) you can bring your entire ‘family’ also which I’m sure adds up to dozens of people often.
Coming to a neighborhood near you.
I can see the headlines from 2028 now ‘Grocery store mass shooter was Afghan refugee motive unclear’.
Griffin:
I think they should only have allowed the long-term and trusted helpers to come here. But the speed with which this happened left them no time for that, a huge flaw. However, once they brought those particular people here, they would have to bring their families too.
There is always a risk with anything like that. But certainly less risk than just bringing random Afghans and their families over.
neo,
Problem is can they be trusted really?
The story Sean Parnell told on Tucker Carlson of the ‘trusted’ interpreter that his unit worked with for months and then he ratted them out to the Taliban.
He was trusted.
Griffin:
The answer is the same: yes, they can be trusted – and no, not all of them can be trusted. There will always be betrayals. That’s true in the US military, it’s true in intelligence work (double agents) etc etc.
I will also say, regarding Tucker Carlson – I think he’s been good on many things but for many years I have despised his position on Afghanistan. I cannot state that too strongly. I don’t watch TV news or opinion shows much, but every now and then I’d look at his, and when he would talk about Afghanistan I’d become so angry I’d turn it off. This went on for years. The reason was that he had a “let’s leave entirely and as soon as possible” attitude and refused to acknowledge the possible consequences. Talk about dreaming! And he could not stop talking about the awful neocons. No leftist could speak more disparagingly about them. His attitude seemed to be that they were warmongers who entered these countries just because they liked war. I don’t recall him ever acknowledging the very real dilemmas and threats we faced in Afghanistan that led us to go in there, and the problems inherent in leaving. His attitude was of complete cynicism about the people who made the decision to invade and complete cynicism about the people who wanted any forces to remain there at all.
I have no problem understanding that he would be very eager to seek out stories of betrayal by Afghan helpers. And I have no trouble believing such stories exist. The question is how many, how often? I bet he never tried to answer that. He just wanted the equation to be: “Afghans duplicitous, even the ones who risked their lives to help us, so eff them.”
As you can see, I’m not a fan, and this despite the fact that he’s done good work on other issues. But not on Afghanistan, and he’s never said (nor will he say) “I was wrong.”
neo,
To be fair Sean Parnell is running for senate in PA and he has been everywhere in conservative media the last few weeks so I’m not sure how much ‘seeking out’ Carlson had to do on this one.
I guess my stance on this is the idea that we are bringing in tens if not hundreds of thousands of refugees that we know virtually nothing about is entirely unacceptable and if that is cold hearted than so be it.
Griffin:
I’m not in favor of bringing in huge numbers of Afghans who did not work for us for a substantial amount of time. I am in favor of bringing in those who did.
Whether or not Tucker had to work to find Parnell, I’m trying to say that Parnell’s story fit in well with Tucker’s long-told narrative.
Democrats have been rejecting Biden as a Presidential candidate for over 30 years. It took incredible, absurd demonizing and fear mongering regarding Donald J. Trump to get them to choose him this time.
I think a lot of them knew he wasn’t very competent. I doubt many folks, including lifelong, die hard Democrats, are surprised he is screwing stuff up. He always has. Even 20 years ago, when his mediocre mind was firing on all cylinders. I’m sure Pelosi, Schumer et al have little respect for him.
Wake me when the drone is over DC and has selected its slow-moving target doddering about on the lawn.
Glenn Greenwald, on Twitter, says how could we know so precisely how to target an ISIS-K planner, but we had no idea the Taliban would take over so quickly?
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1431662562618322944?s=20
I find it pretty hard to believe that there are very many Americans who “do not want to leave” Afghanistan at this juncture because, as Biden spokesman have put it, they have “projects” that they want to complete.
I suppose there could be a ditzy, otherworldly anthropologist or two who might have this view but, so far the only story I have seen about such a person was a story about a woman who ran a very large dog rescue organization who wouldn’t leave until she could also get her hundreds of dogs out as well.
Given the Taliban’s track record I’d think that any American who has some contact with reality would want to save him or herself and perhaps family members as well by getting the hell out.
“. . . they just had grown to hate Trump so much that they decided to roll the dice and elect the obviously incompetent (or worse) Joe Biden.”
Once again, the magic of cognitive dissonance made Joe Biden’s presumably obvious deficits invisible to hysterically partisan, Trump-deranged Democrats, even though, as Rufus T. Firefly correctly notes, Democrats had been rejecting Biden for more than three decades.
MollyG —
Right up until the South Carolina primary when Biden became the presumptive nominee, most if not all of the Democrat voters I know here in Seattle were very vocal about his obvious deficits. (Almost all of them were Sanders supporters.)
But as soon as it became Biden vs. Trump, they all emulated the 1939 CPUSA and memory-holed every reference to sexual harassment, kiddie sniffing, corruption, stupidity, and general old-white-guy-ness.
And then they get mad when I call them doubleplusgood duckspeakers.
(The absolute worst thing I saw about Biden after SC was posts/memes to the effect of “Biden 2020! (but this is bullsh*t)”.)
I can hazard a guess as to what this poor random schmuck was doing when he got himself droned. Punishment not strictly in accordance with Leviticus, but I’m told that that’s been improved and updated over the years.
If the US were serious about defeating the Taliban and ISIS (Your exclusive series-numbered ISIS comes with a free USS Liberty commemorative medallion from the Franklin Mint) Flavor of the Month, the smart thing to do would be to hire drone operators from the ranks of PETA.
If you’ve seen some of the drone night-vision footage out there you’d know why. Coming soon to a kebab-stand near you.
@ Gerard > “Wake me when the drone is over DC and has selected its slow-moving target doddering about on the lawn.”
It’s 3 am and the phone is ringing…..
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-drone-strikes-white-house-after-vowing-to-kill-those-reponsible-for-american-military-deaths-at-kabul
Fake news? Reports that 3 to 6 young kids killed in Biden’s drone strike
Killed with Flying Knives Drone, FTW. Murrica!
Who knows true or not? ISIS and the Taliban are about as truthful as USGov, USMil, USMedia when it comes to random facts. 100% *more* honest where stated objectives are concerned.
Who could blame the Taliban or ISIS-Letter-of-the-Week-CIA-Lovechild for trolling us with real or imaginary dead children?
And really, who cares at this stage? There’s a funhouse mirror David Irving vibe about Neocons swarming around with magnifying glasses and bifocals teasing out ‘facts’ and ‘intentions’. For the love of Sweet CentralCastingGenericNeoconTriggeringPersonage just GTFO and Stay TFO.
Is all.
Zaphod:
Which swarming neocons are you addressing?
Are you referring to Noah Rothman and “‘fallacious’ arguments about forever wars”? Or something else?
On the question of the efficacy of air strikes after the damage is done.
They have none.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/08/29/afghanistan-air-strikes-are-not-a-relevant-measure-to-facilitate-a-successful-evacuation/
Dyer says they are a show that signifies nothing useful.