Focus…
This struck me as profound.
On Friday Sept. 14, at around 10.15 p.m. local time, a force of Taliban gunmen attacked Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, the main strategic base in southwestern Afghanistan.
About 15 insurgents (19 according to some reports), wearing U.S. Army uniforms, organized into three teams, breached the perimeter fence and launched an assault on the airfield, that includes the U.S. Camp Leatherneck and the UK’s Camp Bastion, where British royal Prince Harry, an AH-64 Apache pilot (initially believed to be the main target of the attack) is stationed.
But,
Considered that the U.S. Marine Corps are believed to be equipped with slightly more than 120 AV-8B+, the attack on Camp Bastion has wiped out 1/15th of the entire U.S. Jump Jet fleet and a large slice of the Yuma-based squadron. A serious problem for the USMC, that was compelled to buy second hand RAF Harrier GR9s to keep the AV-8B+ in service beyond 2030, when it will be replaced by the F-35B.
The headline: Marine Attack Squadron loses eight Harrier jets in worst U.S. air loss in one day since the Vietnam War
Can it be that those goat ropers have shifted focus?
Category: Foreign Policy, Geezer Alert!, General Whackos
Obviously, Lockheed-Martin hired the donkey forkers to move F35 fielding efforts up. Bet Chaney is behind this…. LOL
It is also notable that the Marines were forced to buy British hand me downs, since Obama has cut the DoD budget.
And that in the same interview that Dempsey said this was absolutely not an insider attack, he also said it was too soon to know if it is.
Why was such a question raised? Because it’s a long way from the wire to the airfield, they were wearing US, NOT Afghan uniforms, and it was an attack far more effective than normal Taliban operations.
Jonn, you’re good at FOIA’s. How about one on how many of those dead terrorists weren’t Afghans at all?
They no doubt ID’d weaknesses in the local security at Bastion and this is the result.
Yes, logically, if they were really after Harry, they’d have taken more people along and found him.
In the language mix up, I bet they got “Harrier” and “Harry” confused because deep down inside they are a bunch of goat fuckers anyway.
Does not AF run perimter security?
That being said, here is to Prince Harry. The man is doing his job and duty. A lot more than alot of Turds up here in the great NW Occupy movement.
Go Brits!
If Harry would simply color his hair dark brown, no one would pay an once of attention to him.
And now, they know they hit the wrong part of the base if, in fact, they really were after Harry…
No the Marine Aircraft were the target, Capt Harry Wales just arrived there. not enough time to plan an attack on him.
Of course the aircraft were the target and not the Prince. Just like the attacks were against America and not because of a movie. They weren’t spontaneous protests, as the WH and media tell us, but were planned for weeks in advance, just as this attack at Leatherneck/Bastion was planned before Prince Harry even arrived in country.
My point is, either way, they now know that “Prince Harry wasn’t in that part of the camp”.
And here I thought that Afghans couldn’t organized anything like the VC/NVA sapper attacks. Then again, Obama just recently released the Hezbollah terrorists who ran the big attack in Iraq that used US uniforms.
Assaulting airfields and taking out planes on the ground worked well in Pakistan, and its not like they haven’t tried to breach the perimeter before. This time they managed to get all the pieces together. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had Afghan insider help to do it, but I haven’t seen direct evidence of it yet.
@2 – The Marines bought 74 Brit Harriers and a bunch of spares for a steal, something like $50 million; it was a great move and a bargain. They were originally supposed to be cannibalized to keep the current jets in working order, not put into service themselves – but I’m thinking that may change now.
[…] noted the shift here, but let John amplify: Late on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, a Taliban insurgent force of sappers […]