Before I go any further on this “Big Bang”….there is important news coming out of Afghanistan that the media chooses to ignore…..
Any American soldier has been killed in Afghanistan……An Army Green Beret…..
Staff Sgt. Mark de Alencar, 37, was killed by “small arms fire” in Agarhar Province Saturday, the Department of Defense
de Alencar was married and had five children.
And NO one cared.
I have waited before I posted more on the MOAB explosion…..I wanted to see what others had to say about this “big bang”…
The “mother of all bombs” dropped on the Islamic State in Afghanistan Thursday not only killed 36 militants but also destroyed their base within a 1,000-foot-long network of tunnels and a stockpile of weapons, says the Afghan defense ministry. A presidential spokesman tells the BBC that ISIS commander Siddiq Yar was among those killed as the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb detonated in the Momand valley of Achin in Nangarhar province.
Officials say civilians had previously left the area and weren’t affected by the blast, which the district governor described as “the biggest I have ever seen.” President Trump says the strike was “another successful job,” per CNN, which notes the US military had pegged the number of active ISIS militants in the area at up to 800. They had been launching attacks on Afghan troops from the tunnels. One person who was displeased by the move: former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who called it “an inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country.” Read more about the specifics of the bomb here.
Here it is…The “Big Bang”…….30 seconds of ecstasy (if you are a lover of destruction)……
According to the intel there were about 800 ISIS fighters in the area…..and this huge ass bomb killed 36….at what cost?
My economics is not very good but I do not believe that is a sound return on investment…..just a thought.
An angry former president, Hamid Karzai, on Saturday lashed out at government and the U.S over Thursday night’s bombing of Achin district in Nangarhar.
Karzai said he did not recognize “this symbolic government,” and has decided to work to get rid of America in Afghanistan.
He criticized government for “allowing the U.S to drop such a big non-nuclear bomb. If govt approved it, the act is treason.”
He said the bombing was an insult to Afghanistan and that the U.S was just using Daesh as an excuse.
Karzai also said it was a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a violation of the environment.He said that following Thursday’s move he had decided to take a stand “to rescue Afghanistan from U.S terror”.Karzai’s remarks come just two days after the U.S on Thursday night fired off a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs, against a Daesh tunnel complex in the remote area of Nangarhar.
The move was met with mixed reactions but the national unity government has confirmed it was aware of the plan ahead of the bombing.
(tolonews.com)
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai is mincing no words in assessing the United States’ bombing of an ISIS stronghold with its second-largest non-nuclear device, reports the New York Times: “Shame, shame,” he says of current President Ashraf Ghani’s admission that his government coordinated the bombing with the Trump administration. “No Afghan with self-respect would do that. He is a traitor, a traitor.” Karzai further said he will work toward “ousting the US,” and the Times notes that he has grown more vocal in his anti-American sentiment since leaving office—despite having largely come to power on the back of the American military. Karzai is denouncing the bomb to anyone who will listen, telling al Jazeera that “This was an inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country, against innocent people, against our land, against our sovereignty, against our soil and against our future.”
…….attack with the “Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB) by US forces against eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province was done without approval from President Trump, Pentagon officials insist, saying that they believe they didn’t need any such approval.Officials continue to defend the strike as appropriate and claim it was a success, but the information on the ground is certainly raising doubts about that, with the Afghan government claiming the strike with the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal killed 36 ISIS fighters, and ISIS saying that no one was killed at all in the strike.(antiwar.com)
President Donald Trump praised the U.S. military for successfully blasting an Islamic State stronghold in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province with a Massive Ordinance Air Bomb (MOAB), the biggest non-nuclear explosive in the American arsenal.
“It was another successful event,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “If you look at what’s happened over the last eight weeks and compare that really to what’s happened over the past eight years, you’ll see there’s a tremendous difference, tremendous difference.”
The Islamic State group has made inroads in Afghanistan in recent years and has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks, including last month’s assault on a military hospital in Kabul that killed more than 30 people and injured 80 others.
Source: Why the Big U.S. Bomb Was Dropped on Afghanistan | Small Wars Journal
The bomb is a scary thing….once dropped made a point….but what is that point? Will this scare the “opposition” into submission?
“I’m really very good at war. I love war, in a certain way,” bragged candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Iowa. This is the same Donald Trump who avoided the Vietnam draft by claiming a bone spur in his foot, a medical problem that never kept him off the tennis courts or golf courses, and miraculously healed on its own.
But with the escalation of US military involvement in Syria, the record number of drone attacks in Yemen, more US troops being sent to the Middle East and, now, the dropping of a massive bomb in Afghanistan, it looks like Trump may indeed love war. Or at least, love “playing” war.
There has been some blowback from the bomb drop…..the US is having a difficult time…….
US dropped its MOAB, or “Mother of All Bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used, was dropped on Afghanistan. Though ISIS denied any deaths in the attack, the Afghan government claimed 36 ISIS fighters were killed, and no civilians.
This claim, which did not include evidence of the deaths, was still a questionable outcome for the MOAB strike, dropping an $18 million bomb to kill a handful of ISIS fighters. Faced with that, the Afghan government revised the death toll upward, now claiming 94 ISIS fighters killed, none of them civilians.
President Trump ratcheting up tensions across the world, and playing up the idea of imposing military solutions in Syria and North Korea, this strike once again plays up the narrative that he’s up for heedlessly escalating military strikes, even in a situation where the use of the MOAB wasn’t warranted nor amounted to anything. The big explosion, ultimately, was the whole point, and the death toll very much irrelevant, despite desperate attempts by the Afghan government to justify it.
(antiwar.com)
I believe that you have enough info to process an informed opinion….do so!
Everything is not always as black and white as they would have you believe……I am struggling to see the benefit of using this bomb….other than some minor PR.
This is my last MOAB post until something more substantial emerges…..
And the beat goes on!
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
TY for the re-blog and I hope you have a good day….chuq
I believe it was a P.R. Stunt to boost Trumps macho image. The predecessor to the M.O.A.B. was the DAISY CUTTER ,used in Vietnam, and I saw the results that produced and the M.O.A.B. is much bigger !
I believe the damned thing did what it was intended to do and I do not believe the former pantywaist would have ever thought about using it. We have these things so let us not allow them to sit unused because sitting unused is where the real waste of money is. If this thing took out some baloobies, then more power to whoever ordered its use! By the way, I can smell the Trump Hatred here. It positively reeks!
Questions do not mean hate at least not on IST….this got nothing in return for the money spent on it….
I do not know for sure but the amount of damage was negligible…I am wondering just what was the purpose of using it now….chuq
With all the complaints, it appears Afghanistan would prefer to be an ISIS state. Can they honestly believe that those rabble-rousing, self-centered cowards would care for the citizens of the country?
I do not think that the Taleban will allow ISIS control…it means much more war for the country…but do we need to be part of this struggle? chuq
Enough is enough – we should have been out 8 years ago like promised!!
Totally agree….I mean if things get worse in the future we can always do what we do…invade again….we have the technology…have a good day my friend….chuq
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
‘MOAB’ … facts we need to know!
No sovereign country will put up with actions like this from ‘super powers’! This isn’t over yet … Pandora’s Box?
Thanx for the re-blog and as always I appreciate your help…have a good day…hugz….chuq
You are most welcome!! Good day to you too!!
Oppressors, in this case the US military, never learn that the more they squeeze a people, the more martyrs they create and the more hatred fuel they engender. The cheering for Trump may get louder with the Big Bang, but if anyone notices, it is coming from a smaller and smaller group. The world in not ecstatic over the Big Bang, quite the opposite, and former Afghanistan president Hamil Karzai is representative of the backlash. Whether it was Rome, the Third Reich or this new military empire with delusions of grandeur of world domination and control, there are “natural” checks and balances in this game, and the endgame is never in doubt: America will lose this war. As of today it can’t even win local engagements, what does that tell any intelligent person? When you’ve reached a point where you need a $300 million bomb to dispatch 36 insurgents – read martyrs and patriots from their point of view regardless of how demonized they are in the western fake news media – the balance of power and terror has already shifted to “the people” and out of the control of the would-be imperial masters. The gravest danger for the entire world now is that Trump has committed to this path and he can only up the ante to prove he was right. A psychopath narcissist can never back down. He can’t even say “oops!”
Excellent reply….the media is selling this incident as some sort of change in direction….it is business as usual….time for the US to declare a win and get the Hell out! chuq
Absolutely not cost effective. Another example of over kill and don’t tell me civilians were not affected and probably killed too. ~~dru~~
We may never know for sure….chuq
As you know, I have written in some detail about this MOAB.
Thanks for adding more details.
Best wishes, Pete.
Have more tomorrow….chuq
I believe that Donald Trump Regime is merely suggesting that here is a New Sheriff in Town. Aside fro the questionable body count, if it were actually 36, what was the Cost per KIA? Various terrorist groups have been congregating near the birder so that, when danger threatens, hey just cross-over into Pakistan and, then they return when the threat passes.
The MOAB misadventure similarly followed on the heels of the air strike in Syria, which didn’t prevent Assad’s Air Force from striking the same city, a few days later, without Sarin. The Trumpets “justified” that attack as having been part of the ancient War Powers Authorization for Iraq. Iraq, how dumb do you think we are.
And then we have Trump and Pence, defending us, with a Sword and a Shield in North Korea, along with an upside-down map. Yes Donald, the Indian Ocean remains south from Singapore, while the Sea of Japan in to the North. Really!
Of course, Donald being the “Leader” that he is (ONLY KIDDING!), is once again, shifting the blame. He blamed the Pentagon generals for the failed Yemeni raid, the (You Pick-’em) for his Health Care Disaster and, now, he’s blaming the Navy for following orders, rather than channeling Sean Spice who had boasted that the carrier group was en route to the Sea of Japan!
Is Donald Trump the kind of ignorant person that we wish to entrust nuclear weapons to?
IMO..Trump or nay of his lackeys should be anywhere near the codes….I appreciate your visit and comment please visit as often as possible….have a good day….chuq