Quote:
Originally Posted by Goodnight
The military inquiry into the 4 soldiers killed back in October in Niger concluded, soldiers and low level officers were unprepared. Sounds like the French Mirage jets saved them from having more casualties.
The investigation, released Thursday, found that the 11-member team had not undergone crucial training as a unit before it deployed to Niger because of “personnel turnover” and had not rehearsed its mission before leaving its base. It said the two junior officers had “mischaracterized” the mission in a required planning document filed before the team, which included Green Berets, departed.
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Bunch of red flags there.
Special Forces training is not unit based, rather it is highly individualized. Each member of a Special Forces team has a particular expertise in some area (although they may overlap with another) and performs a particular task on the team related to his expertise. It is desirable, but not necessary, for Special Forces teams to train as a unit.
The reaction to any ambush by any US military unit is based on text-book standard procedures. Those standard procedures were developed by a combination of "trial and error" and actual combat experience stemming from WW II through the present. Special Forces are trained in ambush/counter-ambush techniques more so than any other military unit, and know what needs to be done.
It is, of course, within the realm of possibility that you are simply out-gunned in a well-laid ambush, and naturally, that will result in tragic consequences.
While published reports and accounts of the incident by the Media and the Military constantly claim this was an ambush, I see no such evidence of an ambush.
What I'm seeing is a hasty meeting engagement by a superior force.
In a simple ambush, you lie in wait in concealed positions along a route you reasonably believe threat forces will travel. When the bulk of the threat forces are in the kill-zone, you initiate the ambush, and in a more complex ambush, you might have a unit break cover and seal off the escape route for threat forces, typically called an "L-shaped Ambush."
That's not what happened here. Nearly every account states threat forces moved toward them from the front and initiated contact. That is not an ambush.
Regardless, it is unmistakably clear that someone knew the Special Forces team was out there, and knew where they were headed, and actively sought them out to engage them.
The only possible alternative to that scenario, is a roving band of militia "just happened" to be in the area, ran across the Special Forces team and decided to engage them, which is clearly a hasty meeting engagement and not an ambush.
The claim that they had not rehearsed the mission is complete bull-****. They were not ambushed at the mission site, rather the mission was over and they were returning to their base camp when the ambush occurred.
Again, that unmistakably points to the fact that someone knew their movements, unless you're willing to accept the possibility of a roving band of militia.
The claim that "junior officers" mis-characterized the mission is also a Red Herring.
The actual mission had long been completed at the time the incident took place.
Most accounts state it took 20 minutes for the Mirage ground-attack aircraft to arrive. Assuming it was cruising at 650 knots, it came from over 200 miles away.
That suggests the Special Forces team had no air support, which begs the question, "
Why didn't they?"
Did the "junior officers" ask for air support, but were denied? Did they not ask for air support? Where they ordered to "mischaracterize" the mission in order to avoid requirements for having air support?
What exactly was their mission? We've yet to get a clear concise answer on that.
It's clear the US government was involved in something it doesn't really want the American people (or anyone else) to know; the mission was completed, whether successful or not; and that someone knew the team was there and where they were headed, and thus able to hunt them down and engage them, and that could only happen if someone had intelligence on the team's mission and movements, and the US is not prepared to admit that, for whatever reason.
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