Let’s see a combat reporter actually embedded with that very unit who has spent the last decade actually at the front lines of the war vs a magazine that specializes in Bieber Fever.
No contest:
The online edition of the Rolling Stone story contains a section with a video called “Motorcycle Kill,” which includes our Soldiers gunning down Taliban who were speeding on a motorcycle toward our guys. These Soldiers were also with 5/2 SBCT, far away from the “Kill Team” later accused of the murders. Rolling Stone commits a literary “crime” by deceptively entwining this normal combat video with the Kill Team story. The Taliban on the motorcycle were killed during an intense operation in the Arghandab near Kandahar City. People who have been to the Arghandab realize the extreme danger there. The Soviets got beaten horribly in the Arghandab, despite throwing everything including the Soviet kitchen sink into the battle that lasted over a month. Others fared little better. To my knowledge, 5/2 and supporting units were the first ever to take Arghandab, and these two dead Taliban were part of that process.
Yon also points out that the Soldiers who were actually doing wrong “would have fit into a mini-van” while the brigade is thousands of soldiers strong but Rolling Stone tries to make hay of what the Army and had already discovered and acted on.
He suggests a boycott, I suggest that MSNBC who is still trying to make hay of this stuff tries having Michael Yon on. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting for it, their quest for finding the right story to bring the Afghanistan war down is just too important to them.
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