Word: missioners
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...deadly sequence began when the backseat officer in the second F-15E - the plane whose pilot was in command of the two-plane mission - calculated the altitude of the lake bed at 4,800 ft. The flight manual required him to use a more precise altimeter than the device he used. He compounded that snafu when he mistakenly cited the elevation of their home base at Bagram - 4,800 ft. - as the elevation for the lake bed. That mistake apparently happened because Bagram's altitude had remained on the screen momentarily as he vainly sought to ascertain the lake...
...mission commander asked McDowell if he felt "comfortable" performing the dangerous dive. "Sure," he responded. Seconds later, McDowell's F-15E began diving from 18,000 ft. After streaking through blackness for seven seconds at a speed of 420 ft. per second, the plane's collision-avoidance system audibly warned the crew to climb four times in quick succession. Large arrows pointing upwards flashed onto cockpit displays. The crew didn't respond. Video recorded aboard the doomed plane and evidence gleaned from the wreckage showed the crew did nothing to avoid the mountain or try to eject...
...this is true, why agonize over the corruption of Hamid Karzai's regime or the ability to effectively train the Afghan police and military? We must defend our national-security interests, whatever it takes. And if it takes more troops, so be it. On the other hand, if the mission is judged impossible, Obama has a sacred responsibility to get the troops out of that rat hole and devise a containment strategy...
...Before leaving for the U.S, Erdogan said Turkey was already "doing what it can" in Afghanistan, suggesting the Turks will resist Obama's call to commit more troops. Turkey has 1,750 soldiers in the Hindu Kush on a strictly humanitarian, noncombat mission that includes building roads and schools and patrolling Kabul. Ankara is wary of fighting fellow Muslims in a region with which it also has historic ties. "A midway solution could be for Turkey to increase its troops but not engage in warfare in southern provinces like Kandahar and Helmand," says Cengiz Candar, a commentator for the Radikal...
...Afghan Security Forces Can Be Trained to Take Over the Mission The centerpiece of Obama's exit strategy is the training of Afghan security forces to take responsibility for fighting the Taliban, just as Iraqi forces have taken charge of security in Iraq. But Afghanistan is nothing like Iraq, and training may not be the decisive issue: although the U.S. has officially trained 94,000 Afghan soldiers, there's no sign of an effective Afghan security force capable of fighting the Taliban. Desertion rates are high - 1 in 4 soldiers trained last year, by some accounts...