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bobdina
08-10-2009, 12:31 PM
Taliban awaits response on captured soldier

By Ishtiaq Mahsud - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Aug 9, 2009 15:44:38 EDT

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American’s fate.

It was the first news of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban video was released July 18.

Maulvi Sangin, an insurgent commander for eastern Afghanistan, said the Taliban’s governing body was awaiting a response to demands it made to the U.S. for his return.

“The American’s fate is in the hand of (leadership), which is waiting until a response from the Americans to its demands,” Sangin told The Associated Press.

Sangin would not elaborate on the demands or say if any deadline had been given. A spokesman for Sangin had previously said the soldier would be killed unless the U.S. stops airstrikes in two areas of eastern Afghanistan.

Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment when he disappeared June 30, just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at an eastern base near the border with Pakistan. The circumstances of his capture weren’t clear. Details of such incidents are routinely withheld by the military to avoid giving away any information to captors.

Sangin, who spoke by telephone from Pakistan, refused to say on which side of the border Bergdahl was being held.

Last month, Afghans in contact with the Taliban told The Associated Press that the fighters had initially planned to smuggle the soldier across the border into Pakistan but ruled that out because of U.S. missile strikes and Pakistani bombing attacks against militant targets in the area. Instead, they decided to move him north into Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.

The Taliban move freely between the mountainous ethnic Pashtun areas on both sides of the border.

Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, would not comment on the status of Bergdahl’s case.

“We do not want to do anything that compromises his safety or efforts to recover him,” she said. “Recovery efforts remain one of the largest ongoing operations, and we are doing everything we can to get him back safely.”

ghost
08-12-2009, 10:15 AM
Do you think we have any idea where this guy is?

CraneMan
08-12-2009, 10:25 AM
The bastards. Wish we could order a mandatory evacuation for all Non Military citizens and civilians and turn the place into a large sheet of glass. Then send in the troops to mop up the leftovers. Then take the whole country for ourselves. I know they will not negotiate with them but I hope they take whatever actions we can to free our soldier. DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!!! We WILL Make Them Pay For This..

CraneMan
08-12-2009, 10:26 AM
Did you guys see the video. I'm pretty sure it was setup. Wearing nice cloths and eating a good meal. Bullshit.. Kill the bastards!!!

Cruelbreed
08-12-2009, 01:50 PM
Did you guys see the video. I'm pretty sure it was setup. Wearing nice cloths and eating a good meal. Bullshit.. Kill the bastards!!!

The video is on the main page as well as somewhere in the forum. Yeah it was obviously all bullshit. I also wonder why we cannot just have civilian evacuations. BUT, as we know some civilians would stay and inevitably die looking poorly however way we look at it. Some civilians will also be forced to stay for the purpose of being useful propaganda as american bomb victims by the taliban. It's also hard to evacuate areas you do not control.

ghost
08-12-2009, 02:23 PM
Yeah. Unfortunately due to other factors, you can only do so much.

dmaxx3500
08-15-2009, 12:08 AM
The bastards. Wish we could order a mandatory evacuation for all Non Military citizens and civilians and turn the place into a large sheet of glass. Then send in the troops to mop up the leftovers. Then take the whole country for ourselves. I know they will not negotiate with them but I hope they take whatever actions we can to free our soldier. DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!!! We WILL Make Them Pay For This..

this is what should have been done on sept.12-13-14,2001,this all these people understand is who has the bigger stick wins,,but we should have done this to iraq,iran and afganistan,but we can't seem to fight a war like our parents did in ww2

bobdina
08-15-2009, 12:29 PM
The bastards. Wish we could order a mandatory evacuation for all Non Military citizens and civilians and turn the place into a large sheet of glass. Then send in the troops to mop up the leftovers. Then take the whole country for ourselves. I know they will not negotiate with them but I hope they take whatever actions we can to free our soldier. DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!!! We WILL Make Them Pay For This..

Where are you going to put the non-military civilians ? What about the ones that don't get the news to evacuate (if you found a place for them) What about the ones the Taliban refuse to let leave? If we turn in it to glass and take it over for ourselves how are we going to clean up the mess then take care of it? Your plan put's us on the same plateau as the the tyrants we hate.Soldiers ,Sailors, Airmen and Marines want to free oppressed people ,not order them out of their homes and destroy them , what you are saying to do is just the opposite of freeing the oppressed .Everyone in uniform knows the risk of service and being captured is one of them.

CraneMan
08-15-2009, 10:05 PM
Take care of it.. Shit just keep the oil pumping in our direction and fuck everything else.
You know they would if they could. If we are going to do what we need to do over there we have to be willing to do WHATEVER it takes. We could let the good people back into the country after we mop up the scum of the earth.

CraneMan
08-15-2009, 10:08 PM
I know it sounds very extreme.. I was just saying what I wish we could do.

bobdina
08-15-2009, 10:26 PM
I know it sounds very extreme.. I was just saying what I wish we could do.

I understand how you feel trust me, I thought you actually thought we could that. Plus I missed you saying I wish at the start of your post so I apologize for my rant. And welcome to the forums, Bob