Photo: PKKH

The corporate media has gone to extraordinary lengths to put the best possible face on yesterday's killing of 30 U.S. Navy Seals and 8 U.S.-trained Karzai soldiers near Kabul when their Chinook helicopter came under fire by Afghanistan Defense Forces* (ADF). Much of the media is using the word "crash," referring to the downed helicopter, leaving questions about the cause. In the midst of all these face-saving attempts certain facts are leaking through the corporate media cracks:

• Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid issued a written statement, claiming Taliban responsibility immediately following the attack. 
  
  
• Daily Mail Online confirms that the helicopter was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade while continuing to describe the attack as a "crash.
  
  Mohammad Saber said he watched the helicopter plummetl during a late night U.S. military attack in his village:
  
  “At around 10:00pm last night, we heard helicopters flying over us. We were at home. We saw one of the helicopters land on the roof of a house of a Taliban commander, then shooting started. The helicopter later took off but soon after taking off it went down and crashed. There were other helicopters flying as well.”
  
  General Abdul Razeq, the commander of the US-Karzai army for the region said the helicopter was “shot down by a rocket fired by the enemy.”
  
  Shahidullah Shahid, spokesman for the governor of the Wardak Province reported:
  
  “The US chopper that crashed last night was shot down by the Taliban as it was taking off. A rocket fired by the insurgents hit it and completely destroyed it.”
  

• The U.S. military came under heavy fire by the ADF at the scene of the wreckage when they attempted to retrieve the remains after the attack and that battle has continued today.
  
  
• The Pentagon and regime in Washington, unwilling to admit that it was a successful military operation by the Afghan defense, continues to describe the attack as a "crash," saying that they are investigating its cause.
  
  
• U.S. Army rangers came under heavy attack by the Afghan defense in the same area and called for backup, provided by those on the downed helicipter.
  
  
• Of the 30 U.S. Special Forces killed, 22 were Navy Seals from "Seal Team Six."
  
  

• The math: 25 percent (30 of 120 members) of Seal Team Six were killed in the attack.
  

• Seal Team Six is the same unit that reportedly killed Osama bin Laden in May.
  
  
• Daily Mail Online quickly follows this fact by stating, "It was reported last night" that the Seals who died in the helicopter crash were not among the 23 who Seals who killed Bin Laden."
  
  Mail Online states that it "is not clear" if the ADF deliberately hit the helicopter as an act of revenge. Suggesting that this attack was "an act of revenge" for killing Bin Laden in Pakistan serves several purposes for the invader:
  
  1. It reinforces the U.S. claim that they actually did kill Bin Laden in May which is doubtful in the minds of many.
  
  2. It attempts once again to link the Taliban with al Queda, a known falsehood.
  
  3. It distracts from the fact that the motive of "revenge" would more obviously be for the U.S. slaughter of the many innocent men, women and children in the country, largely unreported by the government/corporate media.
  
  4. It attempts to trivialize the Afghan Resistance as they daily gain military supremacy over the invader/occupiers.
  
  
• "At least" 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft have been destroyed by the ADF in Afghanistan this year according to Pentagon sources but the U.S. calls these "crashes", blaming them on "pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures." The U.S. is obviously reluctant to admit that any of these were shot down by the ADF.
  
  
• The corporate media repeatedly reports this as "a NATO operation" and generally attributes the war to NATO when it's clear that it is the United States who was attacked and defeated by the Afghan Resistance. It is a United States who launched this war and patched together a relatively small number of other countries to participate in a lame attempt to salvage what little credibity remains for the U.S. military.
  
  

• During the same period in which the ADF shot down this U.S. helicopter the invaders attacked a house and inadvertently killed eight members of a family, including women and children, in the southern Helmand province. The corporate media cites the U.N. saying that "the insurgency is responsible for most war casualties involving non-combatants." This claim defies logic and the many reports of U.S. killing of Afghan civilians which Mail Online describes as "accidentally killing civilians during operations against suspected insurgents."
  
  Update: "On Saturday, NATO troops attacked a house in Helmand province and 'inadvertently' killed a woman and her seven small children, all seven years old or younger, according to an Afghan government statement. The intended target of the raid, a Taliban organizer, was not in the house at the time."

• There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, around 100,000 of them from the U.S.

• It's difficult to get a firm number on U.S. and troops from other countries killed and wounded in Afghanistan but various media report the following: As of August 1, 2011 1738 US soldiers had been killed and 7,857 wounded by IEDs alone since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 according to Pentagon reports. Out of 330 NATO-led soldiers who have been killed by the ADF so far this year, 234 were from the U.S. 29 from the U.K. and the remaining 67 from numerous other countries. It's interesting that no casualties or deaths of Israelis are reported in these wars despite Israel's role in launching them. It's also important to note that often, only those killed in action (KIAs) and wounded in action (WIAs) are reported while many others resulting from illness, suicide and accidents go unreported.

• Finally, the ADF attack on the U.S. helicopter, killing 38 took place in the Tangi Valley which is located only 35 miles southwest of Kabul.

The location of the ADF attack on the U.S. helicopter was only 35 miles SW of Kabul. (Press Association Graphic - cropped)

The corporate media fails to point out the Tangi Valley's proximity to Kabul, saying it is "dubbed ‘Death Valley’ [and] is known for being one of the most hostile corridors in Afghanistan. The volatile Wardak province is an infamous insurgent stronghold." the fact is that all of Afghanistan is "a stronghold" of the ADF who are only "infamous" to the invader but famous and heroes among the Afghan people and multitudes of others throughout the world.

There have been numerous deadly attacks against the U.S. and their puppet government inside "The Green Zone" where the capital city of Kabul has been under siege by the resistance for the last few years.

On July 23, James Petras reported,

"Hamid Karzai, who has rarely ventured out of the presidential compound without his US Marine bodyguards, has been ineffective in gathering even token support except through his extended family. His main prop was narco warlord brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, killed by his CIA certified Chief of Security."

The ADF has infiltrated all levels of government, police and military under the Karzai regime and many successful ADF military operations have been carried out by ADF infiltrators, trusted by the US and Karzai to fight against their own people.

* The term "Afghanistan Defense Forces" (ADF) used in this report is an Axis of Logic coinage used to describe the extremely well-organized Afghan military forces who for the last 10 years have been defending Afghanistan by defeating the United States & company in this war.

READ MORE ESSAYS AND POETRY BY LES BLOUGH