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| Afghanistan |
| Reinforcements arriving at Shah-i-Kot |
| 2002-03-09 |
Day Seven of the biggest ground battle in the five-month-old war was once more fought mostly in dreary weather that left the sky with the tint of frozen glass and slowed the American air attack. Nevertheless, with conditions improving late in the day, warplanes managed to fly 200 missions and drop 75 bombs, according to Brig. Gen. John Rosa of the Air Force. America's precision-guided bombs are weapons at least two generations younger than the rolling armor that was sputtering its way from Kabul. "I am told the enemy is not putting up much resistance now," said Gen. Muhammad Nasim, famed in this country as a tank commander. He had plenty of time to chat, what with his old Soviet-built T-55 stalled on the main road. "We should have brought more spare parts," he said in frustration. "There is something wrong with the clutch." "Our" Afghans have the same leftover junk the Bad Guys have stashed. T55 is an up-gunned modification of the T54s that are supposed to be hidden away in the caves. Their chief advantage is that they're easy to maintain - if you remember to bring spare parts, of course. Fox video shots from the area show pretty heavy snow falling, and our guys are probably not having a lot of fun coping with the cold. That doesn't mean they're not trained for it, only that it's not fun. Expect a few frostbite casualties, but we'll probably cope very will with the Brutal Afghan Winter. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |