From another thread - there were some who were puzzled with the concern over hitting a Mosque with an AC-130s weapons.
* No one saw the 30 minutes of surveillance previous to the video clip. For all we know there were alot of non-combatants in that Mosque.
* The Mosque is a common place to flee to for women and children in times of direct danger. Part if it is based on religous belief, part of it is based on the fact that the Mosque is usually the most studilly constructed building in a village like the one you saw. Part of it is because the locals know that the Western Allies tend to try and avoid blowing up Mosques if possible (more on this below).
The guys targeted in this video probably weren't Taliban soldiers, they were probbaly Al-Q. A few things worth noting:
The viewpoint was from a predator drone. Predator drones don't wander about aimless 'looking for something interesting'. They are directed to an area to look for someone or something 'important', and then they conduct surveillance and maybe aid in targeting if something ends up being targeted.
Warlords fighting for the Taliban weren't hard to find or to follow.
Notice the tunnel entrance. The #1 tunnel/cave/fortification 'brain' in Afghanistan was a guy who fought vs. the Russians and now worked for Al-Q. 'Cave complex' = 'shelter, concealment, weapons/munitions storage, and if need be defensive strongpoint for Al-Q'.
Note how the targets were meeting in the building cited closest to the Mosque, despite all the other buildings nearby.
A little local psychology here - Afghanis don't like Al-Q. They consider them (unwelcome for an extended stay) foreigners in the same way they (used to, until about a year ago) considered Americans, Russians, and everyone else 'invading foreigners'. Add in the fact that Al-Q personnel acted as 'enforcers', when it came to denying villages (primarily U.S. provided) food if said villages did not completely support the Taliban regime (i.e. send all young males able to carry a rifle to be trained to fight for the Taliban, allow the Taliban to hide weapons and munitions next to the village school, etc.) and you'll understand why Afghanis in general called Al-Q personnel 'arabs' in a very derogatory context/tone of voice/etc.
Now the primary motivation for Al-Q to recruit people from that region *for duty in Al-Q terrorist cells* - which means they may be trying to ambush Western forces in Afghanistan but 1 year from now they could be within 500 miles of Australia on some island - is the 'war of religious ideaology' context. Islam vs. all of non-Islam, with the 'Christian West' being the most prominent and evil foe.
Put one round on that Mosque and the head Al-Q recruiter is going to be bringing potential 17 year old dumb-ass (as in all 17 year olds near a war are dumb-ass, regardless of Nationality) from every surrounding village inside of a 500 mile radius to show that Mosque to him.
Now understand that these 17 year olds have lived in a very strict religous environment from the time of their first memories.
Remember that they've been told (and it's partly true) that Bin Laden and his Al-Q fought to free Afghanistan from the Russians as 'holy warriors'. Now you have a 17 year old, being taken by a revered Arab 'holy warrior' who has fought for the freedom of Afghanistan showing this kid how 'The evil Americans even fired their weapons at this Mosque - to show their hatred for Allah/Muhammed/Islam/etc.
Now look at it from the other angle - from the 'village Elder's' point of view. In the midst of a firefight, one of the few surviving Al-Q 'soldiers' fled the fight to run into the village's Mosque, where there were probably at least a few women and children hiding. Not a good recruiting/public affairs move by Al-Q.
In short - shooting the Mosque to kill one guy would be a bad move in terms of psychological warfare. It also almost certainly contained non-combatants. Contrary to the opinion of Amnesty International/The Guardian/Oliver Stone/The Media in General/Alot of Stupid Clueless People, the U.S.A.F. doesn't consider Mosques to be priority targets according to S.O.P.
And as for the 'morality' of enjoying watching those guys get blown up...well, they were probably Al-Q. If they were, I wouldn't feel an ounce of remorse (and that's not the same as laughing mind you) - and before anyone judges that statement remember that I am fairly sure that I know more about the 'compassion' your average Al-Q operative shows to helpless enemies/bystanders/etc. than 'you'. If they were Taliban soldiers I wouldn't have a party over their getting blown up. After all, alot of the Taliban soldiers were caught in the middle - leave the job in the village and fight for the Taliban or your family starves (or worse). But the power to blame for their predicament is the Taliban, not the U.S.A.F.
You can not like the foreign policy of the U.S.A. Not liking that foreign policy still doesn't make your average Al-Q operative anything but an evil (as in let's knee cap the 20 year old security troops when we ambush them, then videotape us cutting their throats one at a time - example #7 of 121,207 and counting)terrorist. Lots of people in Russia don't like the U.S. intrusions into the economic scene in Russia. They still hate Al-Q, specifically the 'Chechen arm' of Al-Q. One has nothing to do with the other in terms of good and evil. Sure, U.S. foreign policy isn't run by Mother Theresa *every time* (some times it's pretty close, but those times don't count for some reason). Yeah, that's the reason it was okay for Al-Q to target 2 nightclubs in Bali with a series of bombs specifically designed to kill alot of Western college kids on vacation to have a good time. Those damn fun loving college kids. Allah wrote they had to die first I guess.
People seem to forget that the Taliban, who allowed Al-Q 'in' due to the large payments of cash, could have made up the loss in cash payments by kicking Al-Q 'out' and having the West help them out to a much greater degree (I think the ammount the Taliban were to be payed to 'insure the security' of a trans Afghanistan pipeline was on the order of $130 million U.S./year, I'll 2x check the ammount when I get some more free time). When they got the ultimatum, they knew if they went to oust Al-Q and fighting erupted between the Taliban and Al-Q there would have been U.S., Pakistani, etc. forces in place to support the Taliban literally 'overnight'.
As for anyone pissed that the guys got AC-130d...a single FAE over the village would have been guranteed to get everyone being tracked to that location. But the deliberate killing of innocents is not acceptable.
Wait, I'm confused. Accoring to Amnesty International/The Guardian/Oliver Stone/The Media in General/Alot of Stupid Clueless People it *is* acceptable to the U.S. armed forces.
I guess we were all out of FAE that time. Lucky for the bad guys that we were.
(note: the above paragraph was a joke...this disclaimer in place in case my post is forwarded to The Guardian by some idiot)
Mike/wulfie
