April 6, 2005: An American CH-47 Chinook went down killing 16 American soldiers with two still missing. It went down south of Kabul, Afghanistan in "bad weather".
March 29, 2005: Two U S soldiers were wounded in an ambush by insurgents in southern Afghanistan.
March 26, 2005: Four U S soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a land mine in southern Afghanistan.
February 4, 2005: A civilian plane crashed in southern Afghanistan killing 104 passengers and crew members. The deaths included 6 American aid workers and contractors. "Bad weather" was cited as the cause.
November, 2004 : Three U S soldiers and 3 civilian crew members were killed when their plane crashed into a mountain in central Afghanistan. The cause was "bad weather"
America invaded Afghanistan in October, 2001. Since that time including these recent fatalities 138 Americans have lost their lives-30% of that total in the past 3 months. It is beginning to look like a trend of resistence more than "bad weather". The Afghanis defeated the Russians with American supplied hand-held Stinger ground-to-air missle launchers. I am sure they did not return those weapons to the U S after the Russians left.
Attacking the Taliban by the U S was a mission that was appropriate. But nation-building and eradication of the poppy crops (source of heroin) is mission creep that runs up against the culture and economy of the Afghan people. The spraying of the poppy crops spills over into staple crops, water,animals and people. Sadly, I think more loss of US lives is on the way.
One thing for sure, using "bad weather" as an excuse for loss of U S soldiers has a time limit.
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