The sad truth about the deaths of 8 US soldiers in Afghanistan this weekend is that they were not even meant to be in the remote military base that was attacked.
They should have moved out months ago.
Their commanders had been planning to pull out since Dec 2008 but various problems – from a lack of cargo helicopters to move their stuff, to the extreme resitance of the Afghan government – slowed their exit.
Despite these set backs many of them were due to leave this week if the Taliban had not fatally attacked first.
It was an all too predictable loss of life. Nick Paton Walsh could see that when he vistied the Forward Operating Base Keating in Kamdesh in August. He came under fire then from insurgents in the surrounding hillsides and it was obvious the US military there were sitting targets.
And in a rather eerie coincidence, anyone reading the Washington Post this weekend would have found out about a very similar attack just over a year ago only 20 miles away at Wanat. Then 9 US soldiers were killed and that death toll prompted the policy review which recommended pulling out of bases like Wanat and Kamdesh.
One of the solidiers who died in Wanat in 2008, First Lt. Jonathan Brostrom, was interviewed shortly before the fatal attack and said he believed the mission in Nurestan was “almost a lost cause”.
After that bloody attack, senior commanders comcluded they dont have enough forces to defeat the Taliban in these remote areas and recommended focusing instead on defending major population centres rather than treacherous and barren mountain passes.
The only reason US troops were there was to try to stop insurgents crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan and in that task they were almost totally failing anyway.
Now they have to work out how to get out of the there without further casualites.