The French get hit with a lot of jokes about their combat prowess, but it should be noted that the French have been involved in fighting in Afghanistan which is testament to the fact that they just had 10 soldiers killed in action there:

Ten French soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting near the Afghan capital of Kabul after 100 insurgents attacked a patrol, authorities said.

French and NATO authorities confirmed the deaths and said 21 other soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Sarobi area in Kabul province, about 30 miles northeast of the capital.

The clashes began late Monday afternoon and continued into Tuesday, when the casualties occurred, French officials said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his “determination is intact” to continue “this battle against terrorism for democracy and liberty.”

“The cause is just. It is an honor for France and its armies to defend them,” said Sarkozy, who will travel Tuesday night to Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said. [CNN]

I had a buddy of mine who recently returned from working at ISAF headquarters in Kabul and he had nothing but good things to say about the French forces operating in the Kabul province unlike a lot of other NATO countries. French President Sarkozy is on his way to Afghanistan now to assess what happened. This can probably be interpreted as a Taliban test of French will because the French have agreed to send 700 additional soldiers to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban with. The Taliban may have targeted the French soldiers to influence the French public’s will to send more soldiers to fight in Afghanistan.

Also in Afghanistan a major attack on a US military base along the Pakistan border was foiled in a major defeat for the Taliban:

The suicide attack Tuesday on Camp Salerno, the American base that serves as the logistics hub for the war’s eastern front, began just after midnight when a team of attackers dressed in military fatigues were spotted on the horizon.

Afghan and U.S. forces confronted the militants some 1,000 yards from the base entrance, while fighter aircraft attacked from the air. Once surrounded, three suicide bombers detonated themselves, and three more were shot to death, NATO said in a statement. It said a seventh militant was also killed and two NATO soldiers were wounded. [AP]

The Taliban militants did not even come within one kilometer of the base but how does the AP title its story? AP Militants Hit US Base, Kill 10 French. The title makes it sound like that the Taliban successfully hit a US base and killed 10 French soldiers.

Check out how the New York Times characterized the Taliban’s failed attack that saw them get slaughtered by US forces:

“The attack on Camp Salerno in Khost Province was one of the most complex attacks seen so far in Afghanistan with multiple suicide bombers and a backup fighting force that tried to breach defenses on to the airport at the base.”

It was a squad sized Taliban element that was wiped out a kilometer from the base. How is this a complex attack? Why is the New York Times inflating what these guy did? The New York Times is either passing off disinformation or incompetent. Probably both.

I need to also point out some more disinformation in the AP piece as well:

Just last month, some 200 militants attacked a small U.S. outpost in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, penetrating its perimeter and killing nine U.S. troops.

It was not a US outpost that was hit as these continuous media outlets report. The commander of the 173rd Airborne in an interview to Stars & Stripes clearly detailed what happened:

The battle occurred just after dawn at a temporary vehicle patrol base near Wanat. A platoon-sized element of Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) soldiers and a smaller Afghan National Army force were occupying a hastily built area as they had done many times over the 15 months they’d been in country, Preysler said. The soldiers were there on a reconnaissance mission to establish a presence and find a good location to connect with the local government, populace and Afghan National Police, he said.

The small outpost had been built just days before the attack and consisted of protective wire and observation posts surrounding strategically placed vehicles. “That’s all it was, a series of vehicles that went out there,” Preysler said.

“People are saying that this was a full-up [forward operating base]/combat outpost, and that is absolutely false and not true. There were no walls,” Preysler said, latter adding, “FOB denotes that there are walls and perimeters and all that. It’s a vehicle patrol base, temporary in nature.” [Stars & Stripes]

Anyone that has been in the military can tell you that we carry wire on our vehicles to set up a perimeter around our vehicles just like these guys did. Once again this another example of the media inflating what the Taliban did. The Taliban in the attack last month sent 200 soldiers against a vastly smaller platoon sized element and took heavy casualties in the attack and retreated.

However the Taliban continues to win tactical battles in the media due to incompetent reporting like you see here and this why I suspect they will continue to conduct these types of massing attacks despite the heavy casualties they are receiving.  It appears the media has sent the same guys that were telling you how the insurgents in Iraq were 10 feet tall and unstoppable now to Afghanistan to tell you same things about the Taliban.

Popularity: 2%