This is a heavy loss. Perhaps twenty dead. Any twenty are equally tragic from a human point of view, but from a military point of view these dead are a big loss. It takes many years to train one of these special operators. It was a lucky day for the enemy, to be sure. But it was a matter of luck. We will recover and drive on. Luckily for our troops in Afghanistan, almost all of the people here who oppose the Iraq campaign hold tightly to their chest their support for the fight in Afghanistan to shield themselves from the charge of not wanting to defend our country against enemy threats.
UPDATE: Wretchard speculates that the operation is not over and that the original team "lost" may still be on the hunt as I suggested:
Because several hundred US troops were inserted into the area after the loss of the MH-47 it seems evident that the US could obtain local tactical superiority anytime it wished. The fact that did it not send in the several hundred troops for a sweep instead of the four man recon team strongly suggests that the recon team's mission was to fix a very high value target before it could flee from an airmobile assault.
Or it could be a rescue mission to save the original team, and therefore the operation is effectively over and we lost this attempt.
The continued silence from the military could mean either thing. These were serious assets put in place and combined with the location, the target of the hunt could be bin Laden.
This could still turn out good despite our losses.
SECOND UPDATE: We've rescued one of the lost military personnel:
US military officials told thd CNN television that the rescued soldier managed to "evade the enemy" and has been successfully rescured by US forces.
This would seem to rule out the original team still hunting their target. Evading is not hunting. The extra troops that Wretchard notes have been put into the region may mean that new forces have taken the lead in the job.
Hopefully, the other three will be found although the fact that one was separated from the team does not seem to bode well for the rest. Unless we had more than one team in the area to begin with.
Hopefully this mission isn't over yet.
THIRD UPDATE: A second special operations soldier has been located but not secured:
[Kunar Gov. Asadullah ] Wafa said Afghan police and soldiers were trying to rescue the second missing U.S. service member, who was believed sheltering in a house in a remote part of Kunar, a mountainous province on the border with Pakistan.
"He is with an Afghan family and we have heard he is injured," he said, citing intelligence sources.
Wafa said the first member of the elite U.S. military team to be rescued had also taken shelter in the home of an Afghan village elder in the province, before American forces were notified of his location and picked him up.
Two wounded who took refuge in separate locations. Does this mean that the team was attacked and scattered with each team member compelled to evade and survive on their own? Are the others dead or wounded in separate locations? Or captured? Or are the remainder still pursuing their target, having left behind wounded members with friendly Afghanis?
I just don't know.
FOURTH UPDATE: One Navy personnel* (a SEAL commando is not a soldier. *I corrected my original reference here of a "sailor" since that isn't accurate either. Not a soldier. But not a sailor, I think. Sorry) is still missing after two were found dead. Reports of the other team member being safe were apparently wrong:
Two of the Navy SEAL commandos were found dead, the US military confirmed in Kabul. A third member was rescued over the weekend.
The Pentagon said US forces were looking for the fourth missing soldier.
On the assumption that only one team was on the ground, this operation looks broken. Crap.
FINAL UPDATE: Details of the mission have been published. US troops are still in the area:
U.S. commanders refused to give up hope for the fourth missing service member. About 300 troops and numerous aircraft were still in the area Wednesday, searching for him and hunting "a large number" of militants, Yonts said.
It seems like the mission is broken but I don't know if the troops are trying to find the fourth team member or whether the mission continues. Any targets have had a lot of time to exit the area. So unless we have reason to believe targets have gone to ground hoping we will leave without finding them, the mission seems over. Crap.
