Monday, June 28, 2010

Wanat Afghanistan and Blackwater 61

Two separate reports, on wartime tragedies,, with questions as to why and how they were allowed to happen, aired on Sunday night 27 June 2010 on the Afghan occupation and the soldiers serving there.

One on CBS 60min. "Blackwater 61" the other on NBC's Dateline "A father's mission"

Did the United States Army do everything that it could to protect the Chosen Company's Second Platoon?

In the summer of 2008, 9 members of the platoon lost their lives defending a tiny outpost in Afghanistan. Their parents' mission: to find out the truth about what happened, and who should be held accountable. NBC's Richard Engel reports

Dateline NBC brings you the story of a career military man leading a group of parents who say that when their sons were sent to an isolated mountain outpost in Afghanistan, something went terribly wrong.

This report aired Dateline NBC Sunday, June 27, 2010



DAVE BROSTROM: When you send your son off to war, you expect that they will get everything that this great country can provide to protect them.

CARLENE CROSS: This situation was pure recklessness. You just have to say, "This is wrong.”

KURT ZWILLING: Bad things happen in war. But our boys are not cannon fodder. The United States has to protect these men. And, in this case, it was not done.

Every parent who sends a son or daughter to war knows the worst can happen. But that deep, often unspoken fear is tempered by a faith that the military won't needlessly risk the lives of their loved ones. Transcript Continues, along with the video's for Part 2 to Part 6 to the right in the player of the opening Part of Report
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Video: A memorial for the fallen

Video: Gun camera footage of the battle

Video and Photo's: Remembering the fallen men

Video: Engel on the documentary

Survivors Speak of Firefight

Hear more from survivors: 'The whole world was exploding around you' {Link to above video}

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Blackwater 61

June 27, 2010 5:00 PM



"Blackwater 61" is the call sign of a plane flown by the embattled government contractor Blackwater that crashed into a mountain in Afghanistan killing all onboard. The widow of one of the soldiers killed, a pilot herself, says the firm was negligent in the way it operated the flight. Steve Kroft reports.
The Flight and Crash of "Blackwater 61" The Flight and Crash of "Blackwater 61"

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