A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War
A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War
By Dakota Meyer and Bing West
Random House, $27, 239 pp.
Does this sound familiar?
1. A group of Americans on a diplomatic mission to reach out to Muslims are pinned down by al-Qaeda and come under overwhelming fire.
2. They repeatedly call for support fire missions, which are denied because they cannot absolutely guarantee no civilians are in the area.
3. A frustrated American warrior disobeys orders to go on what appears to be a suicide mission to try to save them.
4. The pinned down Americans are wiped out because supporting fire missions are denied them.
No, this is not a rush-to-press account of the recent disgrace in Benghazi, but if you think Libya was a unique screw-up during the Obama administration, Into the Fire — the story of the Battle of Ganjigal, by Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer and war correspondent extraordinaire Bing West — will change your perception.
As Benghazi and Ganjigal show, it’s the unwritten policy of the Obama administration that civilian lives come before the lives of American soldiers, even when there is only a slim chance bystanders will be killed.
I first learned of Meyer’s story while reading West’s masterful The Wrong War, a scathing critique of how the Afghan war has become more of an ill-conceived welfare plan than an anti-terrorism fight.
Among that book’s most gripping chapters is the story of the ill-conceived and ill-fated Operation Dancing Goat (which I’m sure is informally known as goat-something-else among those who participated). Here, the rules of engagement and brass with no respect for the enemy’s capabilities nearly led to a disaster that would have been much worse but for the unbelievable heroism of one Marine, Dakota Meyer.
But Into the Fire, despite its subtitle, is more than just an account of that fateful day. Meyer sets the stage by telling of his complete tour in Afghanistan, recounting the successes and failures of training Afghan troops to take over their own security, and of the incredible strictures placed on American combat forces by their own command.
Time and again, Meyer was constrained from engaging enemy forces by casualty-shy commanders who forgot the age-old maxim: force projection is force protection.
But even more frustrating were the rules of engagement that all but forbade contact with the enemy if civilians were part of the context, thus giving Taliban and al-Qaeda forces the incentive to surround themselves with innocents.
On the fateful day, the Marines were assigned to attend a shura (think powwow, with tea as the peace pipe) with an imam for whom they recently had built a mosque. Despite objections that the plan opened up their east flank — the flank that directly led to Pakistan, where Taliban and al-Qaeda were holed up— the Marines were sent anyway, with a full complement of Afghan soldiers and border police.
They were ambushed by a large force, but even while Marines and Afghans were being gunned down, they could not get approval for a fire mission from Army artillery commanders.
Dakota, who had been left behind as a punishment of sorts for actions considered overly aggressive by the brass, sat in frustration back at the base listening to his comrades, both Army and Marine, beg for artillery and air support but denied at every turn.
Finally, Meyer recruited Gunny Juan Rodriguez-Chavez for a rescue mission. With Rodriguez-Chavez driving a HUM-V and Meyer fully exposed while manning the turret, they drove into the gauntlet, not expecting they would survive to return.
It was the first of five forays against overwhelming odds that Meyer would make that day. And if being exposed to enemy fire in the gun turret doesn’t impress you enough, Meyer also spent a fair amount of one mission on foot. His weapons included not only the HUM-V’s heavy mounted gun but also a variety of rifles and grenade launchers. In one face-to-face moment while trying to rescue a fallen soldier, he killed a terrorist by bashing his head in with a rock.
Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez saved dozens of lives that day. Unfortunately, the Marines from their unit, as they discovered on Meyer’s fifth and last mission of the day, were overrun and killed.
Meyer doesn’t brag about his exploits or characterize anything he did as particularly brave; his overriding emotion in the book is frustration, not self-congratulation. In fact, he finds particular irony in the fact that he received his country’s highest honor for what he considers the worst day of his life.
I leave to Bing West, who put it best in his account of the battle in The Wrong War:
For a man to charge into fire once requires grit that is instinctive in few men; to do so a second time, now knowing what awaits you, requires inner resolve beyond instinct; to repeat a third time is courage above and beyond any call of duty; to go in a fourth time is to know you will die; to go in a fifth time is beyond comprehension.
Myer’s performance was the greatest act of courage in the war, because he repeated it, and repeated it, and repeated it.
After the goat … rodeo … was over, Meyer, a man any platoon would want to have as part of its fighting force, had to be removed from the battlefield. His rage at what had happened was just too great.
In fact, Meyer left the Marines when his tour was up, and was working construction when he got the call that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor. Dakota politely asked to be called back on his lunch break.
Meyer is very honest about the mental toll the battle took on him, including a suicide attempt that only failed because of a pistol misfire. It was not the killing that bothered him so much, but the loss — and the rage at the lack of support.
At Dakota’s Medal of Honor ceremony, President Obama said, “The story of what Dakota did … will be told for generations.”
The story of what command is reluctant to do under Barack Obama — from Afghanistan to Benghazi — should be told for just as long.
The Battle of Ganjigal was not well publicized even though Meyer became the first Marine since Vietnam to be awarded the Medal of Honor non-posthumously and Rodriguez-Chavez received the Navy Cross. For the Army, it was mostly about investigations of why the FOC denied fire support.
The book argues convincingly that Army Captain Will Swenson, who took command under fire of the units on the ground and called for fire support, also should have been awarded the Medal of Honor. The Army supposedly “lost” the paperwork, but in the publicity surrounding Dakota Meyer and this book, the packet has been “found.” Perhaps another hero will receive his due.
Into the Fire is the To Hell and Back of the Afghan War. Like Audie Murphy, Dakota Meyer fearlessly took on overwhelming odds by commandeering a mounted gun. But by undertaking not one but five suicide missions in one day, this stubbornly ferocious Marine is in a league of his own. Mark him down as a first-ballot inductee in the Badass Hall of Fame.
****
Also at PJ Lifestyle from David Forsmark:
What a damn shame that this true warrior had to accept the Medal of Honor from a piece of dog crap that isn’t fit to shine his boots! God speed to you Dakota Meyer. You are the best of the best!
I cannot read such an account of military and civilian malfeasance.
What is wrong with our soldiers that they accept such rules?
What is right about our soldiers is that they accept their lawful orders! That’s what makes them soldiers instead of Hollywood movie badasses.
The insane ROE (rules of engagement) they were functioning under were put in place under George W. Bush, not Obama. (Besides, the president doesn’t set the ROE in the first place; the theater commander does.)
The ROE were there because of a misguided attempt at counterinsurgency misapplied in a situation where true COIN is all but impossible. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but I think this web site goes out of its way to blame Obama for everything, which just comes across as petulant and misinformed.
As Commander in Chief, Obama is responsible for everything the military does. It’s part of the job. Granted the stupidity of the ROE was formed under G. W. Bush (along with a bunch of lawyers and reporters), but Obama has been president for four years. It’s time we quit blaming his predecessors for his failings.
“It’s time we quit blaming his predecessors for his failings.”
We can trace our blames all the way back to mad King George, you know?
Our dearest Dear Leader is always blameless. He can claim credits, his greatest achievement was the Iraq War (until things hit the fan). Oh, he killed Osama with his bear hands.
I suspect the ROE would be improved significantly if Pentagon lawyers and chairborne rangers spent a few weeks walking point for an infantry squad, perferably a squad composed of others just like them. No sense getting young soldiers killed needlessly.
It is a sobering fact of war — modern war in particular — that a majority of incredible acts of heroism happen in response to screwups and upper-rank callousness. Whoever the president is who pins on the medal, he is several degrees separated from those who do the bidding of him and his fellow politicians, advisers and crackpot academics who came up with what they thought were great and clever policies.
Obama has gone well beyond Bush. If what Bush did was bad, and it was, what Obama is doing is horrendous.
you are right Buzz, this website blaming everything to Obama just like Obama blaming everything to Bush when things go wrong and then take credit for anything that go right even if he did not have anything to do with it.
Then, by all means, go back to MSNBC.
President B.O. has been the Commander in Chief now for forty-seven months and you (Buzz) want to put the blame on Preident Bush? Surely you jest!
That Liberal boot polish must really taste great to you. If the R.O.E.’s belonged to President Bush’s administration of the war (only), then why hasn’t President B.O. changed or modified them in the past forty-seven months? After all, Isn’t President B.O. the Commander in Chief, or is he the “Excuses in Chief!”
Time for you (Buzz) to get realistic and face the real world by placing responsibility where it belongs (even if it takes forty-seven months).
I have one question for you Buzz. Is there ANYTHING that you would ever blame Obama for?
Buzz, since you wish to be an authority on ROE and name Bush as President who was there at time, etc. you might also acknowledge that the ROE change based on what has been happening in a particular area.
It gets worse. Army Captain Will Swenson fought alongside Meyer and equally deserves an MoH, but his nomination magically vanished because he criticized the Army brass that denied them fire support.
What follows is a quote from the linked article.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/08/marine-dakota-meyer-into-the-fire-book-blasts-army-medal-of-honor-082012/
Interviewed for the investigation afterward, Swenson unloaded on the rules of engagement used in Afghanistan, the leadership of officers who didn’t send help and the second-guessing he experienced while requesting fire support, according to a copy of his witness statement.
“When I’m being second-guessed by higher or somebody that’s sitting in an air-conditioned TOC, why [the] hell am I even out there in the first place?” Swenson told investigators, according to redacted documents reviewed by Marine Corps Times. “Let’s sit back and play Nintendo. I am the ground commander. I want that f—er, and I am willing to accept the consequences of that f—er.”
Meyer’s book points out that Combined Joint Task Force 82, commanded by then-Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, was charged with handling Swenson’s Medal of Honor packet while the investigations were ongoing in 2009. The packet “had vanished into thin air, forgotten by everybody in the chain of command,” the book said. It suggests Swenson symbolizes Ganjgal and the battle “conveyed the wrong message: failure to support advisors, failure to provide artillery support, failure to deliver timely air support, et cetera.”
Oscar:
“It gets worse”
Damn straight it does, and its a crying shame. The brass will cover their ass everytime and railroad anyone below who tarnishes their reputations.
Ask the Skipper of the Inianapolis….torpedoed and sunk, the crew left to the sharks for a week because of some stupid rules about (not) reporting ships late to port ….The US Navy actually used the JAPANESE submarine commander as a PROCECUTION witness, at the Skippers court martial…
Yeah, thats right, they court martial the skipper, and had the enemy help them do it. All to cover their ass.
It started with F*cking the Continental Soldiers out of their pensions, and hasnt changed a bit.
They drove that skipper to suicide, thank God Meyer’s pistol misfired…
I Love my country, I hate most of its “management”.
Yes, our country is made up of very good people but we lack good management. Along with the military brass covering there ass, you often see this in the police departments.
When will command rank officers resign their commissions and speak out rather than acquiesce to orders which cause the murder of the soldiers entrusted to them?
Cowards. And I specifically include the Commanding Officer at Fort Hood at the time of the enemy conducted combat operation against that facility.
p.s. No, The attack at Fort Hood was not terrorism. We are at war.
Our generals are at war too. But it is not on our side.
“As Benghazi and Ganjigal show, it’s the unwritten policy of the Obama administration that civilian lives come before the lives of American soldiers, even when there is only a slim chance bystanders will be killed.”
The thirty some Americans at risk in Benghazi were not soldiers, so your conclusion is off center. The proper conclusion is that the lives of Muslims, and even their sensitivities, come before the lives of non-Muslim Americans, military or civilian. And this is DOD policy as well. Muslim Sensitivities Uber Alles.
What I referred to above is properly called the “Petraeus COIN Doctrine”. Yes, it is proberly named after the son of a bitch Petraeus.
I never tire of reading your statements of truth.
God bless you.
Human sacrifice 21st Century American style.
It would seem the Aztec High Priests of the 15th century have been reincarnated and are now in full reign at the Mega Mosque some still nostalgically call the Pentagon. Their Spiritual Leader has been the High Priest of The Most Holy Doctrine of COIN, Imam David “Holy Qur’an” Petraeus.
America’s Generals are now very much like the Aztec High Priests of many centuries ago. The main difference, and it’s a relatively small one, is that instead of continually sacrificing what they regarded as their excess and disposable human property to the Sun God to try to gain benevolence and avoid wrath, America’s Generals keep trying to sacrifice America’s Constitution, and do sacrifice more and more of the lives and limbs of America’s troops, whom they regard as their excess and disposable human property, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars of America’s rapidly shrinking treasure, which although itself is of much lesser importance is still no small matter, to the gods they reverently call “The Prophet Mohammad”, “The Holy Qur’an” and “The Noble People Of Afghanistan and their Noble Muslim Culture” to try to gain benevolence and avoid wrath, and maybe even get an extra star and another few assorted colorful baubles for which to adorn themselves.
Is our military fighting for anything most Americans would regard as at all decent in Afghanistan? Certainly not our Army, nor our Marines. America’s Generals have repeatedly ordered them to respect the gods they call “The Prophet Mohammad”, “The Holy Qur’an” and “The Noble People Of Afghanistan and their Noble Muslim Culture” and if American troops get shot to death by what their Generals call their Partners in Peace, then the Generals conclude that America’s derelict and sacrilegious troops must not have respected the gods they call “The Prophet Mohammad”, “The Holy Qur’an” and “The Noble People Of Afghanistan and their Noble Muslim Culture” nearly enough and order them to take still more religious and cultural “sensitivity” training so they can better respect the Noble Muslim Culture of the Noble People of Afghanistan, maybe even enough where they can start joining in the practicing of that Noble Muslim Culture themselves, which would no doubt delight the Generals to no end.
There of course is never any “sensitivity” training ever even recommended for what America’s Generals call “The Noble People Of Afghanistan” so they might better understand and appreciate Western and American culture. But then as America’s Generals clearly must regard the Noble Muslim Culture of the Noble People of Afghanistan as being far superior to Western and American culture, they would surely regard any such thing as, well, absolutely unthinkable, and blasphemous, and upon hearing any such suggestion would no doubt order even more “sensitivity” training.
* Mainstream Noble People of Afghanistan Muslim Culture includes child rape of both young girls and young boys, torturing dogs including puppies, total enslavement of women, stoning women to death for being raped, and death to apostates, which itself covers a whole lot, just to very briefly mention a few of the highlights.
Petraeus said that if Pastor Jones burned even his own personal bought and paid for copy of the Koran, or what Petraeus, an absolute disgrace to the uniform, to his oath of office to the United States Constitution and to America if ever there was one, calls ‘The Holy Qur’an”, and upset Muslims, even on the other side of the planet, killed or hurt any American troops it would be the fault of Pastor Jones.
If a real American General, an American General with honor, like General George S. Patton, could come back from the grave, he would slap Petraeus worse than he slapped that Private, and drop kick him into Kingdom come. Somewhere up beyond the Pearly Gates, George Patton is looking down and saying, “The building formally known as the Pentagon has become a G-d damned mega mosque whore house of servicing Muslims. The Perfumed Pimps there masquerading as Generals have no regard for America and it’s Constitution or their own troops and they are all out sons-of-bitches, traitors, and chronic dhimmis!”
Indeed….
During the “Bannana Wars” men like Smedley Butler and Chesty Puller took (dead) enemy guerillas reputed to have “mystical powers” and desecrated them in the most “culturally insensitive” ways possible, on PURPOSE…then dragged their corpses behind horsed for all the villages to see. The message being no “Strong Medicine” in THIS one, is there?
If you fight an enemy, you must not only have absolute contempt for him and everything about him, you must never, EVER fear showing that contempt to the world.
“Humane Treatment” is reserved only for those poor conscripted and unwilling souls who, eager to abandon their side, surrender at the first opportunity. If they fight at all, they must be slaughtered, and their entire cause, culture and driving “religion” must be mocked and humiliated in defeat.
Anything less is, defeat.
Amen.
My condolences and thanks to those serving, have served and tho those who’ve given the ultimate sacrifice. Endless words and appreciative actions will never be enough to show one’s gratitude.
As is etched into the Korean War Memorial, ‘Freedom is not Free’.
We have stopped fighting wars in 1945, since then we simply send our boys to be targets for the enemy’s fire.
if MacArthur had been allowed by Truman to nuke China in 1952, Mao would not had killed 60 million Chinese through the cultural revolution of the ’60′s, and Chinese would be living in a Japan-like democracy today.
as a bonus Stalin would not had induced Vietnam to fight the US and the Muslims would not have the gumption to threaten the US ( ridiculous as it is ).
Truman introduced the silly concept of limited war, which gave us the Korea stalemate the Vietnam war the Iraq and Afghanistan American casualties
idiotic notion:
war is intended to resolve conflict for good not to let it foster for ever. Hit hard hit often ( Patton) until you have inflicted enough pain into your enemy so that he will no longer constitute a menace
There is a POS traitor former military (lawyer I think) named
Mikey Weinstein that has done more harm to our military than
can be imagined. He wages war on how we do war and has effectively
neutered our military with political correctness, charging separation
of church and state, he was the force behind the burning of donated
Bibles and the today policy of no mil personnel handing out Bibles.
But we can obviously BUILD MOSQUES, right? that will definitely
ensure Gods help and blessing, right? Psalm 127:1 Unless God builds
the house he who labors, labors in vain. We are losing because this
nation has turned away from the God of our founding fathers. We have
BHO for president because as biblically told God gives the apostate
nation godless leaders to match their godless belief and brings them
to repentance by blessing the actions of their enemy. As is the example
in the whole of the old testament.
Add to that Jesus words in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
That’s for those of you who think that the New Covenant makes this law void.
You should spend a few dark nights talking with my son, a senior weapons sergeant on a Green Beret A-Team with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The utter stupidity and incompetence of America’s military and political leaders has resulted in wars without goals and without victory that are getting our best and brightest chewed up and torn down. Damn them all to hell, starting with that SCoaMF in the White House. God damn them to hell’s darkest pit.
My sincere thank’s to your son for his service.
DDAY,
Please thank your son for me, I apologize for what he has had to endure for a Leadership Cadre that does not deserve his efforts. The country owes him better, but sadly, that will never happen.
My own personal antidote for that situation, was to endure “whatever” numbly and callously, for the singular pleasure of the occasional “payback”.
Expect less than zero from your leadership, let it become your own personal crusade to eliminate just ONE of those F*uckers before you go, and you can sleep at night.
Anticipating anything “bigger”, is a recipe for disappointment.
Sorry, that was for twolaneflash…
And sorry again if those were harsh words to a Mothers ear in regard to her children
Using words such as “bad*ss” to refer to authentic American military heroism is another small sign of cultural collapse. Can’t you find suitable vocabulary in accounts from Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Guadalcanal, Normandy, etc. ?
“Bad*ss” is more appropriate to fanboys talking about Tarantino moves or comic books. There is a difference between movie action ”heroes” such as Arnold Schwarzenegger or Samuel Jackson and genuine American heroes.
Democrats care about their re-electability, not the youths they send to war.
This is not an isolated incident. It is regular and deadly occurance for our military forces. Unfortunately our armed forces commanders are folowing the leadeship examples of the dregs of society that currently occupy the White House, Senate, CIA and the diplomatic corps.
God help America
You can make Colonel on ability, General takes politics- hopefully but not necessarily with ability. And the politics has to start early, not after you make Colonel. That’s why every war takes a certain amount of time and casualties at the beginning, to thin the pure politicians out. See N Africa, Sicily, and the landings in Italy for examples, or the first year or so of the Civil war.
Unfortunately, we’re finding it ever harder to thin those politicians out with the Big 0 in office.
Don’t tar the whole of military leadership with the same brush, though, there are still Pattons, Schwartzkopfs, Sheridans and Ulmers out there, they just need someone in D.C. to look for them and support them, and down below the Flag officer level there is still a concept of honor over career.
Shame on the Brass. Shame on our leaders and ultimately, shame on America. We do not deserve the honorable heroes who stand up for our country in spite of our country’s betrayal. Yes, Petraeus did betray us. A nation that reelected an enemy of the State, a nation who has military leaders imbued in political correctness, and who cowardly acquiess to militant Islam is to far gone for redemption. Medal of honor Dakota Meyer is a giant among midgets.
Those posters bleating that “Bush did it to..” need to explain why in 2009 LTC Peters was criticizing new rules of engagement.
http://m.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_u935ECKNWXpLK8C5D96pdN
Little did we know when we elected Obama that he would be draped in a protective cloak of lies regarding everything he does or fails to do.
It has gotten pretty bad in the military. I have seen first hand the mangled bodies coming through our trauma facility to Germany.
Back at home, as here, it would do more good to make all grades O-7 and higher to retire, half of all O-6s and possibly a quarter of O-5s. Staying in past 20 shouldn’t be a political goal, but a hard-won reward for actual field leaderhip, that’s why they are called Field Grade Officers.
Unfortunately to get the silver ring in officership, it is now how well an officer can count beans, attend the right schools, and parrot the current group-think that gets an officer ahead.
Isn’t it ironic that a junior enlisted soldier can get in more trouble for misplacing his/her weapon, than an O-6 will for losing a battle or not attaining a mission? We are not a police force, but a military one. Al-crapeada and Taliban ARE civilians using arms and other people as weapons. If there is trouble in an area, level it. The marines learned awhile back that if they recieved fire from a building, you didn’t storm it, you blew it up with whatever was avaiable, such as tanks, aircraft, artillery or explosives. If the locals don’t like it, then they need to suck it up and help out, otherwise stay out of the way.
“Isn’t it ironic that a junior enlisted soldier can get in more trouble for misplacing his/her weapon, than an O-6 will for losing a battle or not attaining a mission?”
Or getting his people killed…dont forget getting his people killed.
Like so many others in high circles, they are simply “too big to fail”
The Bail-outs, and The Bill.
Guess who gets which?
Per Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress will make all laws governing land and naval forces which it does today via Title X USC. Subsection of which is known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Para 99 of the Punitive Articles -
Article 99—Misbehavior before the enemy
“Any member of the armed forces who before or in the presence of the enemy—
…
(8) willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or
(9) does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies when engaged in battle; shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.”
RoEs do not override the law. If the law is inconvenient, then go to Congress and change the law. Every single officer in the chain of command needs to face not just an Article 32 investigation, but a full courts martial, even if so delayed by the ‘good old boy’ club.
Ah, yes, the Rule of Law…..
Like everything else in the Constitution, such is reduced to mere “opinion” by the self-benighted intellectuals who see their ideas as “better”
Treason? What a silly word.
We’re too elite to use such lowly concepts in OUR conversations.