It is the Fool who thinks he is the wise man...
Nice bit of introspection, 21stC.
Too bad you don't take your own advice. You ought to some time.
What the "2,000 youths" had in their possession is beside the point, and it's just dumb to try and cloud the discussion. Three angry naked black kids with spears and good aim could've ended the whole mission. Maybe only two. So regardless of whether these "rebel forces" had slingshots, peashooters, AK47s or howitzers, the fact is that the U.S. sent in three V-22s to a known conflict area without, apparently, any protection.
And then got three of them shot up.
And got four of our guys shot up as well.
And then the three ships had to get the hell out of there without accomplishing anything except wasting a bunch of gas and even
more of our taxpayer money, and showing us (as if we needed proof) that the "quick in-and-out" ability of the Osprey...really...ain't...worth much in the long run.
And on top of all that, but nobody even says, "WTF are we *doing* there??" The UN has airplanes, doesn't it? Send one of those!
Hey, if the military just wanted to get an airplane shot up, they could've sent one single C-130 with some extra guys with guns. I mean, fer cryin' out loud, there's an AIRPORT right near Bor! Or two C-130s: the second one being an AC-130 so it could lay down some suppressive fire and maybe even carry the people out if the first C-130 got a chip light or something that would render it out of service. It still would've been cheaper and more effective than that V-22 dog-and-pony show.
Which is all it was, come on, let's be real. Some genius general full of hubris wanted to show the world (and skeptics like me) yet another use for the V-22 to prove that it's just, you know, indispensible for the
modern warfighter which is what we used to call a "soldier." Or maybe they wanted to prove it to the Israelis or the Japanese, the other potential buyers of this Turkey...sorry, Osprey. Let's hope they don't have the NYT in Isreael or Japan.