Dad of soldier: Kamdesh troops sitting ducks

A bugler plays Taps during the Oct. 19 funeral of Army Spc. Stephan Mace at Arlington Cemetery.


Dad of soldier: Kamdesh troops sitting ducks
By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 19, 2009 21:39:42 EDT

ARLINGTON, Va. — Stationed at a remote, undermanned Army outpost in a dangerous patch of northeastern Afghanistan, Stephan Mace knew trouble was brewing. His father says the U.S. military commanders should have known that the troops there “were sitting ducks.”

Larry Mace’s son was buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, one of eight U.S. troops killed earlier this month in Kamdesh in northeast Afghanistan when several hundred militant fighters armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed Combat Outpost Keating.

The attack at Kamdesh, along with a similarly costly battle a year earlier in Wanat, have emerged as powerful symbols of the challenges the Obama administration faces as the war in Afghanistan enters its ninth year.

Without more troops and firepower, the Taliban-led insurgency will grow stronger. But devoting more people and equipment risks an open-ended commitment to a war increasingly unpopular with the American public.

American commanders didn’t reinforce Keating or pull the troops that were there out in time, Larry Mace said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_army_kamdesh_burial_father_101909/