War against terror

[Acecombat 0]

Damn i never knew Afghanistan was so beautiful

Were you guys near the Hindu Kush or somewhere bals i mean all that snow , never seen anything like this on the TV/news. Usually they show a rugged mountain or two but not with snow. That must be somewhere higher.

[Balschoiw 0]

I have been a bad boy and I regret it deeply.

[redface 1]

wow, very extreme setting indeed

1: "ALL, take cover"

2: "2, negative"

did you find Al Quaeda regrouping in those mountains?

[denoir 0]

Great pics Bals

And welcome back!

[Postduifje 0]

wow, beautifull pics. It allmost makes it look like a nice place

[SpongeBob 0]

Quote[/b] ]Chechens 'vow Beslan-type attacks'

LONDON, England (AP) -- Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for last year's brutal terrorist attack on a Russian school, was quoted as saying Thursday that the separatist rebels are planning more such operations.

In an interview with Channel 4 News to be broadcast Thursday night, part of which was quoted in Thursday's Times of London newspaper, Basayev expressed regret for the hundreds of deaths in the June hostage-taking attack on the school in the Russian town of Beslan.

But he blamed some of the deaths on flame-throwers used by Russian special forces who attacked the school to end the siege. He said that action, not explosives set by the hostage-takers, had caused the roof of the school gym to collapse.

"We are planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so," the Times quoted Basayev as saying.

More than 1,000 hostages were taken in the school attack, which ended with the deaths of more than 330 people, many of them children.

The Times said the interview was filmed last month by Basayev's entourage at an undisclosed location and the video given to a journalist in the Middle East.

Basayev was quoted as saying his goal is to give Russia's leadership no chance of achieving a "bloodless resolution" to the siege in Chechnya and to force it to stop the "genocide of the Chechen people."

He said he is willing to call a cease-fire and open negotiations with the Russians, but only after the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

On Wednesday, however, a Web site linked to Chechnya's the rebels reported that Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, who was president of Chechnya during its de-facto independence in the late 1990s, have called for a unilateral cease-fire to be observed in February.

Citing an unnamed Basayev aide, it said Basayev had ordered rebels under his command to halt attacks in Chechnya and all of Russia until Feb. 22.

The announcement was immediately denounced as a bluff by Chechnya's Kremlin-backed administration.

Basayev was quoted in the interview as saying he is willing to one day stand trial for any of his actions, as long as that involves a Sharia (Islamic law) court and the proceedings don't begin until after the Chechen war ends.

Chechnya has been shattered by two separatist conflicts over the past decade. A 20-month war ended in 1996 with the withdrawal of Russian troops after rebels fought them to a standstill. That was followed by a period of de-facto independence, during which Maskhadov was elected Chechen president, in which law and order and economic conditions deteriorated precipitously.

In 1999, after Chechnya-based rebels made an incursion into neighboring Dagestan, Russian forces returned to Chechnya, taking firm control of the northern part of the republic. But they have been unable to purge rebels from the capital Grozny or mountainous southern regions, and rebel attacks and clashes with Russian soldiers are reported frequently.

The Kremlin has firmly rejected international calls for negotiations with the rebels.

CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.

[Tovarish 0]

Flame throwers?!?!  

Well, it figures. He IS insane

[Tovarish 0]

Marine General had fun shooting people

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON - The commandant of the Marine Corps said Thursday he has counseled a senior subordinate for saying publicly, "It's fun to shoot some people."

Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, an infantry officer who has commanded Marines in both Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites), made the comments Tuesday while speaking to a forum in San Diego about strategies for the war on terror. Mattis is the commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.

According to an audio recording of Mattis' remarks, he said, "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Thursday, Gen. Mike Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, issued a statement saying, "I have counseled him concerning his remarks and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully."

"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," Hagee said. "Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor."

Hagee also praised Mattis, calling him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."

He said the commitment of Marines "helps to provide us the fortitude to take the lives of those who oppress others or threaten this nation's security. This is not something we relish, yet we accept it as a reality in our profession of arms."

He said he was confident Mattis would continue to serve.

According to Mattis' biography, he commanded, as a lieutenant colonel, an assault battalion during the first war with Iraq. During the war in Afghanistan, he commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; in the second war in Iraq, he commanded the 1st Marine Division during the invasion and early period after the war.

[EiZei 0]

Wonder how much fun he would have fighting enemies on equal terms. What an asshole.

[red oct 2]

Marine General had fun shooting people

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON - The commandant of the Marine Corps said Thursday he has counseled a senior subordinate for saying publicly, "It's fun to shoot some people."

Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, an infantry officer who has commanded Marines in both Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites), made the comments Tuesday while speaking to a forum in San Diego about strategies for the war on terror. Mattis is the commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.

According to an audio recording of Mattis' remarks, he said, "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Thursday, Gen. Mike Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, issued a statement saying, "I have counseled him concerning his remarks and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully."

"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," Hagee said. "Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor."

Hagee also praised Mattis, calling him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."

He said the commitment of Marines "helps to provide us the fortitude to take the lives of those who oppress others or threaten this nation's security. This is not something we relish, yet we accept it as a reality in our profession of arms."

He said he was confident Mattis would continue to serve.

According to Mattis' biography, he commanded, as a lieutenant colonel, an assault battalion during the first war with Iraq. During the war in Afghanistan, he commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; in the second war in Iraq, he commanded the 1st Marine Division during the invasion and early period after the war.

Ralph or Akira already posted that

[Tovarish 0]

My bad then

[Akira 0]

Wasn't me!

[ralphwiggum 6]

me at USA politics thread.

[redface 1]

well some of the Fallujah footage closely resembled a videogame, American soldiers cheering & shouting for sheer excitement when they fired an AT into a house

I think the "fun" factor kicks in when you get to kill people not having your own advanced equipment, so I totally agree with Eizei

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]well some of the Fallujah footage closely resembled a videogame, American soldiers cheering & shouting for sheer excitement when they fired an AT into a house

Allah Akbar..oops..that isn't cheering..

[Balschoiw 0]

To the guy who felt the need to post my pics at militaryphotos.net :

If you post pictures taken by me without my permission to do so on another forum than this one, YOU HAVE TO ASK !!

The result of this stunt is that I will not post any more pictures nor reports of missions here as some people seem to feel the need to play big with pics taken by others.

The OFP community says a big "Thank you" to you !

Thx for the hint billybob.

And the guy who did this better doesn´t come my direction.

[Akira 0]

Any ideas who this "teflondon" is?

It appears he joined in Feb and only posted in that thread...

[kerosene 0]

He's an arsehole who ever he is...  I was looking forward to seeing some of those pics.  

He even put in the commentry like he was there.

"theres no emoticon to express the rage i'm feeling"

[Tovarish 0]

Any ideas who this "teflondon" is?

It appears he joined in Feb and only posted in that thread...

I would deduce he either really likes teflon or is from london

Bals, maybe putting a copyright and disclaimer on any pics would prevent this in the future?

[billybob2002 0]

Any ideas who this "teflondon" is?

It appears he joined in Feb and only posted in that thread...

I was thinking who the hell was "teflondon" and then the captions were weird to say the least. Did a little pm and the rest was history...  

[Akira 0]

Any ideas who this "teflondon" is?

It appears he joined in Feb and only posted in that thread...

I was thinking who the hell was "teflondon" and then the captions were weird to say the least. Did a little pm and the rest was history...

Care to share the imposter/faker to the rest of us?

[ralphwiggum 6]

i also dislike the situation, but please don't let me tap on the forum rule regarding interforum relations.

and good job billybob. guess I'll post pone updating your sig.

[billybob2002 0]

I do not know that person was. However, they claimed to have gotten a report from bals. before....which means nothing

[billybob2002 0]

i also dislike the situation, but please don't let me tap on the forum rule regarding interforum relations.

and good job billybob. guess I'll post pone updating your sig.

You should read my interests then...

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]i also dislike the situation, but please don't let me tap on the forum rule regarding interforum relations.

One last comment on the issue.

The pictures wich were posted here were meant for the OFP com, wich is indeed a limited community right now. Therefore I didn´t feel the need to put copyright marks in or something else. It was just an offer to the community to show some pics of the mission as I felt to share them.

Now what happened was exactly what I wanted to avoid over the years. The photos were taken, posted somewhere else and ripped out of context. Furthermore the info given by the poster was wrong. I don´t plan to react on every worldwide post that is done on my pictures, wespecially if I don´t know that they have been posted elsewhere. That and the mixture with false info doesn´t make me look like the most credible guy on the planet. I remember we had the same issues here when denoir posted some pictures from his duty on the Balkans. People doubted them and the effect of sharing was that he found himself in the role of having to defend his credibility.

I guess we´ve been over that here, as everyone knows what I do and where I do it. You know my background and you know my military career from the scratch, at least the board members that are here for a while. Therefore I don´t feel the need to explain things from the scratch all over again when I do post here.

But if some excerpts are transported to another forums without my approval and without the proper background info or even basic info like who am I working for it will cause trouble. If I want to post my pictures on others forums I will do so and make sure that the background info is comprehensive and correct. If I decide not to do so, there is a reason for it. The reason is that I don´t feel the need to promote me nor details about my job worldwide. If I do it in an environment like the OFP forums it´s ok for me, as I know the people here and they know me. If it is taken out of context and taken to other forums it will only arise the things we´ve just seen on the other forum. Therefore I will from now on think twice about posting such things here. I´m just not eager to see my reputation being dragged into the dirt and the work of me and my men being questioned by average Internet Joe. Especially when I have no idea about it and can´t react.

As I already posted some mission details are case sensitive and therefore not debateable. This limits my possibilities to react to assumptions and questions in a proper way. That´s why I kept it here and didn´t spread it to militaryphotos.net.