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Terrorist Building Pops Up Near MOAB Site, Mattis Sends Them Painful Reminder

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There’s nothing like the sound of obliterated terrorists in the morning.

Or afternoon. Or evening. Or night, for that matter. It’s all pretty good to me.

So, when U.S. special operations forces and Afghan allies found an Islamic State group hideout near the site where the “Mother of All Bombs” was dropped last year, they decided that wasn’t going to fly. So, they sent the terrorists a painful reminder of American power, all courtesy of Defense Secretary James Mattis.

According to Funker530, the bombardment was recorded by Spc. Jacob Krone in the Mohmand Valley of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Feb. 4.

That was the date of the Super Bowl, incidentally. And while the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles certainly lit up the field in Minneapolis, it looks like the real fireworks were over in Afghanistan.

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According to the video’s description, commandos had pushed the Islamic State group forces several kilometers away from the area’s major population centers over the winter months. Now that the terrorists were holed up in MOAB territory, the American forces and Afghan commandos decided to do something about it:

Well, that will definitely do it, yes.

The bombings come as Afghanistan has become the chief concern of U.S. Central Command, particularly in the wake of the defeat of the Islamic State group as an effective force in Iraq and Syria.

Do you think James Mattis has done a good job as secretary of defense?

“Afghanistan has become (U.S. Central Command’s) main effort, thanks to the recent successes in Iraq and Syria,” Air Force Maj. Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of NATO Air Command Afghanistan, said, according to a news release.

This has allowed Centcom to shift more assets our way, which will significantly improve our ability to assist the Afghans.

“We have increased our close air support capabilities significantly by adding an A-10 squadron in Kandahar Air Force Base. We now have 50 percent more MQ-9 intelligence (drones), surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. And we’re adding an additional combat search and rescue squadron,” he added.

Perhaps the biggest change we’ve seen recently, Hecker said, is in intelligence.

“It is the change of the weight of effort of the intelligence community,” Hecker said. “The intelligence community is the backbone that develops our targets, provides data analysis, and eventually produces the targets we strike in Afghanistan.”

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“They analyze surveillance and reconnaissance data to develop the networks that produce targets for our air power to strike. This behind-the-scenes legwork allows us to hit the Taliban where it hurts most, whether it’s command-and-control or their pocketbooks.”

I don’t know whether this was where it hurt the most. But I can tell you one thing for certain: It hurtlot.

Now, picture this happening under Obama’s Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Can you picture it? No? That’s why we love James Mattis.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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