Monday, October 12, 2009

Gates of Failure?

Drugged up AQ or Taliban ignore the bullets.

WASHINGTON — In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either.

Michael Yon has the scoop on any number of additional equipment and/or morale failures: Prosser shot the man at least four times with his M4 rifle. But the American M4 rifles are weak - after Prosser landed three nearly point blank shots in the man’s abdomen, splattering a testicle with a fourth, the man just staggered back, regrouped and tried to shoot Prosser.

Then Prosser’s M4 went “black” (no more bullets). A shooter inside was also having problems with his pistol, but there was no time to reload. Prosser threw down his empty M4, ran into the shop and tackled the man.

Obviously they need 6.5 mm Grendel as standard ammunition. Either that or more damn troops with grenades or larger heavy weapons and air cover.

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