One of the latest stories coming from Afghanistan is that US Marines and Afghan fighters were killed in an ambush with insurgents in which they were repeatedly denied artillery support. The article goes on to say that in a sustained firefight these combatants had to wait an hour for close air support to arrive. Now the article seemed to want to point the finger at superiors who denied the artillery support but I say lets wait and find out the real deal before we jump to conclusions.

Normally any combat patrol will have direct support artillery. Direct support means just that. You call the firing unit directly and they provide what you want based on the rules of engagement. There are some situations where artillery will be denied and I am sure that whoever didn't allow the artillery had what they deemed to be valid reasons. Lets not pass the verdict too soon.

There were a total of 4 Marines and 10 Afghan fighters killed in the attack. This is a tragic story which shouldn't end here. If forces other than Americans caused this disaster then American troops should no longer be placed under the control of foriegn commanders.