Note on Tim Lynch: Tim is a friend and he is the real deal. Former Marine infantry officer -- I spent months with Tim in numerous Afghan provinces including Nangarhar (where this attack occurred), Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Urozgan, Mazar-i-Sharif, and I think we went to Paktia and some others. Escapes me now, but we were all over the place and never with military other than when military would sneak out and come to Tim's bar. (Yes, Tim had a bar in Afghanistan, and it was the best intel-hole in the country.)
Tim spent eight years rolling around Afghanistan. Nearly always without troops. In the most dangerous places you can imagine. And he is still alive. Why? Because Tim knew what he was doing. Tim is not the only one -- my old Green Beret friend Steve Shaulis did same and I also travelled all over with Steve. Out there in the wildest country you can imagine with no military.
The few people like Tim and Steve know far more about Afghanistan than any American or British commander I know. They spent more time, in more places, in countless villages, and I was often with them.
Do you see Bashir Sediqi who often is on my Facebook? Bashir is in America now with his family. We all were good friends with Bashir in Afghanistan. Excellent man. Not a coincidence. Bashir and Tim are the sort who should be talking heads on network TV, instead we get these guys who often spent very little or even no time in Afghanistan.
Instead, we get people like Jim Hanson ("Uncle Jimbo") as "analysts on Afghanistan and Iraq for FOX. You know how much time Hanson spent in Afghanistan and Iraq? Zero. Nothing. He has no war experience at all, anywhere. Zilch. And he is a FOX "expert" on Iraq and Afghanistan. Clowns like this were cheerleaders back when people like Tim, Steve, Bashir, and I, were all leaving Afghanistan. Hanson never met an Afghan in Afghanistan because he never went.
And when Tim, Steve, Bashir, and I, all wrote off Afghanistan and never went back, someone should have taken a clue.
When I would roll around with Tim or Steve, sometimes we would run into British or American forces in the field. They would say things like, "Holy shit! It's Michael Yon! We got intel you were out here alone! Wtf are you doing out here!!??" I would say things like, "You know how many firefights I have been into alone with Tim or Steve? ZERO."
I rolled around with Tim, Steve, Bashir, and others, for a YEAR. A YEAR! And got into ZERO firefights with them.
I spent another year in Afghanistan with US, British, and Lithuanian forces, and got into HUNDREDS of firefights and other attacks. HUNDREDS. Sometimes five or ten or even more IN ONE DAY!
So that is two years in Afghanistan -- one year with people like Tim: ZERO firefights. One year with military: HUNDREDS.
http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=8186
https://www.patreon.com/posts/33892220
And yet you never see Tim Lynch or Steve or Bashir on FOX or any of those programs. They know more about Afghanistan in their lip-spittle than "analysts" like "Uncle Jimbo" ever dreamed. Every time I see someone like Hanson on Fox or CNN or whatever, I move to another source.