On Monday, January 27, an E-11A battlefield-communications aircraft crashed in an area of eastern Afghanistan under control of the Taliban. The Taliban claimed to have shot it down, and further claimed that they had shot down several other planes recently as well. However, US authorities are refusing to accept the Talibans' claims, with one colonel saying that "there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire." There were "less than five" people on board at the time, all high-ranking CIA officers, and as of now it seems none of them survived the crash. The details of why the plane went down, as well as whether or not there was any classified information on board, is still unclear. Only time will tell whether or not this crash will escalate the conflict in Afghanistan in a major way.
Discussion Questions:
1) What do you think the best way for US officials to respond to the crash is?
2) Do you think it is a good idea to ignore the Talibans' claims that they shot the plane down? Is there a significant chance that they did?
3) If the Taliban did shoot down the plane, what might their motives be?
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-e11-crashes-in-eastern-afghanistan-taliban-takes-credit-2020-1
I think that the authorities may be trying to cover up the violence and conflict that is evolving in Afghanistan. It may be best, however, for them to acknowledge that there is a conflict and some sort of action needs to be taken so that no more planes are shot down.
ReplyDeleteAs an answer to question one, the US government should not rule out the possibility of a Taliban interference in the crash of a US plane. The reasoning behind it may not be sound, but their claims cannot be ignored completely, because that would essentially be denying a resolution to this problem.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that the Taliban claim that they have shot down the plan and that the plane crashed in the east Afghanistan, it is pretty clear that the Taliban likely committed the act and are trying to antagonize the U.S. into a conflict or get rid of important CIA officers. The United States is likely trying to cover up the incident because they don't want their citizens to be alarmed by the escalating violence in Afghanistan, and they want to plan acts of vengeance on the Taliban in secret to heighten the chances of success. However, I must point out that a lot of this speculation is a shot in the dark.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that the US should entirely refuse the potential Taliban claims because there still is possibility. If this plane crash was caused by the Taliban's attacks, their motives could possibly be to bring the the US into a conflict. As mentioned above, the US is most likely trying to hide the incident in order to seek revenge after everything the Taliban has done. However, the US should release some information just to keep the regular citizens aware of the situation.
ReplyDeleteUS officials should not entirely refuse the Taliban's claims, especially since there does not seem to be conclusive evidence yet. There is a good chance that the Taliban did shoot down the plane, since there isn't much motivation for them to lie about it. If they shot down the plane, it would be to escalate conflict with the US. If the government is purposely covering up information to make it seem like the Taliban is less of a threat, this could be good for keeping the conflict to a minimum, but people should be able to know the truth.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't believe that US officials should entirely refuse the Taliban's claims because they are being rather closed minded even though there is no conclusive evidence. Thus, I feel like US officials should be open minded and investigate into the matter as if the Talibans were the cause, especially since that's their main lead/perpetrator right now. Also, the plane crashed in the Deh Yak district, where Taliban presence is strong, further contributing the idea that they caused the shooting. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51264744 Honestly, the US most likely doesn't want to accept the idea that the Taliban may have a "hidden power" that can severely damage them.
ReplyDeleteUS officials shouldn't completely ignore the possibility of the incident being an attack from the Taliban, especially without conclusive evidence and the Taliban claiming the attack outright. Just because there were no indications of "enemy fire", doesn't rule out the possibilities of attack, and it should still be considered a threat. The Taliban might try to attack again, but at a higher scale with more people or people of higher status. They should stay on higher alert, just in case something like this happens again and this attack was actually by the Taliban. That might help them potentially block the event or be able to bring it to a smaller scale.
ReplyDeleteI think that the US should not completely ignore the plane incident but need to investigate further. The Talibans claim to have shot multiple planes down but there has been no evidence or proof/reason but it is highly likely that their motive is due to the United States invasion of Afghanistan occurring after the September 11 attacks in 2001, supported by close US allies. The conflict is also known as the US war in Afghanistan. Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the US should entirely refuse the potential Taliban claims because although there is not enough evidence to prove that it was shot down by the Talibans, this could be a real threat regarding our nation and the safety of our people.
ReplyDelete- Kaelyn Luebke
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