Now here’s something you don’t see in war movies all that often anymore, and probably for good reason. At one point and time the horse was a major advantage in battle, but that was long before mobile artillery became a thing. Even before that time though horses were easily countered depending on the army and how smart their commanders were. As we’ve seen in some movies such as Braveheart, horses can become little more than a burden if the opposing army knows how to take measures against them. In 12 Strong however they seem to a serious boon to the soldiers that were selected after the 9/11 attacks to make their way into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
You would think that sending in such a small force to fight overwhelming odds would be suicide, but it would definitely afford greater mobility even with the heightened risk. More to the point, this was an actual move against an enemy that vastly outnumbered their force and could have crushed them had they run headlong into battle. That wasn’t their objective however. They were there to fight the Taliban and call in air strikes so that they could inflict the maximum amount of damage on the enemy. The only trouble was that quite often the terrain was so treacherous that they couldn’t make their way along without the aid of Afghan ponies to carry them up steep slopes and over wide swaths of ground that might have taken far longer otherwise.
Just imagine this, soldiers with high-tech gear, weaponry, and the ability to call down air strikes from afar, having to rely on horses to get them around. It’s a throwback to another era for certain but it was also a humongous boon to the brave soldiers of Task Force Dagger that were sent in to make sure the Taliban remembered just who they’d struck and what the consequences would be. Like it or not that’s what this was, a retaliatory strike that would allow the enemy to remember just what it means to tangle with the United States. Granted we’re not the perfect country, but we don’t take the slaughter of our innocents any better than anyone else around the world.
In terms of morality there is one thing that would set any country apart when it comes to making serious attacks upon another territory. One does not target civilians, nor any other target that is not military in nature. That seems to be an understood tenet of war that few if any people seem to recognize today. Yes the US has done more than its share of wicked things in the past. Hiroshima and Nagasaki come to mind, and for those sins the US has continued to pay throughout the years. But in terms of being hit and going forward, no single country has, as of yet, been able to really hit the US and go without being made to pay for the injuries and deaths caused.
12 Strong seems set to remind people of what it took to remind the Taliban that America doesn’t fall that easily.
See Chris Hemsworth​ ride into battle on horseback in the EXCLUSIVE trailer for '12 Strong.' https://t.co/F5ZOzbgyra pic.twitter.com/t12hYytZZu
— USA TODAY Life (@usatodaylife) October 19, 2017
Follow Us
