War On Terror
After 11 September, the United States began what it called its War on Terror with the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. Special Operations Units such as the Rangers, along with some CIA officers and Navy SEALs were the first US forces on Afghan soil during Operation Enduring Freedom. This was the first large Ranger operation since the Battle of Mogadishu. The Rangers met with success during the invasion and, along with the other US Special Operations forces, played an integral part in overthrowing the Taliban government. They also participated in the biggest firefight of Operation Anaconda in 2002 at Takur Ghar.
In 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, the Rangers were among those sent in. During the beginning of the war, they faced some of Iraq's elite Republican Guard units. One of their notable achievements in Iraq was the rescue of American prisoner of war POW Private First Class Jessica Lynch. The 75th Ranger Regiment has been one of the few units to have members continuously deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read more about this topic: United States Army Rangers
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or terror:
“What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It’s a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“We perversely see mother love as the problem—when it is all we have to sustain us—rather than blaming the fathers who have run out on our mothers and on us. We seem willing to forgive fathers for loving too little even as we still shrink in terror from mothers who love too much.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)