Strategic Importance
Camp Rhino was the US-led coalition's first strategic foothold in Afghanistan and made the ground war in Afghanistan possible. While Rhino was being established, fierce battles between Taliban and Northern Alliance troops were still underway near Kandahar. But then the Taliban, realizing that US forces were now very close and were willing to operate at night, capitulated and retreated north to the mountains of Tora Bora. Supported by the USMC 26th MEU, the coalition forces based at Rhino then moved up to capture the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar International Airport in mid-December 2001, following a three week period of consolidation at Rhino. Kandahar International Airport then became the main coalition base in southern Afghanistan, while Bagram Air Base was established further to the north near Kabul. The majority of forces who had initially based out of Rhino had re-located to Kandahar by Christmas Day.
Read more about this topic: Camp Rhino
Famous quotes containing the words strategic and/or importance:
“The practice of S/M is the creation of pleasure.... And that’s why S/M is really a subculture. It’s a process of invention. S/M is the use of a strategic relationship as a source of pleasure.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)