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In a somewhat twisted kind of way, you actually have to hand it to Taliban and ISIS fighting forces.

They’re a scrappy bunch. Despite the fact that, in terms of military might, they’re the equivalent of a knat on a tiger’s butt when compared to the USA, they keep on trying.

Earlier today, Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis paid a visit to our ground troops in Afghanistan and, when the terrorist fighting forces found out about it, they launched what turned out to be a rather feeble attack on the airport Secretary Mattis used — later claiming they had specifically targeted the aircraft carrying Pentagon’s top dog.

There was just one problem. At the time of the attack, Mattis had already left.

From ABC News:

The Taliban and ISIS are both taking credit for a rocket attack on Kabul’s airport early Wednesday just hours after U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis landed in Afghanistan for a surprise visit.

A barrage of up to 40 rounds of munitions hit the airport, including 29 rocket-propelled grenades, according to a U.S. military official.

In response to the attack, the U.S. conducted an airstrike to support an Afghan crisis unit on the ground, but “one of the missiles malfunctioned,” causing injuries to Afghan civilians, the U.S.-lead coalition said in a statement.

Mattis had left the airport hours before the attack took place. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was in Afghanistan with the U.S. defense chief, was similarly out of harm’s way when the rockets hit.

A separate U.S. military official told reporters traveling with Mattis that the secretary’s C-17 aircraft had already departed Kabul for Bagram Airfield when the attack occurred. A spokesperson for the U.S. military in Afghanistan told ABC News that there are no reports of damage to coalition or Afghan military aircraft.

Though no U.S. personnel were injured, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Najib Danish said one Afghan woman was killed and 11 civilians were wounded in the incident. Rockets hit two civilian homes close to the airport.

A U.S. military official told ABC News that two Hellfire missiles were fired from an Apache helicopter. … Danish said later that four people allegedly involved in the attack were killed by Afghan special forces in an operation near the airport.

So they missed him by a matter of hours and injured no one; and they can’t get their stories together as to who was actually responsible for the attack — ISIS, the Taliban or both. To add insult to injury, they managed to invite hellfire upon themselves in the form of retaliation.

Good planning, guys.

[NOTE: This article was written by Derrick Wilburn, Founder and Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives, and a speaker, author, columnist and analyst for multiple print and broadcast media outlets. Follow him on on Facebook and at RMBlackConservatives.com]