Wednesday, July 02, 2008

 

Report on the American War Dead in Afghanistan and Iraq

The news is interesting rather than good. A total of 56 American servicemen died in Iraq and Afghanistan last month, according to Department of Defense news releases. For the first time ever, more died in Afghanistan (31) than in Iraq (25). The Iraq numbers were up slightly over May, but were still half of that in the months this year before May. The numbers are up in Afghanistan because we're taking the fight to the Taliban and the Taliban has switched to the effective, but not actually brave, tactic of the IED. Here's the further breakdowns.

In Iraq, 11 servicemen died from IEDs. That's low but not low enough. Four were killed by small arms and two in combat operations. That doesn't indicate a lot of stand up combat. Five died from non combat or non hostile causes. Two were killed in a bomb blast (no other information given) and one died but there was no further information given.

In Afghanistan, 11 also were killed by IEDs and 12 were killed in combat operations. Two were killed in a rocket attack, one was killed by a land mine and five were killed by vehicle accidents. No one with a female Christian name died. However, it was a tough month for officers with 7 killed, mainly in action. The officers lost were: Major Dwayne M. Kelley, 48, from Willingboro, NJ; Captain Eric Daniel Terhune, 34, from Lexington, KY; Major Scott Hagerty, 41, from Stillwater, OK; Lt. Col. James Watson, 41, from Rockville, MD; Captain Gregory T. Dalessio, 30, Cherry Hill. NJ; Lt. Col. Max A. Galeai, 42, Pango Pango, Samoa; and, Captain Philip J. Dykeman, 38 of Brockport, NY.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all our brave warriors and their families.

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Comments:
Wow, 7 years in and we are just now "taking it to the Taliban?"

Impressive.
 
For a while, there was no Taliban to take it to, as they had all fled like little girls to the relative safety of Pakistan. Now they've come back a little, bully the farmers when we're not around and keep getting the snot kicked out of them when they do a stand up fight. I predict slowly rising casualties, more troops and, if Pakistan acts even slightly decisively, a sudden collapse of the Taliban around 2010 (assuming Obama is not President--if he's in the white house I predict self induced defeat all around).
 
Won't it be convenient to be able to blame all future failures on Obama?
 
Not merely convenient. I think he won't precipitously withdraw (all out in 16 months)from Iraq but will turn a WWII over Japan type win into a Korean War stalemate with too early and deep withdrawals. That's a best case scenario.
 
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