Deadliest Month For US GI's in Afghanistan- Tell me again how it's the "Good War?"

Orwellian_Ghost

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Mon Jul-20-09 08:48 PM
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Deadliest Month For US GI's in Afghanistan- Tell me again how it's the "Good War?"

A roadside bomb killed four American troops in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, driving the July death toll for U.S. forces to the highest monthly level of the war.

The latest deaths brought to at least 30 the number of American service members who have died in Afghanistan this month � two more than the figure for all of June 2008, which had been the deadliest month for the U.S. since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power.

July's death toll for the entire U.S.-led coalition, which includes American, British, Canadian and other forces, stands at 55 � well over the previous record of 46 deaths suffered in June and August of 2008.

U.S. commanders had predicted a bloody summer after President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban and shift the focus on the global war against Islamic extremism from Iraq.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

And then there's neighboring Pakistan. When did the US declare war on Pakistan. Don't tell me, Al Qaeda operatives getting married.

Two days of US drone attacks kill nearly 80 in Pakistan
By Barry Grey
9 July 2009

The United States fired multiple missiles from pilotless drones on Wednesday in two separate attacks on insurgents in Pakistan�s South Waziristan district, killing up to 60 people. The attacks followed a US missile strike in South Waziristan on Tuesday that reportedly killed 16 people.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/paki-j09.shtml

Are Afghan Lives Worth Anything?

In those years, there were many in the U.S., including Davis, who insisted very publicly that a Vietnamese life had the same value as an American one. In the years of the Afghan War, Americans -- our media and, by its relative silence, the public as well -- turned Westmoreland's statement into a way of life as well as a way of war. As one perk of that way of life, most Americans have been able to pretend that our war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with us -- and Michael Jackson's death, everything.

So he dies and our world goes mad. An Afghan wedding party, or five of them, are wiped off the face of the Earth and even a shrug is too much effort.

Here's a question then: Will what we don't know (or don't care to know) hurt us? I'm unsure whether the more depressing answer is yes or no. As it happens, I have no answer to that question anyway, only a bit of advice -- not for us, but for Afghans: If, as General McChrystal and other top military figures expect, the Afghan War and its cross-border sibling in Pakistan go on for another three or four or five years or more, no matter what script we're going by, no matter what we say, believe me, we'll call in the planes. So if I were you, I wouldn't celebrate another marriage, not in a group, not in public, and I'd bury my dead very, very privately.

If you gather, after all, we will come.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/07-15