Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The High Cost Of The Afghan War

U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, center, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks with troops assigned to the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2012. DOD photo by D. Myles Cullen

In Toll of 2,000, New Portrait of Afghan War -- New York Times

His war was almost over. Or so Marina Buckley thought when her son Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley Jr. told her that he would be returning from southern Afghanistan to his Marine Corps base in Hawaii in late August, three months early.

Instead, Lance Corporal Buckley became the 1,990th American service member to die in the war when, on Aug. 10, he and two other Marines were shot inside their base in Helmand Province by a man who appears to have been a member of the Afghan forces they were training.

A week later, with the death of Specialist James A. Justice of the Army at a military hospital in Germany, the United States military reached 2,000 dead in the nearly 11-year-old conflict, based on an analysis by The New York Times of Department of Defense records. The calculation by The Times includes deaths not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan and other nations where American forces are directly involved in aiding the war.

Read more
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My Comment: While the war grinds on in Afghanistan, back at the home front .... with the exception of families who have loved ones in the military .... it appears that no one wants to know.

Update: Why President Obama rarely talks about the war -- Peter Feaver, Shadow Government/Foreign Policy

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