Dumb Wars & Dire Consequences
Submitted by ms in la on September 22, 2009 - 2:16am.
Afghanistan | International | Middle East | National Security | Veterans & Military
Barack Obama - October 26th, 2002
Nearly 7 years ago to date, Barack Obama stood up at an anti war rally in Chicago and spoke these words...
I don’t oppose all wars. [...] What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income — to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.
[...]
You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.
[...]
The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable.
We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.
DIRE CONSEQUENCES & IMMEASURABLE SACRIFICES of WAR
American Consequences
Spc. Demetrius L. Void of Orangeburg, S.C was killed at Kandahar Airfield on Tuesday Sept 15
...
Spc. Michael S. Cote Jr., 20, of Denham Springs, La., died Sept. 19 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when the Blackhawk helicopter he was in crashed. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, Task Force 49, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
...
3 not yet named troops
Sept 20, 2009
KABUL — Military officials say three American troops have died in Afghanistan, including one killed in combat in the country's east.
A statement from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan says two of the Americans died Sunday in a noncombat-related incident in the south.
The statement provided no other details and a spokesman said he didn't have additional information. A leading cause of noncombat deaths is traffic accidents, but they can also include other kinds of accidents and suicide or murder.
The third American died in fighting on Saturday
3 more -- with names
Sep. 17, 2009
Fort Bragg-based soldiers die in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — Three Special Forces soldiers were killed Wednesday in Afghanistan after enemy forces attacked their vehicle, the Army announced late Thursday.
The Defense Department statement identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Joshua M. Mills, 24, of El Paso, Texas; Sgt. 1st Class Shawn P. McCloskey, 33, of Peachtree City, Ga.; and Sgt 1st Class Bradley S. Bohle, 29 of Glen Burnie, Md.
Sgt. Bohle was an Army Green Beret medic serving in the 3rd Division, 7th Special Forces Group. Sergeant Bohle, who had already earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and three daughters, ages 9, 6 and 3. They were living in Sanford, N.C., near Fort Bragg. He had been in the military since graduating from North County High School in 1998 and was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan since completing Special Forces training in March, 2008. His first tour ended in December and he returned again in July....
Italian Consequences
Relatives of one of six Italian soldiers, killed in Afghanistan, leaves at the end of the funeral service at Saint Paul Basilica
Seven-year old Martin Fortunato, son of Lieutenant Antonio Fortunato, one of the victims of an attack on an Italian military convoy in Kabul that killed six Italian troopers on Thursday Sept. 17, reacts in front of his father's coffin during the state funerals in St. Paul's Basilica, in Rome on Monday.
The Italian Frecce Tricolori aerobatic team performs at the end of a funeral service of six Italian soldiers, killed in Afghanistan. A majority of Italians already wanted their troops pulled out of Afghanistan before a bomb on September 17, 2009 killed six Italian soldiers and the lobby for withdrawal will now get stronger, a pollster said on Friday.
Canadian Consequences
The casket of corporal Jean-Francois Drouin is carried out of the church after his funeral in Quebec City, September 19, 2009
A member of Private Jonathan Couturier's immediate family places a rose on his casket at Canadian Forces Base Trenton September 20, 2009. Private Couturier whose body arrived home today, died when an improvised explosive device detonated near his armoured vehicle, southwest of Kandahar City Afghanistan on September 17, 2009
Scottish & English Consequences
Pall bearers carry the coffin of Sergeant Stuart Miller, of The Black Watch 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland after his funeral service at the Regimental Kirk, Fort George, Ardersier , Inverness, September 17, 2009. Sergeant Stuart "Gus" Miller was killed on Monday 31st August 2009 during an insurgent rocket propelled grenade attack while on patrol in Babaji District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Mourners react as the hearses of Kingsman Jason Dunn-Bridgeman and Corporal John Harrison are driven through the town of Wootton Bassett after their repatriation, in southwest England September 17, 2009.
Afghani Consequences
An Afghan man carries his wounded son at the site of a blast in Kabul
Is it a Dumb war or not?
Mr. President?...
Don't think McCrystal is going to get his big number of more troops in Afghanistan. Still don't know what the exit strategy is for Afghanistan. We're still exiting from Iraq.
Do contracted private troops count?
According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of “Private Security Contractors” working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan, which “correlates to the build up of forces” in the country.
Overall, contractors (armed and unarmed) now make up approximately 50% of the “total force in Centcom AOR [Area of Responsibility].” This means there are a whopping 242,657 contractors working on these two US wars. These statistics come from two reports just released by Gary J. Motsek, the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Program Support): “Contractor Support of U.S. Operations in USCENTCOM AOR, IRAQ, and Afghanistan and “Operational Contract Support, ‘State of the Union.’”
According to the State Department, Blackwater's sole remaining contract for diplomatic security in Iraq is an aviation contract.
As The Nation recently reported, the Obama administration extended that contract on July 31, increasing Blackwater's payment by $20 million and bringing the total paid by the State Department to Blackwater for its "aviation services" in Iraq to $187 million.
Blackwater has also been paid over $1 billion by the State Department for "diplomatic security." The large, publicly traded company DynCorp is scheduled to take over Blackwater's aviation contract in September, while Triple Canopy will get the lion's share of the protective security work in Iraq.
Excellent to work for Xe! The US military has Uncle Sam... so who beckons the contractors to sign up with Xe??
Uncle Prince?
And .... who cuts this guy's hair? ;D
McChrystal will get his "troops"....? Only they'll be private army troops. For profit warriors, who have to increase the actual war(s) in order to fulfill the bottom line obligations to the shareholders. <--- to whom they are responsible.
Profiterrorists.
In this plan....Obama can stick to his well etched profile as the guy whose conscience wouldn't let him commit more soldiers... but who sends another 20,000 mercenaries that the State Dept gets to pick up the tab for. The very expensive tab.
This would be viewed by some as a Win-Win.
Unless your Afghani or Pakistani.
I'd rather have health care myself.
I'd rather have healthcare and banks that function like banks used to. As for the cost of CIA wars, they never used to be in the budget. They were always secretly funded. All those Xe employees get paid so much more than a GI. I don't know how we can afford an army of them.
Has contracts with the contractors - and has been paying them bundles per Jeremy Scahill's research on Xe. I'm sure there are secret fundings going on as well - like all those billions that just - POOF! - disappeared in Iraq. Poof.
This era will go down in the history books as the Wild Wild Crime Spree time.
Unless the truth gets scrubbed completely...
would be good. I think that's our best national defense, personally. It should include a variety of variables. Keeping kids from being hungry so they can learn is always a priority. Having a boarding school option for kids with no chance of learning due to miserable home conditions, also to be considered and I mean good boarding schools. Schools that have the ability to teach kids with dyslexia so there are other options for learning, besides having to read books, papers and blackboards (whiteboards) and then have to write, which they can't do well either. Kids can learn through a variety of mediums. I'm also in favor of the different tracks for schooling like they have in Germany. Not all kids are going to go to college and do well. In Germany, students who went on the master mechanic track, for example, went on to have really well paying respected jobs. More kids might stay in school if there was a track for them that actually put them on a path in life that would lead to a good job. Of course, we have to have good jobs. That's a sticky point somebody with a higher pay grade than mine needs to solve. Not everybody is going to have career with Xe.
My newspaper reports that only 1 in 10 students performed at "target level" in algebra. Not a ringing endorsement of the educational system. I think a lot of kids don't care about learning that stuff as well. Me, I LOVED algebra (shhhh, girls aren't supposed to be good at that).
...the clarity of mathematics. Some of us are obsessed with "getting it right," and there are few spheres in which there are clear right and wrong answers.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark: "We're no better than our own sense of humility."
who actually thinks about the issues you raise and has the political courage and will to stand up to the generals who don't know the definition of a "dumb war."
I'll give you the "thinks about the isues" part. I'm a little hard pressed to identify examples of political courage and willingness to stand up to the generals (or anybody else, for that matter, except for his liberal/progressive base).
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark: "We're no better than our own sense of humility."
in their demand for more troops, and he's considering reversing his own policy instead of stubbornly "staying the course." Quite a refreshing "change" from what we had before, don't you think?
Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War
By PETER BAKER and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: September 22, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
(snip)
A shift from a counterinsurgency strategy to a focus on counterterrorism would turn the administration’s current theory on its head. The strategy Mr. Obama adopted in March concluded that to defeat Al Qaeda, the United States needs to keep the Taliban from returning to power in Afghanistan and making it a safe haven once again for Osama bin Laden’s network. Mr. Biden’s position questions that assumption.
Mrs. Clinton, who opposed Mr. Biden in March, appeared to refer to this debate in an interview on Monday night on PBS. “Some people say, ‘Well, Al Qaeda’s no longer in Afghanistan,’ ” she said. “If Afghanistan were taken over by the Taliban, I can’t tell you how fast Al Qaeda would be back in Afghanistan.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/world/asia/23policy.html?_r=1&hp
Disagreement changing of minds in the situation room...wow, what a novel concept.
More to add to the Dire Consequences List, unfortunately.
Nobody else is talking about them. :(
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AMERICA
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Sept. 20 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
The incident is under investigation.
Killed were:
Spc. Corey J. Kowall, 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Around 4 p.m. Sunday, C.J. Kowall of Murfreesboro got a visit at his home that every parent of a child in the service dreads. His son, Army Spc. Corey Kowall, 20, was killed in a crash after serving in Afghanistan for nearly five weeks.
An Army officer and a chaplain came to C.J. Kowall's door.
"They told me that (Corey) was responding to a call to assist a convoy that had encountered an IED (improvised explosive device)," said C.J. Kowall. "(Corey's) vehicle overturned and he was killed in the accident."
Corey Kowall was in the alpha company, second battalion, 508th parachute infantry regiment in the fourth brigade combat team of the 82nd Airborne division of the U.S. Army.
"The fourth brigade just deployed to Afghanistan about a month ago," said Maj. Brian Fickel, information officer for the 82nd Airborne division in Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I was fortunate to talk to him about 45 minutes before it happened, so I got to tell him I loved him, and he told me he loved me," said Kowall's girlfriend, Ashley West. "I prayed every day that nothing would happen to him..."
"He graduated early and joined the Army as soon as he got out," said retired Master Sgt. Jim Thurston, a JROTC instructor at Siegel.
Also killed:
Spc. Damon G. Winkleman, 23, of Lakeville, Ohio.
Spc. Damon Winkleman, 23, a U.S. Army medic, was killed last week in Afghanistan.
Winkleman was a 2004 graduate of Loudonville High School and the youngest of three sons of Richard "Wink" and Pat Winkleman of rural Lakeville. The Winkleman's are a military family. Father Richard is a U.S. Army Reserve major and brothers Jason and Nathan are both in the Army.
After graduating from Loudonville High School, Winkleman attended Monroe Military Institute in Monroe, Ala., earning a degree in applied science in 2006, when he enlisted in the Army, ultimately becoming an Army medic.
=========================
ENGLAND
Sergeant Michael Lockett
Acting Sergeant Michael Lockett MC killed in Afghanistan
22 Sep 09
It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Acting Sergeant Michael Lockett MC, of 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters) was killed in Afghanistan on Monday 21 September 2009.
Acting Sergeant Lockett was on a dismounted patrol near Patrol Base SANDFORD in the Gereshk district of Helmand province when an explosion detonated, killing him before he could be extracted to hospital.
He was investigating and confirming the find of an Improvised Explosive Device when it exploded. Two other soldiers were injured in the same incident.
Sergeant Lockett took part in every operational deployment and exercise the Battalion undertook; he served in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, and in 2009 he returned for his third tour of Afghanistan.
His parents said:
"We are immensely proud of Mike - he was everything that we could ever have wanted in a son and was a devoted father to Connor, Chloe and Courtney. He was always positive, and always seemed larger than life.
"Words simply cannot express what he meant to his close and wider family and his many friends. His passing has left a huge void in all our lives that can never be filled."
..........
BREAKING NEWS: Scarborough soldier injured in Afghanistan blast
Published Date: 22 September 2009
A SCARBOROUGH soldier has escaped serious injury after an attack in Afghanistan which killed one soldier and badly injured two more.
Sgt Carl Peterson
Carl Peterson, 29, a sergeant in the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) was blown off his feet following the blast yesterday, during a dismounted patrol in the Gereshk district, in the central Helmand province.
The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, was due to leave the country after handing over control of the patrol to Sgt Peterson.
He was taken from the scene by military helicopter but later died of his injuries.
The other two soldiers suffered shrapnel injuries to their arms and legs.
=============================
DENMARK
Danish soldier killed Sept 19, 2009
(article is written in Danish!)
Steffen Block Larsen
For those who read Danish...
http://forsvaret.dk/HOK/Nyt%20og%20Presse/ISAF/Pages/Mindeord090920.aspx
the most well-funded presidential campaign in history from small and LARGE donors. In the end, the campaign also decided to forego the public funding option. Now it is evident that there are many favors owed by the White House and Congress to mostly LARGE donors. The needs of the small donors and their families appear to be secondary. Actions speak louder than words.
5 US troops killed as debate grows over Afghan war
This has been the deadliest year for American troops since the 2001 invasion to oust the Islamic extremist Taliban. The five deaths announced Friday bring to 214 the number of troops killed so far this year, well ahead of the 151 who died in all of 2008.
Four soldiers died Thursday in the same small district of southeastern Zabul province. Three were killed when their Stryker vehicle triggered a bomb in its path, and the fourth was shot to death in an insurgent attack, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Robert Carr. The Stryker brigade arrived in Zabul as part of the summertime surge to try to secure the region ahead of Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine was fatally shot while on foot patrol in southwestern Nimroz province, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a military spokeswoman.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9AUF74G0
The U.S. military's Capt. Regina Gillis later confirmed all five were U.S. soldiers serving with the ISAF.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/25/5-US-soldiers-killed-in-Afghanistan/UPI-46401253876733/
More dire consequences in Scotland. :(
Soldier honours dead mate with dress funeral pledge
September 16, 2009 11:16am
IT WAS a pact that only a true friend would keep to.
Before one of them was sent to fight in Afghanistan for the British Army, they made a deal:
If one of them died, the other had to wear a colourful dress to the funeral.
[...]
British soldiers Kevin Elliott and Barry Delaney made the pact that whoever survived the other would wear a dress to the dead man's funeral.
Mr Delaney made good that promise yesterday at his best friend's funeral.
Mr Delaney wept on his knees at the graveside as shots were fired during the military funeral, The Times said.
Private Elliott, 24, was killed by a grenade while he and other members of The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, were on foot patrol in the southern province of Helmand.
The Telegraph earlier reported that Pte Elliot, 24, had come close to leaving the Army, but opted to join his battalion in Afghanistan at the last moment.
Full story here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6836190.ece
Friends comfort Barry Delaney at the Scottish funeral of his best friend, slain soldier Private Kevin Elliott / Reuters / Getty Images
Delaney weeps for his friend, Pvt. Kevin Elliot
The Chance for Peace
by GENERAL Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
Washington, D.C.
Then he presents A 5-point plan... A plan!:
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/ike_chance_for_peace.html
Words of war from a former Republican General.....