Iraq Casualties and Wounded

[Psychicwolf]

Iraq:4730

Afghanistan:
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan
Total fatalities:1191

More young lives snuffed out for a useless war we will never win.

[kbot]

Recently my hometown of Fall River just lost it's third member in a few months.

What's sad it that we had OBL trapped at Tora Bora within weeks of launching the assault on Afghanistan way back when and we let him go.

Politics........

[SETIsLady]

Well I see him on the TV
Preachin' 'bout the promise lands
He tells me believe in Jesus
Steals the money from my hands

Some say he was a good man
Lord I think he sinned, yeah

Twenty-two years of mental tears
Cries a suicidal Vietnam vet
Who fought a losing war on a foreign shore
To find his country didn't want him back

Their bullets took his best friend in Saigon
Our lawyers took his wife and kids, no regrets
In a time I don't remember
In a war he can't forget

He cried "Forgive me for what I've done there
Cause I never meant the things I did"

Chorus:
And give me something to believe in
If there's a Lord above
And give me something to believe in
Oh, Lord arise

My best friend died a lonely man
In some Palm Springs hotel room
I got the call last Christmas Eve
And they told me the news

I tried all night not to break down and cry
As the tears rolled down my face
I felt so cold and empty
Like a lost soul out of place

And the mirror, mirror on the wall
Sees my smile it fades again

Chorus

Sometimes I wish to God I didn't know now
The things I didn't know then
Road you gotta take me home

Solo

I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street
Like bodies in an open grave
Underneath the broken old neon sign
That used to read JESUS SAVES

A mile away live the rich folks
And I see how they're living it up
While the poor they eat from hand to mouth
The rich drinkin' from a golden cup

And it just makes me wonder
Why so many lose, and so few win

Chorus

You take the high road
And I'll take the low road

Yes Sometimes I wish I didn't know now
The things I didn't know then

And give me something to believe in, yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe71zCA5xFQ

[Psychicwolf]

WOW, SL.

[SETIsLady]

I know PW, this song always pops into my head when things seem to be out of control. Brett wrote this song for one of his security guards(and best friend) that died in a hotel room, he is in the video. But this song just touches on so much the war, the homeless, etc...death has a way of making us reflect.

[Psychicwolf]

Hallelujah!
I know there will be 50K stationed there as "advisors" but this is still a happy day, IMO.
U.S. ends combat operations in Iraq
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38744453?GT1=43001

[Linnea]

Yes, PW. An historic moment! The official end of Operation (Enduring) Freedom. Last combat brigade - 4th Striker Brigade from Ft Lewis, WA - crossed over into Kuwait City at 3:53 AM, Aug 19th, 2010 - Bagdad Time (8:53 PM Aug 18th EDT/NYC).

Will probably take these troops up to two weeks to get a flight out of Kuwait...

I guess there are still 5/6,000 more support troops to leave -eventually leaving a force of 'non-combat' troops of 50,000.

[SquidInk]

The idea that we are "leaving Iraq" is ridiculous. If our plan was to eventually pull out, then what are these for:

Initially, the US established more than a hundred bases of different sizes in Iraq. By the end of 2003, the Pentagon had developed as many as fourteen bases beyond the level of temporary encampment. According to the Iraq Study Group, at the end of 2006 there were still 55 US bases in the country and Pentagon requests for funding in the last year have included money for building giant mess halls – capable of feeding 5000 people – new airfields, and other facilities that suggest the U.S. isn’t planning to leave Iraq anytime soon. Below are some of the key facilities and mega-bases.

BAGHDAD AREA

1) Green Zone (Baghdad)

The Green Zone in Baghdad includes the main palaces of former President Saddam Hussein. The area at one time housed the Coalition Provisional Authority; and now houses the offices of major U.S. consulting companies and the U.S. embassy—by far the largest embassy in world history that approaches the size of the Vatican, or six times the size of the UN compound in New York.

2) Camp Falcon-Al-Sarq (Baghdad)
In late September 2003, the 439th Engineering Battalion delivered over 100,000 tons of gravel and is assisting with building roads, walls, guard towers, and buildings for Camp Falcon. Camp Falcon is planned to house 5,000 soldiers.

3) Camp Victory- Al Nasr (Baghdad Airfield)
Camp Victory is a U.S. Army base situated on airport grounds about 5 kilometers from Baghdad International Airport. The base can house up to 14,000 troops. Al Faw Palace on Camp Victory is surrounded by a man-made lake and serves as an unofficial conference center for the Army.

WEST OF BAGHDAD

4) Camp Anaconda/Balad Airbase
Balad airbase is the second busiest airport in the world, trailing only London’s Heathrow Airport. Camp Anaconda is the largest U.S. logistical base in Iraq. The camp is spread over 15 square miles and is being constructed to accommodate 20,000 soldiers.

There is a 24 hour gym, lighted outdoor basketball courts, Olympic-sized swimming pool, as well as a chandeliered cinema for the troops. “The closest some troops here come to experiencing the Iraq seen on the evening news is the miniature golf course, which mimics a battlefield with its baby sandbags, little Jersey barriers, strands of concertina wire and, down at the end of the course, what appears to be a tiny detainee cage,” wrote Tom Ricks from the Washington Post.

5) Camp Taji (Taji)

Camp Taji, former Iraqi Republican Guard “military city,“ is now a huge U.S. base equipped with a Subway, Burger King and Pizza Hut on the premises.

6) Taqaddum Airbase
Al Taqaddum Airbase is located in central Iraq approximately 74 kilometers west of Baghdad. The airfield is served by 2 runways—13,000 and 12,000 feet long.

7) Camp Fallujuh
The exact whereabouts and name of this base is unknown. Analysts believe that the U.S. is building an “enduring base” in Fallujah, a large town forty miles west of Baghdad. Fallujah has proved to be the most violence prone area in Iraq. Between early April 2004, when Marines halted their first offensive against the city, and November 2004, when the city was “re-taken” from insurgents, Fallujuh was a no-go area with numerous murders and bombings.

Al Asad Air Base

About 120 miles west of Baghdad, near the Euphrates town of Khan al-Baghdadi, Al Asad Air Base hosts 17,000 troops, a Burger King, a Pizza Hut and a car dealership, and an internal bus system. The Bush administration requested million the FY 08 budget for new airfield lighting, air-traffic-control systems and upgrades allowing al-Asad to plug into the Iraqi electricity grid — a typical sign of a long-term base.

TIKRIT AREA

Camp Speicher (Tikrit)
Camp Speicher is located near Tikrit in northern Iraq, approximately 170 kilometers north of Baghdad. It houses several thousand troops, and a Burger King.

MOSUL AREA

9) al-Qayyara (about 50 miles southeast of Mosul)

10) Camp Marez (Mosul Airfield)

KIRKUK AREA

11) Camp Renegade (Kirkuk)
Strategically located near the Kirkuk oil fields and the Kirkuk refinery and petrochemical plant, Camp Renegade has a dormitory that houses up to 1,664 airmen in 13 buildings with six to eight people to a room.

12) Unknown name (between Irbil and Kirkuk)

NASIRIYAH

13) al-Talil Air Base (14 miles SE of Nasiriyah)

In 2006, million was authorized by Congress to build a second dining facility was being built to seat 6,000, a double perimeter security fence with high-tech gate controls, guard towers, and a moat.

IRAN BORDER

14) Patrol Base Shocker- (Badraj)
Four miles from the Iranian border near the Iraqi town of Badrah. Home to 240 soldiers and contractors including 55 US troops, and a contingent of soldiers from the Republic of Georgia, the base became operational in mid-November 2007. Also has military and civilian analysts monitoring the extent of Iranian influence in Iraq. - source

The "we're leaving Iraq" & "Iraqi Sovereignty" themes are purely propaganda.

[Psychicwolf]

While "Active" forces are withdrawn I have a hunch we will continue to lose young soldier's lives in Iraq so I will continue to post those figures in addition to Afghanistan.

Iraq:4734

Afghanistan:
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan
Total fatalities:1246

[SETIsLady]

PW, thank you so much for keeping this thread up to date and going. There is so much going on in the news these days that its almost impossible to keep up with it all. This thread has been my go to thread for the what I feel is important in Iraq.

[MickMack]

Do they know what there doing ??? and why ???

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08 ... tan-again/

[Psychicwolf]

Iraq:4739

Afghanistan:
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan
Total fatalities:1280

[Psychicwolf]

Iraq:4741

Afghanistan:
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan
Total fatalities:1301

[Psychicwolf]

Oh, who coulda known!:rolleyes:

Widespread Fraud Seen in Latest Afghan Elections

KABUL, Afghanistan — Evidence is mounting that fraud in last weekend’s parliamentary election was so widespread that it could affect the results in a third of provinces, calling into question the credibility of a vote that was an important test of the American and Afghan effort to build a stable and legitimate government.

But in the important southern province of Kandahar, where election officials threw out 76 percent of the ballots in last year’s badly tainted presidential election, candidates accused the president’s influential half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, of drawing up a list of winners even before the Sept. 18 election for Parliament was carried out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world ... ml?_r=1&hp

[Psychicwolf]

Iraq:4743


Afghanistan:
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan
Total fatalities:1328