Saddest News Of The Day

[true_blue_bill]

Even sadder than a trooper dying

 

(CNN) -- As the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States approaches, another somber benchmark has just been passed.

 

The announcement Sunday of four more U.S. military deaths in Iraq raises the death toll to 2,974 for U.S. military service members in Iraq and in what the Bush administration calls the war on terror.

 

The 9/11 attack killed 2,973 people, including Americans and foreign nationals but excluding the terrorists. The 9/11 death toll was calculated by CNN.

 

The comparison between fatalities in the war on terror and 9/11 was drawn last month by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

 

"It's now almost five years since September 11, 2001," Pace said. "And the number of young men and women in our armed forces who have sacrificed their lives that we might live in freedom is approaching the number of Americans who were murdered on 9/11 in New York, in Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania."

 

Of the 2,974 U.S. military service members killed, 329 died in Operation Enduring Freedom and 2,645 in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon. The total includes seven American civilian contractors working for the military in Iraq.

 

Of the 329 U.S. military deaths in the Operation Enduring Freedom campaign, 261 occurred in Afghanistan, including many in recent months amid a resurgent Taliban guerrilla campaign. Many British and Canadian troops have also been killed recently as part of the force that is operating against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

 

The first U.S. service member to die in the Enduring Freedom campaign was Air Force Sgt. Evander Earl Andrew, 36, of Solon, Maine, killed in a heavy equipment accident in the northern Arabian peninsula on October 10, 2001.

 

Operation Enduring Freedom saw 893 Americans wounded, with 552 not returned to duty.

 

On March 20, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq to oust the Saddam Hussein regime, which, the Bush administration said, harbored and pursued weapons of mass destruction -- munitions that were never found. While the Hussein regime was swiftly defeated, an insurgency emerged that has proved harder to handle for the U.S.-led coalition.

 

Of the 2,645 deaths in Iraq, 2,104 have been in combat and 541 were the results of accidents, illnesses, suicides and other factors.

 

The first deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom were Marines -- four killed in a helicopter crash on March 20, 2003, and two killed in action in southern Iraq the next day.

 

In Iraq, 19,773 U.S. military personnel were wounded, with 8,991 not returning to duty. Many military and medical observers believe that advanced and prompt medical care saved hundreds, or even thousands, of lives.

 

Operation Iraqi Freedom casualties include deaths and injuries on or after March 19, 2003, in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Before March 19, 2003, the casualties in these countries were considered part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

The Bush administration has consistently linked the Afghan and Iraq conflicts as part of an overall war on terror -- a much-debated idea since many critics of the Bush administration say the Hussein regime was never involved in sponsoring the al Qaeda terror network.

 

In the post-invasion period, though, terror groups -- including al Qaeda in Iraq -- have emerged, regularly conducting ruthless attacks against coalition and Iraqi military personnel and civilians.

 

Thursday, Bush emphasized that "Iraq is the central front in this war on terror." (Full story)

 

"If we leave the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists in our own cities. We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed, and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century."(From Orange County to al Qaeda)

 

The death tolls in both conflicts are expected to rise.

 

"We've come a long way in Afghanistan. We've come a long way in Iraq and elsewhere in the war on terrorism," said Pace. "We have a long way to go. We are a nation at war."

[smokinandjokin]

The KIA number could actually be much higher, but major advancements in battlefield medical technology has saved 'hundreds, maybe thousands of lives,' as the article points out. However, that also means there are many, many soldiers leaving the Mid-East with terrible injuries that in the past would've killed them. No American soldier deserves to die on a dusty street in Baghdad, but it's a shame that so many are now living the life of cripple and battling bureaucracy of the Dept of Defense for medical coverage.

 

We remember the dead, but sometimes forget that there are 7x that many soldiers who's lives have been physically (not to mention mentally) devastated by the fighting in the Mid-East. I'm sure most, if not all of them, are grateful for the technology and the second chance at life.

 

I'm not really sure what my point is here; it's a sensitive topic and I'm just kind of rambling. I'm just saying, the KIA number is just that: a number. The fact that it recently exceeded the number killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coincidental. I think sometimes we get too wrapped up in the number of dead soldiers, and we forget about the thousands upon thousands of others, who are physically or mentally wounded, and the toll it takes on the thousands upon thousands of family members on top of that.

 

What does the number of dead mean? I'd like to think it means that we consider this cause SO important, it is worth the ultimate price paid by 3000 of our best and brightest.

[true_blue_bill]

The KIA number could actually be much higher, but major advancements in battlefield medical technology has saved 'hundreds, maybe thousands of lives,' as the article points out.  However, that also means there are many, many soldiers leaving the Mid-East with terrible injuries that in the past would've killed them.  No American soldier deserves to die on a dusty street in Baghdad, but it's a shame that so many are now living the life of cripple and battling bureaucracy of the Dept of Defense for medical coverage.

 

We remember the dead, but sometimes forget that there are 7x that many soldiers who's lives have been physically (not to mention mentally) devastated by the fighting in the Mid-East.  I'm sure most, if not all of them, are grateful for the technology and the second chance at life. 

 

I'm not really sure what my point is here; it's a sensitive topic and I'm just kind of rambling.  I'm just saying, the KIA number is just that: a number.  The fact that it recently exceeded the number killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coincidental.  I think sometimes we get too wrapped up in the number of dead soldiers, and we forget about the thousands upon thousands of others, who are physically or mentally wounded, and the toll it takes on the thousands upon thousands of family members on top of that.

 

What does the number of dead mean?  I'd like to think it means that we consider this cause SO important, it is worth the ultimate price paid by 3000 of our best and brightest.

761452[/snapback]

I'd like to believe our VA will do the best they can and will be well financed. I'm a Vet I both worked in and got treatment from the VA. I thought they were great. It was socialized medicine that worked worked. Of course now there is a new flood of mangled bodies to fix and it will be a long lonely personal struggle for those men and women. I imagine it will be pretty depressing at times too adjusting to a life where you don't have full use of your body. When I found out that Trooper died I was really shocked. I just thought that since he made it to the hospital and had surgery he would be ok with his leg wound, but even those can be fatal. Thanks for bringing up the wounded, I wish I lived closer to Buffalo I'd volunteer at the VA, even if it was just to BS with some GI who was there for a long time.

[IDBillzFan]

...and in what the Bush administration calls the war on terror.

761397[/snapback]

I'm just curious: what does CNN call it? The War of American Aggression?

[Chef Jim]

I'm just curious: what does CNN call it? The War of American Aggression?

761566[/snapback]

 

The War Against People We Just Don't Understand.

[BoondckCL]

The War Against People We Just Don't Understand.

761568[/snapback]

 

That would be the war against Kids, from the view point of the fresh prince.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

The War Against People We Just Don't Understand.

761568[/snapback]

 

Unless it involves our ports. Then it's the War Against Sand !@#$s.

[blzrul]

How can you be so callous? Don't you know The Crocodile Hunter has been killed? and we still don't know who killed JonBenet? And has anyone SEEN Suri Cruise, for real?

 

Get with the program people. Let's talk about what really matters here.