How The West Was Won?

I went to bed last night when the big news was still the Alabama tornadoes. This morning the headlines are that Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan and buried at sea. Before sunrise there was a celebratory crowd at the gates of the white house and at ground zero. The president says justice has been served. If OBL’s goal was to lure us into jihad he clearly won a long time ago. To be clear, I'm glad we got him, but his death is only a side note to the fact that the United States of America has spent 10 years starting and fighting in 2 wars in 2 countries that had less to do with terrorism than the governments of their geographical neighbors, Iran and Pakistan. I can only say I'm surprised by all the public celebration. Could the last two days have happened without what has happened in the last ten years? I don't know. It's a question worth asking.

Discussing this with my mother this morning she said hindsight is 20/20. It certainly is, if our eyes are open. Now more than in times past America has been needing some good news but the planet's dilemma of world powers clashing is no football game. There are no winners, and there will be no winners. There's no score to keep no matter how hard we crave it to be so. This isn't a movie. There are no happy endings and there is no form of heroic justice. It is war, not just the military's war, our war, and it continues without a clear end.

Right now around the globe, as people die, military and civilians, even because of our efforts, we revel in patriotic colors. In a few days we'll go back to Trump's hyperbole, Snookie's face paint, and Charlie Sheen's psycho-babble, because it's what makes us happy. We are too quick to party. What may come next could show that we, in the global war on terror and the terrorists alike, have only begun to battle. There's nothing I would love more than to be as wrong as a person can be.



Afghanistan

American Military Casualties (05/1/11 11:23 am EDT), Total In Combat:

American Deaths

Since war began (3/19/03): 4452
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) 4311
Since Handover (6/29/04): 2876
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 224
Since Operation New Dawn: 15

American Wounded Official Estimated

Total Wounded: 33023
Latest Fatality April 29, 2011


As of April 21, 2011, there have been 2,340 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of ongoing coalition operations (Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF) since the invasion in 2001. In this total, the American figure is for deaths "In and Around Afghanistan" which, as defined by the U.S. Department of Defense, includes some deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan and the deaths of 11 CIA operatives.

In addition to these deaths in Afghanistan, another 29 U.S. and one Canadian soldier were killed in other countries while supporting operations in Afghanistan. Also, 62 Spanish soldiers returning from Afghanistan died in Turkey on May 26, 2003, when their plane crashed.

During the first five years of the war, the vast majority of coalition deaths were American, but between 2006 and 2010, a significant proportion were amongst other nations, particularly the United Kingdom and Canada which have been assigned responsibility for the flashpoint provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, respectively. This is because in 2006, ISAF expanded its jurisdiction to the southern regions of Afghanistan which were previously under the direct authority of the U.S. military.



Casualties in Afghanistan as of Aug 10 2010:

Afghan troops killed 8,587
Afghan troops seriously injured 25,761
Afghan civilians killed 8,813
Afghan civilians seriously injured 15,863
U.S. troops killed 1,140
U.S. troops seriously injured 3,420
Other coalition troops killed 772
Other coalition troops seriously injured 2,316
Contractors killed 298
Contractors seriously injured 2,428
Journalists killed 19
Journalists seriously injured unknown
Total killed in Afghanistan 19,629
Total injured in Afghanistan 48,644


Iraqi Casualties
As of March 31, 2011
US Soldiers Killed, 4,444
Seriously Wounded, 32,051
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq 1,487
Journalists - Iraq 348
Academics Killed - Iraq 448
Other Coalition Troops, 318

Sources: DoD, MNF, About.com and iCasualties.com


Iraqi Civilians
100,000 to 110,000
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

All Downhill

Older video, fall 2010. Longboarding hills at Ft. Bragg.