Lest we forget

We must NEVER FORGET.

Clicking on DoD Confirmation under the Status column links to a brief description of where and how they died. For instance the link after any of the nine names below goes to the following:

I got a bit of a slap in the face with reality, or a horrifying possible one, when I checked the list the other day and saw that this nineteen (19) year old woman (I find it difficult not to say girl) was the most recent confirmed death.

With my niece who is about her age soon to visit, it makes this death even more relevant for me. Her mother was an army nurse who "loves" her current job as a part-time prison medical consultant or some such.

That this niece wants to become a nurse doesn't surprise me. But I have to admit a selfish relief that she does not feel financially compelled to do so through military service.

Does any one know of a web site that lists non-military American casualities in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I did the search using "civilian" rather than "non-military" and found this site.

It doesn't list coalition civilians in Afghanistan, which could be because they are more likely to be from other nations than the US, are more likely working "undercover" or the numbers are so small as to pale compared to the others.

There is also an interesting article on the subject on the ACLU's website. The data either are incomplete or sometimes can not be trusted, as is always the case with war, "truth" being, as they say, war's first casualty.

When I read this op-ed piece by seven soldiers who have served in Iraq today I felt a glimmer of hope that this march to immoral wars can be slowed if not halted.

These soldiers have shown as much political bravery in a media filled with pro-war propaganda as they or anyone else has displayed in military actions on the battlefield.

I wish a speedy recovery for staff sargeant Jeremy A. Murphy. And more importantly, I wish a speedy change in course for our current policy of conquest, subjugation and exploitation in the Middle East, for his sake and for all our sakes.

Bill Moyer does justice to the memory of two dead Iraq War soldiers and a currently recovering one.

Obese drug abuser and Viagra nabber Rush Limbaugh said the other day that these soldiers, out there "defending" his lousy, fat ass, are "phony." God bless them and all the other "phony" troops who have to fight this horrible, unnecessary debacle.

If Cheney gets his way, it's next stop IRAN!

Fatalities that will never be counted in the Iraq War or any other.

And the socially dysfunctional veterans living homeless on the streets or incapable of dealing with a peace-time homelife will not be counted as casualties.

Nope, these poor veterans just get used as props and then cast aside. It's disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

Also, don't forget that desertions from the Army are at their highest level in 27 years. DESERTIONS. How often do the reich-wing corporate media report on this or try to assess why this is occurring?

Just ask yourself why they don't and won't, and then consider what else they're also keeping from you.

Perhaps a hard-headed economic arguement will appeal to those who still think there is some justification for this war.

As the 4000 fatality mark passes with the usual media hype then dismissal that has accompanied every other anniversary of this death-march, there has to be something that triggers a reaction from those who believe they are not directly affected by this war.

It is obvious to me that this war is not increasing our security. But there are many voters in the general election who will still be tempted to believe otherwise.

I recall one of many stories in the media concerning the difficulty that Barack Obama will have with white male voters in Pennsylvania; one which will spill over to the race against John McCain should the two oppose each other. The real issue for them I think is one of economics, not race. If they can be convinced of the real economic consequences of continuing to spend so much money in an effort that has boiled down to defending the egos of a few misguided and disengenuos politicians, then who is really the patriot?

This hardly seems to be the time to be swiftboating an ex-marine and naval corpsman who has criticized his country, albeit with a minister's irrational exuberance.

As demeaning as DADT is to gay soldiers this story adds salt to the wound.

This policy cannot end soon enough.

Canadian military fatalities in Afghanistan have now reached 100. Interactive map of where our fallen soldiers are from.

Just reading the official Factsheet on PTSD and Suicide is enough to drive one crazy.

What do we expect when we send 19 year olds with little experience in life into a situation where they are repeatedly required to determine whether another human being should live or die without benefit of knowing that individual's history.

War by definition bypasses any civilized legal system of determing guilt or innocence. It would seem that the less the wisdom excercised in the decision to go to war, the more likely the long-term psychological repercussions among the warriors.

This may be masked by our tendency to glorify their efforts and minimize their frailties, but that price reverberates throughout any society that does not heed the lessons of history. One has to compensate for the fact that short-term history is often written by the victors and thus has an innate bias.

Long-term history written by those separated from a specific war, by either time or lack of direct interest, will be a better judge of any military conflict.

I hope we will one day be able to better assess our own wars from a perspective of all of their victims.

For "the first time since the Vietnam War" the Army suicide rate has "surpassed the civilian suicide rate" and if confirmed the total in January "would exceed those killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same period.

Along side the deaths and injuries in this war have to be listed those who lost their sense of discipline and morality.

The specter of US soldiers shooting unarmed, bound and blindfolded captives in the back of the head is so reminiscent of the executions carried out by terrorists and WWII war criminals that it should make any truly patriotic USA citizen cringe.

One can not expect every army recruit, even one who reaches the rank of sargeant, to excercise the kind of discipline that was shown by the three Navy SEAL snipers who took out the Somali pirates recently.

But the acts of these men were such that none of us should endorse or abide.

Edit to add: It is abominable that soldiers in the field should be punished for crimes committed if it can be shown that they thought they were following orders, if their superiors are not also held to account.

Likewise torturers - and perhaps murderers - in our intelligence agencies should be held to account for crime.

Anyone who has the courage to be a ballet dancer in Idaho does not lack for chutzpah, but Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl will need much more than that to survive this ordeal.

Some excellent translators, not only of the language but the culture, would be useful for establishing intelligence about his exact location and other details of his captivity, and hopefully prevent him from becoming a particularly poignant addition to this gruesome list.

Pakghanistan is not Iraq. Nor is it Vietnam or any of the other wars we've faught. And to treat it as such is only going to lead to more deaths without achieving any goal that is definable.

President Obama has set some a more or less clear general goal "to protect the American people"; and more specifically "to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future."

But there are also political goals. And not having the support of the "American people" will make any goal very difficult even for a popular president. And nation building at home amidst the problems here - which we have plenty of still - are going to be on the minds of all of us more than nation-building overseas.

My greater concern is the troops. Suicides are rising under an administration lead by a man who severely criticized his predecesor for similar statistics. Barack Obama has to consider all of the options in his futures strategy. And hawks within his administration and without will have to put the troops first on this one.

The deaths of thirteen soldiers (so far) must be one of the worst, if not the largest, domestic mass murders of serving military by one of their own since the Civil War.

Though there will be a great deal of spin concerning this event, it seems certain now that the cause was political ideology rather than garden-variety insanity.

No doubt there will be more spin to come, perhaps even extending into the DADT debate; a policy which forces many gay soldiers to self-censor the kind of free speech that this muslim soldier apparently practiced.

But of more immediate importance is the safety of other USA soldiers around the world. The suicide rate continues to rise under president Barack Obama. Iraq is not being closed down nearly as quickly as his liberal allies - both domestic and foreign - would like. Afghanistan is becoming more of an openly puppet regime surviving only under the auspices of the deaths of foreign soldiers that are mostly from the USA.

Spin, like other talk, is cheap.

The least that we as a nation and Obama as president must decide is how to prevent unnecessary casualties.

I weep for the young people who have to decide whether to serve in our military in the current world climate.

Those dudes rock!

I don't know if you've ever seen any videos of the training involved to become a Navy SEAL on the Military/Discovery Channel but it is pretty mindblowing. They certainly have gained my respect. Here's one video that shows/talks about what I mean.

Here is a gallery of videos.

Channel-hopping while watching a Steelers-Bengals game that was stunningly boring even for the Steelers, I saw Israeli journalist Amira Hass interviewed about the situation in Israel/Palestine.

Though she is apparently well-known for her sympathetic arguments for the conditions of the Palestinians, I was surprised to hear her say that Israel and Palestine essentially "are one state" due to the effective control Israel exercises over their common territories.

To my knowledge it is the first time any credible figure from Israel has said anything of the sort on a major news network in the USA.

It may represent the best hope yet that she has managed to survive - and even live - in both Israel and Palestine. It is not surprising that such a person could only maintain such a position of influence in the more powerful of the two entities.

But it is this kind of empathy and persistence that will prevent an eventual military solution in the middle eastern conflict between the international combatants using both Israel and Palestine as proxies. That solution would lead to far more death and destruction among our soldiers than what we have seen up to now.