But that is what we are doing this Sunday morning. The front page of this past Wednesday's LA Times pictured a weeping woman with a baby in her arms waving goodbye to her husband, a soldier as he redeployed for Iraq …FOR HIS SIXTH TOUR OF DUTY!!!
Does anyone see anything wrong with this???
All eyes are focused on Iran and what they will do with their proposed nuclear capabilities, (boy does this sound familiar) and whether we will invade or bomb the hell out of them, because most assuredly before President George W. leaves office … he’ll find a way to justify doing something. But watch it now, is this "tail wagging the dog. " Because when we are focused on Iran we are taking our eye off how bad things are in Iraq and that’s what President George W. wants.
Does someone want to say goodbye?
Today is the 12 of November. Monday is Veterans Day.
There are 6 weeks before Christmas
And 4 weeks before Osama bin Laden release his yearly holiday video tape. Letting us know "I'm alive and well and thank you Americans for caring and dying"
Someone please say goodbye.We already know about the Blackhawk Helicopter that went down this week in Iraq killing 4 American soldiers.
Yesterday In KABUL, Afghanistan, Militants ambushed and killed six U.S. troops walking in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan — the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for the U.S. military here since the 2001 invasion.
The number of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan this year mirror the record toll in Iraq. Both conflicts have seen an increase in troop levels this year that has put more soldiers in harm's way, including those killed Friday while returning from a meeting with village elders in Nuristan province. Militants wielding rocket propelled grenades killed the six Americans and three Afghan soldiers. Eight U.S. troops were wounded.
"They were attacked from several enemy positions at the same time," Lt. Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the U.S. military, said Saturday. "It was a complex ambush."
The six deaths brings the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year to at least 101, according to an Associated Press count, surpassing the 93 troops killed in 2005. About 87 died last year. The toll echoes the situation in Iraq, where U.S. military deaths this year surpassed 850, also a record.
Launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the war in Afghanistan quickly ousted al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors and appeared to have been a swift military victory.
But insurgent attacks — advanced ambushes and suicide and roadside bombs — have risen sharply the last two years, and
analysts say the counterinsurgency battle U.S. and NATO forces now face will take a decade or more to win.
I want to say goodbye.
Critics of the Bush administration say the Pentagon turned its attention away from Afghanistan during the build-up to the invasion in Iraq, leaving the military with too few resources here to back up that initial victory with an adequate security presence.
Though attacks in Iraq have dropped in recent months, U.S. troops there have also faced a rising number of suicide and roadside bombs since the 2003 invasion, known as asymmetric attacks in military circles.
Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the Washington-based RAND Corp., said the power of the U.S. military has forced insurgent groups into relying on such bombings.
"It's an irony that the United States far and away has the most powerful military in the world," said Jones. "I think the current levels of attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan show, however, that the key vulnerability to the United States both in Afghanistan and Iraq is the asymmetric attacks."
Insurgents have launched more than 130 suicide attacks, a record number, and Afghanistan last week saw its deadliest attack since 2001, a suicide bombing in Baghlan province that killed about 75 people, including 59 students and six members of parliament.
"It certainly is disturbing that U.S. casualty figures, though they are low in general, are increasing," Jones said. "But I think the most significant concern is the growth that is affecting Afghans, the whole panoply of raids, IEDs, suicide attacks, and the attack in Baghlan this week."
I should say goodbye.
More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died due to insurgency-related violence this year, also a record, according to an AP count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.
Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the U.S. military, said in a report this month that the average number of attacks in Afghanistan each month has risen 30 percent this year, from 425 in 2006 to 548 this year.
He labeled the Afghan conflict a "war of attrition that can last 15 or more years" that
militants can win simply by outlasting U.S. and NATO efforts.
"As in Vietnam, tactical victory can easily become irrelevant," he wrote in a report for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies that called for greater development of the Afghan government and military.
Friday's ambush resulted in the highest number of U.S. casualties from a battle this year, Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 13 wounded by an ambush in July, while militants disguised in Afghan army uniforms wounded 11 U.S. troops in August. The attack Friday was the deadliest incident for U.S. troops since a Chinook crashed in February in Zabul province, killing eight Americans. Officials ruled out enemy fire as the cause of that crash.
But How do I say goodbye?
Contributions by, JASON STRAZIUSO, AP
Casualty or Survivor?
