Casualties

Two separate reports, on wartime tragedies,, with questions as to why and how they were allowed to happen, aired on Sunday night 27 June 2010 on the Afghan occupation and the soldiers serving there.

One on CBS 60min. "Blackwater 61" the other on NBC's Dateline "A father's mission"

Did the United States Army do everything that it could to protect the Chosen Company's Second Platoon?

In the summer of 2008, 9 members of the platoon lost their lives defending a tiny outpost in Afghanistan. Their parents' mission: to find out the truth about what happened, and who should be held accountable. NBC's Richard Engel reports

by Linda Milazzo

Photo by Venice Paparazzi

There are some things we humans have just one of. We have one heart, one liver, one tongue, one nose... Of course, there are probable anomalies to even these similarities. I'm sure in the annals of medicine there are cases of individuals with multiples of even these, although physiologically, we humans need just one.

Even though the Alaskan spill was from an Exxon Ship since that, and many other spills, the now huge oil companies have not invested in technology and crews to take care of any possible accidents nor in the needed cleanup technology for devastating accidents. If we in the construction industry cut common sense corners in building anything, especially as lessons came from past engineering mistakes or just better understanding, there'd be buildings and more collapsing all over the place or when mother nature or mother earth hits with force more deaths! Alaska's present, after 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, might be Gulf Coast's future

This is going to be short.

Meant to inform of this day, to send you to one extremely dedicated individuals own post, to hopefully send some to search out even more {if you haven't followed the real issues}, for the trolls who won't see these issues on conservative blogs or news? sites, and we probably won't hear a peep on any of the Sunday Morning empty blab shows or news outlets.

30 Years in the Making, National PTSD Awareness Day Arrives

West's Afghan Debacle: Commander Dismissed As War Deaths Reach Record Level
Rick Rozoff | Stop NATO | Blog site | June 25, 2010

Note: As of this article's publication on June 27, AFP reported: "The deaths bring to 311 the total number of soldiers to die in Afghanistan so far this year, with the number killed in June alone at 91, by far the deadliest monthly toll since the war began in late 2001."

On June 23 President Barack Obama announced the dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of all foreign troops in Afghanistan, and within hours Associated Press reported that the Western military death toll in the country had reached at least 80 so far this month, making June NATO's deadliest month in a war that will enter its tenth calendar year on October 7.

McChrystal, appointed on June 15 of last year as top commander of all U.S. and all NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops in the South Asian war zone - currently 142,000 with thousands more on the way - was to have led the largest assault of the war this month in the province and capital city of Kandahar.

The campaign, which was to have consisted of 25,000 U.S., NATO and Afghan government troops, appears to have been postponed indefinitely and may in fact never occur.

The Kandahar offensive was planned as the culmination of McChrystal's much-vaunted counterinsurgency strategy that was inaugurated in earnest on February 13 of this year with Operation Moshtarak in the Marjah district of Kandahar's neighboring province, Helmand.

In that operation at least 15,000 U.S., British, French, Canadian and Afghan National Army troops poured into a district that has been described as a loose aggregation of small agricultural hamlets and other communities with a combined population as low as 50,000. A CBS News report of February 9 stated 30,000 troops were to be involved in the U.S. Marine-led offensive. [1] One major Western news agency estimated that the amount of insurgents confronting the 15,000-30,000 NATO and Afghan government forces was as low as 200.

Far from overwhelming and quickly subjugating the area, however, the Western troops and their Afghan subordinates, the latter reluctantly dragooned into service for the attack, encountered fierce and intractable resistance.

Almost a month into the fighting - an operation by U.S.-led forces with as much as a 75- to 150-1 advantage in numbers - the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission estimated that 28 civilians, including 13 children, had been killed and 70 more civilians had been wounded, 30 of those children. The report issued by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission attributed most of the casualties to U.S. and NATO rocket and artillery fire.

Iraq, Afghanistan: American casualties total 500,000, counting injury and disease, writer claims | LA Times

Here's an eye-popping number:

A blogger and writer claims American military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan now exceed 500,000.

That's if you count certain injuries and diseases including mental illness that he alleges the Department of Defense doesn't include in its official combat-related casualty toll in an effort to soften U.S. military losses in the wars and win funding for them from the Congress.
For example, cases of traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as a result of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the official list of casualties.

"Under this scheme, chronic injuries and many acute internal injuries such as hearing impairment, back injuries, mild traumatic brain injuries, mental health problems and a host of diseases suffered by personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are usually not counted as being war-related regardless of how debilitating they are," writes Matthew Nasuti in an article published on the Afghan news site and media organization Kabul Press. "They are either generally lumped into the category of 'non-hostile wounded' or simply not counted at all."

Masuti is a former Air Force captain and Los Angeles deputy city attorney who worked for the State Department in Iraq for a spell. He's now a critic of the U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more.

And many more related, long needed but ignored, other area's as to Veterans Issues!

VA secretary visits project

Jun. 24, 2010 Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said he wants veterans to know there is a safe place for them to heal after war.

{LEIGH COLEMAN/SPECIAL TO THE SUN HERALD Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, left, stopped to talk to local veterans during his tour of the construction site at the VA Gulf Coast Veterans facilities on Thursday. Chris Levelle, right, was working at the site when Shinseki visited.}

Shinseki spent Thursday touring the $310 million construction project at the Biloxi VA.

Looks good on those fast disappeared magnetic ribbons and satisfies the false meme's of the huge majority that refuse to serve, but Why do the Veterans of have to continually seek Private Donations and Funding for the Obvious! Why? because the Nation Won't Fund the Results of War as they have ne problem funding the ever increasing Defense Budgets no questions asked!!

New center brings much-needed care to vets

June 24, 2010 Getting the right care for America's wounded warriors - that's the goal of the newest addition to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

The National Intrepid Center of Excellence was conceived and built to address what is often called the 'signature injuries' of current conflicts: traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.

This has been another, drag it out for as long as one can so the Country doesn't pony up or even admit their culpability, ongoing and information now growing, long term Military and Veteran's of issues that finally is seeing the light of day, Way to Late for Many who've already passed on, soldiers and their family members!

Documents: Tanks leaked fuel near Camp Lejeune well

June 24, 2010 Federal scientists studying the history of water contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C., have learned of another source of leaking fuel — this one less than a football field away from a drinking well that once served thousands of Marines and their families.

The well was closed in December 1984 after benzene was found in the water.

Ask yourselves why Veterans have to continue seeking Private Funding and not only about the obvious needs of Veterans but also the Memorials to!! A Draft for Military Service isn't needed, what is needed is to Demand Sacrifice, paying for the Results of our Wars, Huge Sacrifice, they will end almost instantly and the Nation will think more then twice as to Wars of Choice!

June 24: Rachel Maddow emphasizes the importance of civilian leadership demonstrating to the military as well as the country as a whole that the nation is united in the war effort in Afghanistan.

GORDON DUFF: THE AFGHANISTAN CIRCUS, McCHRYSTAL LEAVES THE CENTER RING

Opens this friday. Restrepo Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington

Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

In 2008 Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington dug in with the men of Second Platoon for a year. Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban, has proven to be one of the U.S. Army's deadliest challenges. It is here that the platoon lost their comrade, PFC Juan Restrepo, and erected an outpost in his honor. Up close and personal, Junger and Hetherington gain extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of backbreaking labor and deadly firefights that are a way of life at Outpost Restrepo.

Army Releases Findings of Wanat Review

June 23, 2010 Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced today that the Army has completed action on the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) independent investigation of the July 13, 2008, battle fought by soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team at Wanat, Afghanistan. This engagement claimed the lives of nine U.S. soldiers and resulted in 27 casualties.

On Jan. 27, McHugh appointed Gen. Charles Campbell, former commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, to review the CENTCOM investigation and take appropriate actions with regard to officers identified therein. Campbell’s examination involved a detailed analysis of the CENTCOM investigation, as well as a review of the original investigation conducted by the 101st Airborne Division.

US Iraq Casualties rise to 75,479
Compiled by Michael Munk | MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered five combat casualties in the week ending June 22, 2010 as the official total since the March 2003 invasion rose to at least 75,479. The total includes 35,353 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 40,126 dead and medically evacuated (not updated since May 1) from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions and PTSD - diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.**

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,411 as of
June 22, 2010) but rarely mentioning the 31,865 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 39, 203 (as of May 1, 2010)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,411 reported deaths include 923 (up two) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 208 suicides through May 1, 2010.

* The number of wounded is usually updated on Tuesdays by the Pentagon here.
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** the number of "non combat" injured was reported by the Pentagon here.

Comparison of outpatient health care utilization among returning women and men Veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq

Thanks to us and NATO now occupying instead of helping them after we drove the Taliban out, once more we walked away from them, and now we expect some sort of victory!!!

Afghan opiate use has doubled in 5 years, UN says

21 June 2010 Drug addicts as young as a month old. Mothers who calm their children by blowing opium smoke in their faces. Whole communities hooked on heroin with few opportunities for treatment.

Use of opiates such as heroin and opium has doubled in Afghanistan in the last five years, the U.N. said Monday, as hundreds of thousands of Afghans turn to drugs to escape the misery of poverty and war.

This first is a cut of one I just posted, elsewhere, to show at least a little of what has been going on. But as to this agency I have added just a few, and there's plenty more, links to how the previous administration as well as the republican controlled congresses nearly gutted OSHA, but it isn't only OSHA as we've seen as to regulations and the countries well being, they had eight plus years to nearly destroy everything about this once envied country and it's innovations, workforce and research etc.!

The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, MN has been running another series of investigative journalism, this one on gun running from Minnesota to Mexico.

I've been following it the last couple of days and posting the first two in the series, they've finally put up part three and four today. I'm combining all four as one post with some added recent reports that also came out in the last few days but on same issue, they all follow below.

This gets extremely little play in this country but Especially by the intolerant racists who totally ignore it's even going on!

Part 1: From southern Minnesota to Mexico

Elizabeth Flores, Dml - Star Tribune

A statue marks the Cabelas store near Owatonna where Paul Giovanni de la Rosa purchased many of the weapons he transported to Mexico.

Part 1: From southern Minnesota to Mexico

Part 2: Smuggler's luck ends at the Mexican border

Part 3: Too many weapons set feds on the trail

What we brought to the Iraqi People, as we have others, for no reason, and what we'll once again walk away from, as we have others, not just the present mental issues but the present to long lasting physical results, happening to many at any time even those yet born, of occupations!!

100 psychiatrists serve nation of 30 million psychologically shattered by war

Part 2: Smuggler's luck ends at the Mexican border

June 17, 2010 As federal officers took their time searching Paul Giovanni de la Rosa's silver minivan, a steady stream of motorists passed by, unaware that anything beyond a routine inspection was happening at the side of the road.

John Grant

The truth about American politics is this: disguised by the theatrics of squabbling Democrats and Republicans, Washington governs according to limits prescribed by a fixed and narrow consensus. The two main parties collaborate in preserving that consensus. Doing so requires declaring out-of-bounds anything even remotely resembling a fundamental critique of how power gets exercised or wealth distributed.
-Andrew Bacevich

Barack Obama has two serious leak problems.

One is a real leak -- of oil from the bowels of the Earth into the Gulf of Mexico and onto the shores of the Gulf States. The other is a metaphoric leak -- of information from the vast reservoir of secrecy our military and its wars have become.

Dishonesty, the notion of “too big to fail” and Bacevich’s consensus are at the core of both leak problems.

Angelina Jolie Speaks Out for World Refugee Day

June 16, 2010 Angelina Jolie is speaking out on behalf of refugees in a 30-second video for World Refugee Day 2010 this Sunday.

Angelina Jolie is seen in a video appeal for World Refugee Day 2010

In the video clip, released Wednesday, the actress says that "Having a home, a place we belong, a place we feel safe, is something most of us take for granted." Continued with Links to Photo's and More

This gets extremely little play in this country but Especially by the intolerant racists who totally ignore it's even going on!

From southern Minnesota to Mexico

In small-town Minnesota, folks knew him as the ex-bullfighter who was a family man, a soccer dad. What they didn't know was that he was buying firearms here and smuggling them into Mexico.

By Robert Parry and Coleen Rowley

Almost four decades after Defense Department insider Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers - thus exposing the lies that led the United States into the Vietnam War - another courageous "national security leaker" has stepped forward and now is facing retaliation similar to what the U.S. government tried to inflict on Ellsberg.

Army Intelligence Specialist Bradley Manning is alleged to have turned over a large volume of classified material about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to Wikileaks.org, including the recently posted U.S. military video showing American helicopters gunning down two Reuters journalists and about 10 other Iraqi men in 2007. Two children were also injured.

By Dave Lindorff

Kevin Neish of Victoria, British Columbia, didn’t know he was a celebrity until he was about to board a flight from Istanbul to Ottawa.  “This Arab woman wearing a beautiful outfit suddenly ran up to me crying, ‘It’s you! From Arab TV! You’re famous!’” he recalls with a laugh. “I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she told me, ‘I saw you flipping through the Israeli commando’s book! It’s being aired over and over!’”

A soft-spoken teacher and former civilian engineer with the Canadian Department of Defense, Neish realized then that a video taken by an Arab TV cameraman in the midst of the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza of him flipping through a booklet had been transmitted before the Israelis blocked all electronic signals from the flotilla. The booklet had pictures and profiles of all the passengers, and he'd found it in the backpack of an Israeli Defense Force commando.

victims were all unarmed and killed without justification, says Saville report

15 Jun 2010 David Cameron has apologised for the actions of British soldiers after the Saville Inquiry found that 14 civil rights demonstrators and bystanders were killed without justification.

 

Air Force MIAS from Vietnam War are Identified

June 14, 2010 The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Capt. Peter H. Chapman, II, Centerburg, Ohio; Tech. Sgt. Allen J. Avery, Auburn, Mass.; Tech. Sgt. Roy D. Prater, Tiffin, Ohio; and Sgt. James H. Alley, Plantation, Fla., all U.S. Air Force.

Prater is to be buried in Columbia City, Ind., on June 19. Other burials are being scheduled individually by the families of the airmen.

When you have a long line of political hacks and opportunist, with only an occasional non political appointee, who bring in same to help administer, you often find a match that's been lit and when it is a fire starts and spreads. They exist only because that's what the country really supports, those letters after a name!

More Mistakes Likely At Arlington Cemetery, Says Former Employee