US, NATO deaths in Afghanistan pass Iraq toll

Source: AP

KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength.

The fundamentalist militia in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed 886 prisoners, then briefly infiltrated a strategic valley outside Kandahar. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40 percent this year from 2007 where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistan border.

Some observers say the insurgency has gained dangerous momentum. And while June also saw the international community meet in Paris to pledge $21 billion in aid, an Afghanistan expert at New York University warns that there is still no strategy to turn that commitment into success.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted that more international troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, the first time that had happened. While that trend — now two months old — is in part due to falling violence in Iraq, it also reflects rising violence in Afghanistan.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/afghan_deadly_month

Lara Logan gave an EXCELLENT interview with Jon Stewart recently about this.

Here is the clip of her and Jon:
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=173871

Thank you for posting this.

Sadly kicking and recommending.

Americans wake up, the only 'Mission Accomplished' is slaughter and the b*sh slime wiping their oily ass with the Constitution.

Alyce

K&R to keep this news out there.















"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot

I am very surprised (& saddened) to learn this! Let's vote it up and get word around. Horrible, and we have to remember All of them.

Source: LA Times

Afghanistan troop deaths exceed Iraq total in June
From the Associated Press
July 1, 2008

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- At least 45 international troops, including at least 27 Americans, died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, according to an Associated Press count.

It was also the second straight month in which militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

The Taliban in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed about 900 prisoners, then briefly overran a strategic valley outside Kandahar. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the fundamentalist Islamic militia would maintain or increase its attacks, which are already up 40% this year from 2007 in areas where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistani border.

In Iraq, at least 31 international soldiers died in June: 29 U.S. troops and one each from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. There are 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, along with 4,000 from Britain and small contingents from several other nations.

The 40-nation international coalition is much broader in Afghanistan, where only about half of the 65,000 international troops are American.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan1-2008jul01,0,2046702.story

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and they want to go and put MORE troops in harm's way in Iran. These people are insane!

Source: Philidelphia Enquirer

KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq last month, as they did in May.
The grim milestone capped a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength. The extremist militia in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed 886 prisoners, then briefly infiltrated a strategic valley outside the city of Kandahar.

Last week, a Pentagon report forecast that the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which is already up 40 percent this year from 2007 in the area along the Pakistan border where U.S. troops operate.

Last month also saw the international community meet in Paris to pledge $21 billion in aid to Afghanistan, but Barnett Rubin, an expert on that country at New York University, warns that there is still no strategy to turn that commitment into success...


Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20080701_Afghanistan_deadlier_than_Iraq.html

And more dead Americans than OBL managed to murder. ¸

We won`t even bother to mention the hundreds of thousands of dead men, women & kids from Iraq, since most Americans seem to barely give a shit about the needless deaths of their own countrymen, let alone non-Americans.

...For each American soldier who died for this highly questionable cause -- at least 10 Iraqis have been killrd (including women & kids).

I am entirely ashamed of my country. We now kill women & young children in the name of "democracy."

Source: Washington Post

U.S. Deaths Rise in Afghanistan
June Is Deadliest Month for Troops as Country Sees Taliban Resurgence


An American flag is folded in honor of Marine Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill., during his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. The Polish immigrant was one of four Marines killed by a roadside bomb June 14 in Afghanistan's Farah province. Story, B3. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post )

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; Page A01

June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001, as resilient and emboldened insurgents have stepped up attacks in an effort to gain control of the embattled country.

Defense officials and Afghanistan experts said the toll of 28 U.S. combat deaths recorded last month demonstrates a new resurgence of the Taliban, the black-turbaned extremists who were driven from power by U.S. forces almost seven years ago. Taliban units and other insurgent fighters have reconstituted in the country's south and east, aided by easy passage from mountain redoubts in neighboring Pakistan's lawless tribal regions.

The officials and experts said the spike in troop deaths should not be the only measure of the growing conflict in Afghanistan, but they acknowledged that the Taliban's persistent attacks on military units and civilians have frustrated U.S. and international efforts to help the Afghan government secure the country.

"What it points to is that the opposition is becoming more effective," said Barnett R. Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University. "It is having a presence in more areas, being better organized, better financed and having a sustainable strategy. In all, their strategic situation has improved."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070103070.html?hpid=topnews

If you had kept your eye on the shiny ball for more than five minutes you could have broken the Taliban. But those magical underoos that Condi outfitted you with made you feel special--kinda like invincible. Even Daddy can't pull you out of this one. You are one special disgrace.

Since they will be the ones to really suffer.

...is more SURGE!!!!!"

Have increased too. Not that there was much to sustain them before, but the US has stepped up bombing both in Afghanistan and in Iraq. These guys love their big, noisy toys.

That doesn't count the number of police and Afghani army types killed by "insurgent violence," nor the continuing warring between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. The deaths in Afghanistan are obscene.

"Well..... Iraq was a fucked-up idea, but Afghanistan was/is a Just War."

I dunno about Just, but I do know it's ultimately unwinnable. Just ask the Brits and the Russians. I truly don't know what to do about the Taliban, but I sure can't imagine turning that country into a showpiece of democracy. Women and intellectuals and the educated class are gonna be screwed royally when they take over again, but sending the Marines ain't gonna help.