The mainstream media have been trumpeting the fact that there were no U.S. combat-related deaths in Iraq during the month of December 2009. This was the first month since our invasion and occupation of Iraq that we suffered no combat-related deaths there.
While that certainly sounds like good news, there is another fact that we need to consider:
In Afghanistan, 2009 was by far the bloodiest year for U.S. troops since the war began in late 2001.
So don't go popping the corks just yet.
Our troops haven't stopped dying. The deaths have merely moved from Iraq to Afghanistan.
I think I'll wait and celebrate once they're all back home.
Troops? CIA personnel are civilians...Which leads me to wonder: when OUR civilians are killed, are they just collateral damage too?
ReplyDeleteLiberata, the numbers I point to do not include U.S. civilian (e.g., CIA) deaths. That's a whole other topic for another day. Any civilian death -- be it Afghan or American -- is one too many.
ReplyDeleteBTW -- Just saw this on the Democracy Now! website:
ReplyDeleteUS-Led Forces Accused of Executing Schoolchildren in Afghanistan
http://tinyurl.com/yjhskra
Our tax dollars at work. :-(
ReplyDelete