Afghanistan: 2,000 U.S. Military Deaths

I don't hear much about the Leftists objecting to what's happening in Afghanistan.

I don't see much coverage of CODEPINK protests, the ones that were splashed relentlessly by the liberal media when President George W. Bush was in the White House.

Are there peace marches in DC, anti-war rallies packed with liberal celebrities?

All that stuff has disappeared. If it hasn't disappeared, the media aren't informing the public about it.

I guess the Leftists don't like to talk about Obama's war. Of course, he didn't start it, but he sure as hell escalated it.

Obama's Afghanistan surge failed.

Now that President Barack Obama has ended the military surge in Afghanistan, the analysts are taking a hard look at what was accomplished since Obama made his surprising move in 2009 when he decided to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, very little – if anything – has improved in Afghanistan. More than a waste of our nation’s time and money, it has been a waste of more Americans’ lives.

Additionally, what was given as a reason for sending tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan in February of 2009 has fallen by the wayside as there are current discussions on the effect of the United States’ involvement in the Taliban-laden and troubled country.

According to reports, various Taliban and related attacks against NATO powers were approximately 2,700 in August of 2009 when Obama made his contrary-to-campaign promised-move to step up the nation’s military assistance in Afghanistan. Three years later, in August of 2012, there were more attacks – nearly 3,000.

...The ultimate decision to send more troops to Afghanistan nearly four years ago was the president’s, and data dictates that it did not turn out beneficial. Therefore, the Afghan surge is definitely a negative mark against Obama’s presidency.

The question should be asked as to whether the timing of his ending the Afghan surge was a political move or a military move in the best interest of Afghanistan and the terrorism-concerns throughout the globe. Any sudden decisions that Obama makes in these months leading to his re-election can safely be assumed to be a political move for re-election. Something as serious as foreign affairs and the safety of our men and women in uniform should obviously not be played in the elective process.

The insider attacks really aren't getting the attention they deserve.

I know the country is a mess. The economy and Obama's policies have been such a disaster that the failures in Afghanistan are taking a back seat. I understand that, but Americans are fighting and dying. We owe it to these brave men and women to stay engaged.

So what has happened in Afghanistan on Obama's watch?

According to the Afghanistan index kept by the Washington-based research center Brookings Institution, about 40% of the American deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices. The majority of those were after 2009, when President Obama ordered a surge that sent in 33,000 additional troops to combat heightened Taliban activity. The surge brought the total number of American troops to 101,000, the peak for the entire war.

According to Brookings, hostile fire was the second most common cause of death, accounting for nearly 31% of Americans killed.

Tracking deaths of Afghan civilians is much more difficult. According to the U.N., 13,431 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began keeping statistics, and the end of August. Going back to the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, most estimates put the number of Afghan civilian deaths in the war at more than 20,000.

...Attacks by Afghan soldiers or police — or insurgents disguised in their uniforms — have killed 52 American and other NATO troops so far this year.

The so-called insider attacks are considered one of the most serious threats to the U.S. exit strategy from the country. In its latest incarnation, that strategy has focused on training Afghan forces to take over security nationwide — allowing most foreign troops to go home by the end of 2014.

Although Obama has pledged that most U.S. combat troops will leave by the end of 2014, American, NATO and allied troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a rate of one a day. Even with 33,000 American troops back home, the U.S.-led coalition will still have 108,000 troops — including 68,000 from the U.S. — fighting in Afghanistan at the end of this year. Many of those will be training the Afghan National Security Forces that are to replace them.

"There is a challenge for the administration," O'Hanlon said, "to remind people in the face of such bad news why this campaign requires more perseverance."

Obama must be held accountable for the failures in Afghanistan. He has mismanaged the war. After all, he is the commander in chief.

Obama likes to remind us of that fact when he gloats about the death of Osama bin Laden and his alleged "gutsy call." ("Osama is dead and GM is alive.")

It's a different story when it comes to the loss of American lives in his war in Afghanistan. Then, Obama doesn't want to talk about being a wartime president.

Worse, the liberal media protect him. They don't ask questions. I'm sure if they did dwell on Obama's failures there, then we'd just get lies, like we got from the White House about what happened in Libya.


My heart breaks for the loved ones of the more than 2,000 Americans killed in Afghanistan.

I pray for the safety of the tens of thousands of American troops in Afghanistan now.