US military death toll in Afghanistan reaches 2,000

[Jimbuna]

The US military has suffered its 2,000th death in the Afghan war - with a suspected "insider" attack at a checkpoint in the east of the country.
A US soldier and a foreign contractor were killed while two Afghan soldiers died and four were injured.



At least 52 foreign soldiers - about half of them Americans - have been killed in so-called "green on blue" attacks this year, compared with 35 for the whole of last year.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19776402

Absolutely ridiculous...bring them all home, all nationalities.


Nato troops will withdraw by the end of 2014, but a number will remain to train Afghan security forces


I wouldn't want to stop there for all the tea in China...can't even trust your 'allies'.

[u crank]

Absolutely ridiculous...bring them all home, all nationalities.

I wouldn't want to stop there for all the tea in China...can't even trust your 'allies'.

I wonder Jim, how many sleeper agents are already in the Afghan military. Just waiting. The future does not look good for this part of the world. :nope:

[Jimbuna]

I wonder Jim, how many sleeper agents are already in the Afghan military. Just waiting. The future does not look good for this part of the world. :nope:

That's precisely what I'm thinking...they'd be nothing more than easy targets for hostage taking purposes and potential war crimes atrocities.

What our governments are thinking I've absolutely no idea....send a politician out there to accompany each service personnel that is left behind.

[nikimcbee]

Is it just me, or has this thing been a whole waste time\money\life?

What do we have to show for this whole operation?

[Jimbuna]

In terms of Afghanistan...2000 deaths :nope:

[u crank]

That's precisely what I'm thinking...they'd be nothing more than easy targets for hostage taking purposes and potential war crimes atrocities.

What our governments are thinking I've absolutely no idea....send a politician out there to accompany each service personnel that is left behind.

Exactly. Canada will have personnel there until 2014 in a training role. Almost as dangerous as combat.

I consider Canada's involvement in this war to be one of this country's worst military mistakes ever. Our redeployment in 2006 to Kandahar province was a tactical error made by our politicians to appease the Americans for our refusal to go to Iraq. We were over reaching for sure. Only 2,800 or so Canadian soldiers were tasked with holding on to the sprawling Kandahar province, birthplace of the Taliban.

I blame the politicians. They didn't have a clue. The sooner everybody's out the better.

Then let the bombing begin.:huh:

[nikimcbee]

I've often thought, we could have spent the money better by building a huge wall around Afghanistan and kept all that scum in the country. Then they can have their islamic utopia w/o impacting the rest of the World.

[Platapus]

I think the US forces need to be separated from the AF forces.

About 6,000 miles sounds about right. :yep:

[Takeda Shingen]

Afghanistan is a picture of what is wrong with out foreign policy. What should have been a small-scale special teams operation to locate and eliminate those responsible for the September 11th attacks became a decade-long nation building operation using 60,000+ troops. All this and, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, we have nothing to show for it, just like Iraq. 2000 dead, trillions of dollars spent, and nothing to show for it. The bad guys are still there, and they will come right back into power once we leave.

[Jimbuna]

The picture gets decidedly worse for the US when you take Iraq into account they lost about 4,400 of their sons and daughters over there :nope:

I'm anything but an expert on the subject but when you consider the vast sums of expenditure might it not have been better spent on satellites and other forms of surveillance equipment to moniter this trash then use drones and missiles or whatever to attack the heart of the vipers nest and in so doing send a powerful message that attackes on whichever countries homeland would exact such a harsh price they (the trash) might come to their senses one day and learn to co-exist?

[eddie]

During the initial invasion, and we knew bin Laden was in Tora Bora area, we should have nuked that area and then left. Would have saved a lot of soldiers lives and our money that way.

[mookiemookie]

Afghanistan is a picture of what is wrong with out foreign policy. What should have been a small-scale special teams operation to locate and eliminate those responsible for the September 11th attacks became a decade-long nation building operation using 60,000+ troops. All this and, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, we have nothing to show for it, just like Iraq. 2000 dead, trillions of dollars spent, and nothing to show for it. The bad guys are still there, and they will come right back into power once we leave.

Hear hear. This has been a fiasco from the start. And meanwhile the Russians sit back and say "Tolja so."

[CCIP]

Hear hear. This has been a fiasco from the start. And meanwhile the Russians sit back and say "Tolja so."

Yep. Although I think what should be even more disturbing is the fact that that barely more than a decade before going in, the US gave all those weapons, money and other sorts of help to the guys that have done most of that killing...

IMO, another awful example of the "our SOB" doctrine that, unfortunately, US foreign policy continues following and will continue getting stung by in the long run. Shamefully, 11 years in Afghanistan have done nothing to change that doctrine even in relations with that "country", let alone elsewhere. And the current SOB isn't that much of an improvement...

[em2nought]

We're either insane, or Ike was exactly right. :arrgh!:

[Tribesman]

Cut and run?
lily livered cheese eating surrender monkeys the lot of ya:03:

[JU_88]

Is it just me, or has this thing been a whole waste time\money\life?

What do we have to show for this whole operation?

Its not you, can some one remind me while we are still there? And dont say 9/11 or terrorism, that was the reason in 2002 not 2012. And dont say we prevented another 9/11 by being there, because we could have done that by be being smart and staying at home. 2000 soldiers lives is not worth the trade off anyway.

[joea]

In terms of Afghanistan...2000 deaths :nope:
Yup and how many Afghan deaths?? Lots of civilians caught in the crossfire, collateral damage from both sides-yes the Taliban have targeted civilians too-not just collaborators btw. A lot of our lost freedoms too can be traced to this damn "war on terror". I am wondering of they would not have been better off under a communist government. :hmmm: No I'm serious.

[JU_88]

Yep, Patriot act, NDA, Sending thousands of troops to fight overseas and spending trillions of dollars is how you expand a government and geo political empire, its not how you beat terrorists, if anything its just playing right in to their hands, if the objective of 9/11 was to lure America to war in the middle east -then by golly they got two for the price of one! :nope:
Abit of tighter airport security IS ALL that was needed to prevent 9/11. No box cutters? No problem! And Killing the mastermind(s) is ALL that was needed to avenge it. the rest is just complete and utter nonsense.
Our goverments know exactly what they are doing here, and I dont think it quite matches the glowing perception that is often sold to us.
Make no mistake, terrorists are not the only ones who know how to play dirty, compared to us they are just amateurs, we know how to get what we want and look good while doing it.

[joea]

Another thing, so many of the NATO states in Afghanistan are also suffering from economic problems-can we really afford these useless operations that don't buy us more security?

[Platapus]

So, look into the eyes of a Mother and Father and tell them that their son/daughter was killed in AF.

When they ask you why, what would be the answer?

That should be the decision point for taking military action: Could you justify the death of a son/daughter to the face of the parents?