One-day Afghan death toll of U.S. troops hits 7

[laststeamtrain]

Source: LA TIMES

One-day Afghan death toll of U.S. troops hits 7

The deaths occur in the south, where a U.S.-led offensive is underway, but also elsewhere, as the Taliban increases pressure. Experts say the U.S. public must brace for higher casualties.

By Laura King and Julian E. Barnes
6:27 PM PDT, July 6, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Washington -- On the day of the largest one-day death toll in months for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, military officials and experts warned that the American public should brace for rising casualties as thousands of additional American troops pour into the region to confront a resurgent Taliban.

So far this year 73 American troops have died in Afghanistan, including seven on Monday, according to the U.S. military. At the current rate, 2009 would be the deadliest for the U.S. in more than seven years of fighting, surpassing the 132 killed last year, the military said.

Part of that is due to the Obama administration's decision to scale back operations in Iraq to refocus on Afghanistan, and the military is in the process of sending 18,000 additional troops into the country. Officers insist that the new strategy will work -- and indeed is already showing signs of promise. But, they cautioned, the arrival of more troops means more fighting and more U.S. deaths, at least in the short term.

"It is what we expected," said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the topic. "We anticipated that with forces going in, increased number of troops, increased engagement, you are going to have increased casualties." The U.S. has seen an upswing in military casualties before. American deaths in Iraq spiked to 126 in May 2007, as the U.S. surge moved toward its height. But soon after, violence in Iraq began to ease and U.S. deaths quickly went down, to 38 in October 2007 and just 23 in December 2007.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghan-us-deaths7-2009jul07,0,2369746.story

[Catshrink]

1. Too close, just too close

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6002638

[laststeamtrain]

4. I am so sorry: "They also serve who only stand and wait"--John Milton

[doc03]

2. But Micheal Jackson is the lead story

on the news.

[Oregone]

3. 115K soviets didn't do much of a decent job supressing resistance outside of Kabul

Why would we think our smaller force would make a dent? This whole thing is going to be much more of a mess, with much more deaths

[Cali_Democrat]

5. It's pure insanity

Obama and the Dems need to wake the fuck up.

[depakid]

7. Some just don't learn from history

Even recent history- though this area has eaten armies and defeated empires for a whole lot longer than 20 years.

[change_notfinetuning]

6. You ain't seen nothin' yet! n/t