9 Western Deaths Make 2010 Toll Worst of Afghan War

[Hissyspit]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills nine Western troops
The deaths make this the deadliest year for NATO in the nine-year war.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
September 21, 2010

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — Nine Western service members died Tuesday in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, making this the deadliest year for NATO in the nine-year war.

Military officials did not immediately disclose the nationalities of the dead or say precisely where the crash happened. Two other Western troops, an Afghan soldier and an American civilian were injured, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

Combat deaths in June and July had spiked to the highest levels of the conflict. With Tuesday's crash, according to icasualties.org, 529 members of the international force have been killed this year. The previous high was 2009, when 521 Western troops were killed, according to the website's tally.

The south, a Taliban stronghold, is the most active battle front in the war, and it is the region where most American troops who arrived as part of the summer's "surge" have been deployed. About 100,000 Americans are in Afghanistan now; they make up two-thirds of the Western force.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-afghan-chopper-crash-20100921,0,7788317.story

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Back in July, two young men from my area were killed in Afghanistan in the space of a week.

When I saw the second headline in the local paper, I first thought it referred to the death I'd read about two days before, but it was another young guy. Incredibly sad, and makes no sense to me, nine years in... ;(

[Socal31]

2. *Clears Throat*

Bring 98% of our boys/girls home by Xmas.

Leave whatever CIA/Delta Force contingent in Afghanistan/Pakistan to take care of the actual threats.


I swear it is like we never read a history book about fighting a political war in Afghanistan. It is almost as certain an outcome as a full-scale ground war in Asia. What the hell do they teach in West Point? F***.

[CBGLuthier]

3. Boo Fucking Hoo

Multiply by 1,000 and that is how many women and children they have killed.

Boo Hoo hoo.

[chrisa]

4. Well if that isn't the nicest, most friendly comment I've ever heard!

:eyes:

[Bragi]

5. Obama wears the blame for what is happening

Obama should have wound this war down, not escalated it by buying into the losing "surge" strategy he campaigned on, and that was carried out by the Bush crowd he brought into his administration.

He should end it. Now. There is no point in continuing, no gains to be made.

[Dogtown]

6. "So it goes..."

[tuckessee]

7. Just imagine how bad it would be if the "Taliban" had AA capability.

Americans should thank their lucky stars that no foreign power is supplying the Afghan resistance forces with some sort of anti-aircraft weapon like the US did with the Mujahdeen during the Soviet Occupation.