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Author: TriSec    Date: 09/28/2010 10:33:15

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,750th day in Iraq and our 3,278th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4424
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4285
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3565
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 196
Since Operation New Dawn: 7

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,305
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 803
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 086, 397, 000, 000 .00




A few weeks back, there was much fanfare and media coverage about the "end of combat operations" in Iraq for US troops. A combat brigade drove out of Iraq for the cameras, and all the troops went home, right? Nevermind the 50,000 US soldiers remaining in Iraq; they are supposed to be there for training and support purposes only. There's just one problem with that. Training happens in peacetime. Fighting happens in a war zone.


BAGHDAD - Since President Barack Obama declared an end to combat operations in Iraq, U.S. troops have waged a gun battle with a suicide squad in Baghdad, dropped bombs on armed militants in Baquba and assisted Iraqi soldiers in a raid in Falluja.

Obama's announcement on August 31 has not meant the end of fighting for some of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel remaining in Iraq 7-1/2 years after the invasion that removed Saddam Hussein.

"Our rules of engagement have not changed. Iraq does remain from time to time a dangerous place, so when our soldiers are attacked they will return fire," said Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan, a U.S. military spokesman.

The American role in Iraq's battle to quell a tenacious Islamist insurgency has been waning since security in cities and towns was handed over to Iraqi police and soldiers in June 2009.

Officially, U.S. forces remain in Iraq to "advise, train and assist."

When they answered a call for help two weeks ago from Iraqi soldiers overwhelmed in a gunfight with militants hiding in a palm grove near Baquba in Diyala province, U.S. troops brought in attack helicopters and F-16 jet fighters.



Perhaps there is something to the "end of combat operations" to our troops, though. Nature abhors a vacuum, as we all know. Despite the draw-down of American fighting men and women, there are still thousands of civilian contractors in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, more contractors than soldiers have been killed.


More private military contractors than uniformed service members were killed while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan between January and June of this year, marking the first time that corporations have lost more personnel on America’s battlefields than the United States military, according to ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative reporting group. More than 250 civilians working under American contractors were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the first six months of 2010, while 235 soldiers died in that same period, according to the latest report in ProPublica’s Disposable Army series.

The numbers, while disheartening, are not surprising. Private contractors have provided more support operations for America’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan than for any other armed conflicts in United States history. With the Aug. 31 drawdown of American combat troops in Iraq and the reliance on contractors for covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it seems likely that the contractor death toll will continue to climb.

There were 207,600 private contractors employed by the Department of Defense, 19 percent more than the 175,000 uniformed personnel members employed by the department, according to a July report by the Congressional Research Service. In Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors make up 54 percent of the Defense Department’s workforce, according to the report.

As of June, contractor deaths represented over 25 percent of all United States fatalities since the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, according to a report by Steven L. Schooner and Collin D. Swan at the George Washington University Law School.


I do not know what happens to these men and women, or their families, when they go back home...but I'd imagine all the challenges faced by our soldiers are shared by their civilian counterparts that live the same lives and fight the same battles as they do.

Finally this morning, we go back to Arlington National Cemetery. There is no level of hell that would be appropriate for those that have perpetrated these monstrous acts against our honoured dead. Like so many things associated with the Bush Presidency, it's like an onion. Just when you think you've peeled away the last rotten layer, there's more to discover.


Arlington National Cemetery officials said they are making progress in rectifying the problems with more than 200 gravesites identified in an Army Inspector General's report by verifying the paperwork, using ground-penetrating radar, and, in a few cases, digging up graves with a backhoe

But even though it has been four months since the report was released, many of the record-keeping issues remain unresolved, the full scope of the problems at the nation's premier military cemetery is not yet known, and the cemetery's leadership cannot say how long it will take to fix the situation.

In a statement, Kathryn Condon, the newly appointed executive director of the Army National Cemeteries Program, said cemetery officials "are working diligently each and every day to correct the mistakes made in the past and restore the dignity and honor our nation's heroes deserve."

The IG report, released in June, detailed a chaotic management system at the cemetery, poor record-keeping and discrepancies between burial maps and what was actually in place.

Investigators found that 117 gravesites without headstones were marked as occupied on cemetery maps; 94 others, with corresponding headstones, were marked as empty on the maps.


I actually have a relative buried at Arlington. My Great-Uncle Santiago is resting there thanks to his service in the Philippines during WWII. Even though he was buried in a different era....one has to wonder who is really under there?


 

28 comments (Latest Comment: 09/28/2010 22:53:10 by livingonli)
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