We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of Antiwar.com:
American Deaths Since war began (3/19/03): 4337 Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4198 Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3874 Since Handover (6/29/04): 3478 Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 109
Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318 US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 810 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 542 Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,395 Journalists - Iraq: 331 Academics Killed - Iraq: 423
We find this morning's cost of war passing through:
$ 904, 475, 400, 000 .00
As we have passed yet another milestone on the road to one trillion dollars, it's worth drilling down into just one thing to see what the tradeoffs are. Seeing that it's the first week of school in these parts...
Taxpayers in Waltham, Massachusetts will pay $193.7 million for total Iraq war spending since 2003. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
3,316 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
Paul Rieckhoff was at Amherst College last night in this state, speaking to the incoming class of 2013. Presumably, that included a number of veterans enrolling as a result of the new GI Bill. While there's no press coverage at the present, it worth checking out at least one "GI Bill Story". Our friends at IAVA are asking for additional contributions from veterans through their satellite website at http://www.newgibill.org/...
Alas, while the lucky few are home and trying to rebuild and improve their lives, their comrades soldier on. Here's a story from a few days back via NPR about the ongoing conditions in Afghanistan.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shortly before last week's presidential elections, the Marines launched an operation to take back a key district. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson accompanied a Marine company in its battle to clear the Taliban out of one Helmand town.
They strike Dahaneh before dawn. Three helicopters carrying assault teams from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines and a squad of Afghan soldiers fly over a much slower convoy of armored vehicles also headed to the fight.
The airborne teams descend on a mud-walled compound where Afghans believed linked to the Taliban sleep on the roof to escape the summer heat. Several of the men are taken into custody. The women and children are sent to stay with relatives.
A few hours later, the armored convoy carrying more Marines and Afghan troops rolls in. Patrols are sent out to secure the town, one dirt street at a time.
The militants put up a fierce fight. The Marines guess someone's tipped them off about the operation.
Bullets, mortars and rockets rain down in periodic bursts on the troops. Most appear to be fired from mountains surrounding the town. But some Taliban fighters weave in and out of Dahaneh's deserted streets.
"That's him there," a Marine yells. "Go right!" comes another shout, punctuated by gunfire.
'On The Winning Side' On the second day, one Marine is killed, his legs blown off by a rocket-propelled grenade. Taliban casualties in the fight over Dahaneh were much higher — an estimated dozen militants killed in the first 24 hours alone.
No civilians are believed hurt or killed. Most flee Dahaneh during lulls in the fighting.
Cobra helicopters and other military aircraft provide backup to the troops. One missile is even fired from a base some 60 miles away, taking out the militants' heavy-caliber machine gun on a nearby ridge.
With their large numbers and advanced weapons, the Marines and Afghan soldiers soon control much of Dahaneh.
But the operation commander, Marine Capt. Zachary Martin, says a meaningful victory here is about a lot more than who controls the terrain. He says the key to any long-term success will be to win over the town's population, estimated at 2,000.
"They're waiting to see what we're going to do," he says. "They want to see if we're going to stay the course, if we're going to be the winning side, because they very much want to be on the winning side."
Changing Perceptions Martin says it's about more than demonstrating who is stronger. It's about whether the Marines can build trust. That's something he and others say it has taken Western forces in Afghanistan years to learn, including in this district.
Famed for its pomegranates, the district of Now Zad was an economic powerhouse for the Afghan government when it controlled Helmand province. Today, Now Zad is a moneymaker for the Taliban. The militant group taxes residents and reaps profits from the many opium poppy fields now cultivated here.
For years, the Taliban has kept people here cut off from the Afghan government — despite the presence of British and Estonian troops and, more recently, the U.S. Marines. There is no Afghan police force here, nor are there any schools.
Despite the isolation, Now Zad residents interviewed before last week's presidential polls were aware their country was about to hold elections.
Farmer Khan Mohammad, who lives in the tiny village of Khawji Jamal, says he would vote if the security situation were different. But with the Taliban ruling Now Zad, he and other villagers see little value in the polls.
It's this perception of Taliban domination that the Marines here want to change. If they don't, they see little hope of permanently driving out the Taliban...
So, for us and the lucky ones...it's a new month, a new school year, and hope for a new life. But for the rest of our soldiers, it's another day, same as the last one.