War Nerd: Obama's a better C-in-C than W but a terrible cheerleader

Classic War Nerd.  Glad to see he's back.  

Did you know that the U.S. had no troops killed in action in Iraq in 2011? Zero.  None.  That's f-ing amazing.  As Gary put it: "Once the big US forces left, the Iraqis stopped attacking us. I mean completely."  

Kinda makes all those folks like, um, (cough-cough!), myself look pretty damn smart for saying the Iraqis didn't hate us for who we were or our freedom, they hated the open-ended U.S. occupation.  And it makes all those people who said they were just crazy Muslims look kind of dumb, doesn't it?  I mean, you can't be crazy violent Muslim one year and sane democrat the next.

Still, 'Bama can't get any love from W's erstwhile GWOT-lovers and troop-honorers. He's just too eerily calm and collected about his blood & guts.  And he never spikes the ball in the endzone, even when he nailed the biggest bearded baddy of them all.  He lets others do his bragging for him, like Crazy Old Joe repeating in semi-senile fashion, "GM is alive and bin Laden is dead."  Obama's steady nerves, quiet modesty and self-restraint may be admirable traits in a Clint Eastwood-type film hero, but these are terrible traits in a U.S. president.  

Concludes Gary:

War isn’t about “winning” wars, so much — the 2004 election proved that once and for all. It’s about having something to woof on behalf of, like the NFL squared. Bush was the worst warrior since George Villiers, but he was a pro at cheerleading and we reelected him. Obama’s been a big surprise as a C-in-C, a damn good, cool-headed master of assassins, which is what you need for counterinsurgency … but he’s worse than nothing as a cheerleader.

Obama's Wars: Good Fighter, Can’t Cheerlead Worth A Damn

By Gary Brecher

September 11, 2012 | NSFW Corp

URL:  http://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/war-nerd-obamas-wars

U.S. Military: Iraqi death toll

"You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," New York Times journalist Walter Durante, Stalin's useful idiot, liked to say in defense of Soviet regime's repression and engineered famine in Ukraine to bring it in line.

And so at least 77,000 Iraqis -- but probably more than 100,000 -- and 4,425 American soldiers had to die to "liberate" Iraq, or more accurately, to enforce the occupation after Saddam's regime had already been broken. The invasion and occupation has also created about 300,000 official refugees and asylum seekers spread out over 12 countries.

Those who say it was all worth it are doing the devil's arithmetic.

U.S. Military: 77,000 Iraqis Killed Over 5 Years

By Lara Jakes

October 14, 2010 | AP

A new U.S. military tally puts the death toll of Iraqi civilians and security forces in the bloodiest years of the war thousands below Iraqi government figures.

The little-noticed body count is the most extensive data on Iraqi war casualties ever released by the American military. It tallied deaths of almost 77,000 Iraqis between January 2004 and August 2008 – the darkest chapter of Iraq's sectarian warfare and the U.S. troop surge to quell it.

But the tally falls short of the estimated 85,694 deaths of civilians and security officials between January 2004 to Oct. 31, 2008, as counted last year by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry.

Casualty figures in the U.S.-led war in Iraq have been hotly disputed because of the high political stakes in a conflict opposed by many countries and a large portion of the American public. Critics on each side of the divide accuse the other of manipulating the death toll to sway opinion.

Even casualty rates are a political issue in Iraq," said Samer Muscati, a Middle East and North Africa researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The new data was quietly posted on the U.S. Central Command website without explanation in July, and a spokesman at its military headquarters in Tampa, Florida, could not answer basic questions Thursday about the information, including whether it counted government-backed Sunni fighters among Iraqi security forces or insurgents among civilians.

Officials with the Iraqi Health Ministry, which tracks how Iraqis are killed through death certificates, refused to discuss the U.S. casualty data Thursday.

The figures were discovered this week during a routine check by The Associated Press for civilian and military casualty numbers that were first requested in 2005 through the Freedom of Information Act.

In all, the U.S. data tallied 76,939 Iraqi security officials and civilians killed and 121,649 wounded between January 2004 and August 2008. The count shows 3,952 American and other U.S.-allied international troops were killed over the same period.

The figures did not specify whether the civilian deaths were caused by sectarian violence, but appeared to track charts previously released by the Defense Department of Iraqis killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom who died as a result of hostile violence – as opposed to accidents or natural causes.

Those charts – which did not provide concrete numbers – were based on data compiled by U.S. and Iraqi government figures.

The U.S. count falls short of casualty figures compiled by Iraq's Human Rights Ministry.

The ministry said in its report released last October that 85,694 people were killed from the beginning of 2004 to Oct. 31, 2008, and that 147,195 were wounded. The figures included Iraqi civilians, military and police, but did not cover U.S. military deaths, insurgents, or foreigners, including contractors. Like the new U.S. figures, the Iraqi report did not include the first months of the war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

A tally by the Iraq Body Count, a private, British-based group that has tracked civilian casualties since the war began, estimates that between 98,252 and 107,235 Iraqi civilians were killed between March 2003 to Sept. 19, 2010. The group has used media reports and other sources to reach its tally.

Until last month, The AP compiled its own daily body count of Iraqi civilians killed in sectarian violence, excluding insurgents. Overall, The AP tallied 49,416 Iraqi security officials and civilians killed since April 28, 2005 until Sept. 30, 2010. That figure underrepresented the true casualty number because many killings went unreported, especially in more remote areas.

The Central Command figures represent the largest release of raw data by the U.S. military to detail deaths during the Iraq war. The military has repeatedly resisted sharing its numbers, which it uses to determine security trends.

A notable exception, however, came this year when U.S. military officials in Baghdad decided to release their July 2010 Iraqi casualty tally to refute the Iraqi government's much higher monthly figures. That decision was made weeks before U.S. forces withdrew all but 50,000 troops from Iraq – as ordered by President Barack Obama in an attempt to wind down the war and tout the nation's improved security.

Even so, counting the number of Iraqis killed has always been difficult, and tallies have widely varied depending on the source.

Born on the 4th of July, killed on May 27th

What a fucking waste. Jacob Leicht deserves our deepest respect and admiration, but jeez, what was it all for?

I realize it's too painful for his family to think their son died in vain. But I'm going to say it: he died in vain.

That truth does not diminish his service, his courage, or his sacrifice. In fact, it is an indictment against all of us. We let this happen to him when it was totally unnecessary. In fact we told him it was necessary to go out there and fight and die for us. And he believed us. The good man that he was, he believed us and he went out there and did it. He fought in Afghanistan and was wounded and nearly died, had 18 surgeries, then came back again and died 1 month after returning to combat.

Our self-absorbed, scared shitless, me-first country does not deserve the sacrifices of brave, selfless men like Jacob Leicht. And Afghanistan sure as hell didn't deserve to witness his last breath.

Let's bring our troops home NOW.

Jacob Leicht, 1,000th Serviceman Killed In Afghanistan, Born On Independence Day

By Arthur Delaney

July 3, 2010 | Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/03/jacob-leicht-1000th-soldi_n_634263.html

Why not? $1 trillion to save 45,000 lives a year

Hey, anybody can make a mistake...twice.

So let's just put this in perspective: the same Republicans who didn't really mind spending $1 trillion to 'liberate' 4,385 U.S. troops and at least 30,000 Iraqis from this earth, are now locking arms in stalwart, principled opposition to a health care bill that would cost about $900 billion over 10 years and would prevent 45,000 or so American deaths per year.

Makes perfect sense, right? No? OK, lemme 'splain it to you: Republicans in Congress hate you and want you to die.

GOP congressmen: Everyone agrees Iraq war a 'horrible mistake'
By Daniel Tencer
March 19, 2010 | RawStory

URL: http://rawstory.com/2010/03/gop-iraq-war-horrible-mistake/

War dispatch on why Afghanistan is unwinnable

What a freaking mess. They were probably betrayed by the Afghans they were going there to help.


Get 'em outta there, Obama!




"We're pinned down:" 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush
By Jonathan S. Landay
September 8, 2009 McClatchy Newspapers


URL: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/75036.html

Iraq war: $900 Billion and Counting

But it has been worth every penny, and every soldier's life lost!  Right??

$900 Billion and Counting

By Teagan Goddard

December 16, 2008  |  CNN.com

 

From a new report: "In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the war in Iraq alone has already cost more than every past U.S. war but World War II."

A look at the 4,000 lost in Iraq

If you're moved only by dollars & cents, power politics, or geopolitical trends, then don't bother reading this. But if you really 'support our troops,' then take a moment to ponder these facts.


A look at lives lost as U.S. deaths in Iraq near 4,000
By Rick Hampson and Paul Overberg
March 21, 2008 | USA TODAY

One in six were too young to buy a beer. About two dozen were old enough for an AARP card. Eleven died on Thanksgiving Day, 11 on Christmas, and at least five on their birthdays. One percent were named Smith.

As the nation approaches its 4,000th Iraq war fatality — on Thursday the toll stood at 3,983 servicemembers plus eight Defense Department civilians — a USA TODAY analysis shows who gave their lives, where they came from and how they fell:

• Ninety-eight percent were male (compared with 99.9% of those lost in Vietnam). Three-quarters were non-Hispanic white (compared with 86% in Vietnam). The most common age was 21 (20 in Vietnam).

• Nine percent were officers, including 24 lieutenant colonels and six colonels.

• More of the fallen were based at Fort Hood in Texas than at any other military installation.

• New York City, which has lost 62 residents, had more deaths than any other hometown.

• More than half of the nearly 4,000 (52%) were killed by bombs, 16% by enemy gunfire. Five percent died in aircraft crashes. Fifty-five people drowned, and 15 were electrocuted. Almost one in five died from what the military terms "non-hostile" causes.

• Since the war began in March 2003, the Pentagon has reported double-digit U.S. fatalities on 35 days. The bloodiest was Jan. 26, 2005, when a Marine helicopter crashed in a sandstorm, killing all 31 aboard, and six other servicemembers died in combat. The bloodiest month was November 2004, when 137 died; the least bloody was February 2004, when 21 were lost. On 460 days of the war, no servicemember died.

HONORING THE FALLEN: Names mean more than numbers

INDEX: Who they were and how they died

The nearly 4,000 deaths — not including 482 troops killed in Afghanistan and the wider war on terrorism — are small by the standards of modern warfare.

The total is less than two-thirds the U.S. fatalities during the World War II battle of Iwo Jima, which lasted about a month; less than U.S. losses on each of the first three days of the Battle of the Bulge; and less than a fourth of U.S. fatalities in Vietnam in 1968 alone.

Is the upcoming 4,000th death more notable than the 3,999th or 4,001st? "Four thousand is a good round number people can grab hold of," says Morten Ender, a U.S. Military Academy sociologist who studies the military. "It reminds us of what's going on with a war that, since the (military's troop) surge, seems to have lost its place in the public mind."

Whether anyone pays attention to the benchmark is something else. "People tend not to be numerologists," says John Mueller, an Ohio State expert on war and public opinion. "These milestones basically have little effect on public support for a war. It's not like the stock market; people are more affected by events in wars than numbers."

[I'd call the 5th anniversary of a failed occupation that has killed 4,000 U.S. troops, will cost $2-3 trillion, has severely diminished our military' preparedness for a real war, and damaged America's international credibility for at least a generation an "event." -- J]

P.S. - The 4,000th U.S. soldier KIA was on Easter Sunday.

U.S. & coalition casualties in Iraq

It's very sad when you look at all our soldiers' faces, most of them in their 20s, and realize they should be alive right now. They didn't have to die.


Iraq and Coalition Casualties
CNN

There have been 4,278 coalition deaths -- 3,972 Americans, two Australians, 174 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of February 26, 2008, according to a CNN count. (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. The list also includes seven employees of the U.S. Defense Department. At least 29,203 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan and examine U.S. war casualties dating back to the Revolutionary War.

U.S. deaths in Dec. in Iraq top Sep., Nov.

I predicted it and it happened, unfortunately: The number of U.S. soldiers KIA in December was 115. That's more than November (69) and September (106).

There were no U.S. elections in December 2006. So why were more U.S. soldiers killed? What's the right-wing conspiracy theory this month to explain it?

By the way, as I'm sure you know, the number of soldiers killed in Iraq now exceeds the number of people killed in the 9/11 WTC attacks.