For many years, this and other blogs have criticized President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders for their failure to pull out of Afghanistan after his election. There was clearly an unwillingness to risk the political costs of being blamed for a withdrawal or a perceived defeat. As a result, our personnel were left in harm’s way, even as the country’s president called us “demons”, our allies denied basic rights to woman and religious minorities, and polls showed intense anti-American sentiments. Hundreds of billions were spent to provide political cover for leaders who needed to show that they were tough on terror. Of course, many were made millionaires off the war while others paid the price on the ground. Roughly 75 percent of the fallen were from working class families. Now, a study by a conservative organization has shown that 73 percent of all U.S. Afghan War casualties have occurred since Jan. 20, 2009 when Obama was inaugurated. While another site shows slightly different numbers, the result is the same: most of the deaths have occurred under Obama (a fact that is seldom reported)
There have been 91 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan just in 2013. You can compare that to the 30 and 31 troops killed in 2002 and 2003. This is the result of Congress giving Bush a blank check on September 14, 2001. While leaders like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry agreed to the language, many at the time objected to the resolution as a transparent effort to avoid accountability for an actual declaration of war as required by the Constitution. Instead of showing leadership, they approved a resolution authorizing the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.” Once started, none of them had the courage to demand that it end while lobbyists continues the streaming of billions into the pocket of contractors. By last count, 2,144 U.S. military personnel have killed in the war and 1,575 of those occurred under Obama.
There are differences between the numbers of the conservative site and icasualties.org, though the difference still shows a vast majority of deaths occurring with Obama. Here are the CNS statistics:
Total U.S. Combat Deaths in Afghanistan
2001: 5
2002: 30
2003: 31
2004: 49
2005: 94
2006: 87
2007: 111
2008: 151
2009: 303
2010: 497
2011: 494
2012: 294
2013: 91 (From Jan. 1, 2013 to Sept. 10, 2013)
Here are the statistics from icasualties.org:
Year US UK Other Total
2001 12 0 0 12
2002 49 3 18 70
2003 48 0 10 58
2004 52 1 7 60
2005 99 1 31 131
2006 98 39 54 191
2007 117 42 73 232
2008 155 51 89 295
2009 317 108 96 521
2010 499 103 109 711
2011 418 46 102 566
2012 310 44 48 402
2013 97 6 20 123
Total 2271 444 657 3372
Xenu is the highest level thinker. Right now he is playing 15 dimensional chess.
“SON OF THUNDER (Thunder…thunder…thunder (echoes for several more seconds)”
WOW! It’s actually doing that outside while we are typing this. What a coincidence!
@Seamus – A low-effort-thinker is NOT the same as a low-level thinker. It’s not a pejorative term. It just means that Conservatives tend to go for the low-hanging-fruit rather than dig for the REAL facts of an issue.
Much like how you are not really digging very heavily in David Koch’s background to be able to be sardonic about it. You seem to not know much about him and the YouTube video he sponsored here. It’s obvious Koch Industries are Obama-Haters and they thought this video would be a Daily Show (Jon Stewart) style humor. It was a major FAIL as the sarcasm and mockery was too self-evident. Jon Stewart would require it to be much more funnier and not so cynical. Republicans are never funny. It’s a high-effort-thinking function to be truly funny.
However, I did like the execution and set design. But not Daily Show material – sorry.
SOTB
It’s NEVER when (insert partisan team) does it?
That’s the theory of hypocrites, don’t ya know?
HAHAHAHA!*hiccup*HAHAHAHAHAHA!*snort**giggle**falls over holding his spleen*
SON OF THUNDER (Thunder…thunder…thunder (echoes for several more seconds)
Ha! 4th richest man my arse. I’m the richest man in the world. My brother and I haven’t paid one red cent on any of our Brawny Paper Towel profits since 1972. Our crypto-Nazi self-loathing Jew puppet master, George Soros, bought off the IRS for us years ago. And yes, we are now paying millions to comedy improve troops across the Upper Midwest to push our message. And starting this Friday check out Sponge Bob Squarepants and The New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Donatello is going to make some pithy remarks about Michelle Obama’s arms). Could we pull that off if we were low-level thinkers. Ha! I don’t think so.
So you figured it out smart guy. Anyone and everyone who disagrees with the president is a) a pathetic low-thinking moron, or b) part of the diabolical right-wing cabal my brother and I have created with our paper-towel fortune.
Next time you hear someone bad-mouthing the POTUS be assured he one of ours.
End Communication, Galactic Overlord Xenu
Oh, crap. How do I erase that?
I mean, yours truly,
David H. “Seamus” Koch, Esq.
@jill – No Jill I don’t see things in black and white like you do. It’s not a Boolean algorithm to me. There are all kinds of levels of gray in between your postulates. Yes I believe that George Soros (via AIPAC) may have some sort of strange and strong hold on Mr. Obama, but there is no evidence to support that. It’s only a conjecture.
Empirically things always seem to go George’s (Israel’s) way under Mr. Obama. That can’t just be a coincidence. Truly Ariel Sharon (aka Ariel Scheinermann) was right when he told the Knesset in October 2001 (right after 9/11) that Israel LITERALLY controls America.
You need prove from the CIA?:
@rafflaw – “Fracking” is going the path of climate-change-deniers. I monitor the USGS earthquake network to my email. Let’s do the math… it’s not rocket science.
A US geographical area is seismically silent for decades if not centuries. Then all of a sudden when gas natural gas fracking starts in a US state (i.e. NY) the seismic detectors go wild. The same goes for WV, PA, and Baja California, etc.. It’s not only contaminating ground water with diesel fuel etc. it is causing all sorts of other weirdness like fish kills and bird kills. Possibly it’s due to a methane release (i.e. land clathrate gun?) i dunno…
SOTB
I said, if you think Obama is under the control of others, you need to act that way. Instead of defending him in any way, for example, saying he is better than McCain, you will stop doing that and oppose his actions.
Otherwise it is clear that you believe Obama is in control of his actions and you support them.
@Jill – No if it had been McCain (arguably a traitor worse than Snowden – i.e. while in Vietnam War)… things WOULD be different. Mr. Obama would not be thinking this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zoPgv_nYg
Any fool, like Bebe Netanyahu who cant control his own people from gassing Syrians with Sarin), knows that attacking Iran is a sure way to start WW3/4. Russia, PRC, and DKPR will all retaliate aggressively. And Iran can hold it’s own in a war as US seems to underestimate their non-nuclear technological advances. Bebe seems to think its a slam-dunk as he got GW Bush to try it in August 2007 but thanks to JSC Admiral Mullen, the whole operation was scrubbed before it even left USA.
@Seamus – If your David Koch then you would know you are the 4th richest man in USA. The Second City logo only indicates how some liberal-leaning comedians will prostitute themselves for a very hefty paycheck. I find it disturbing that you agree with me (albeit sarcastically) that this YouTube was nothing more than anti-Obama propaganda. It was funny but sad. Sad in the fact that low-effort-thinkers like yourself don’t understand what Mr. Obama is REALLY doing behind the scenes.
I think it is self-evident to many Liberals who do “get it”. It has NOTHING to do with war-mongering but everything to do with making someone evil play nice in the global sandbox. Ban-Ki Moon is doing nothing to intervene so USA has to.
Unfortunately, after hearing what the little moron did in late August, Mr. Obama may have to send the 7th fleet to DKPR too. I can hear all the Right-Wing Peace Mongers (an oxymoron) screeching “War Monger! Don’t Bomb Pyongyang. They did nothing wrong just like in Syria!” Why won’t you GOPers wake up and smell the coffee?
The UN is going the route of the League of Nations (per Mr. Putin) due to Ban-Ki Moon’s mismanagement. Somebody has to be the world’s police or a tiny little control in the Middle East will literally start WW3/4 with it’s constant self-serving meddling in international affairs so they can “conquer the world through deception”.
SOTB
Standing joke at Defense Language School in 1969.
Question: “If President Nixon is withdrawing the troops from Vietnam, why am I here studying to go to Vietnam next year?
Answer: “You fool! How can Nixon withdraw you from Vietnam unless he sends you there first?”
So you see, fellow Crimestoppers, even when everyone in the world knows that the U.S. military has lost a war beyond all doubt and discussion, American presidents — like Dubya and Obama — have to “surge” more troops into the sand-trap shooting gallery before they can withdraw them (dead or alive) years later. As Professor Turley seeks to explain things:
“There was clearly an unwillingness to risk the political costs of being blamed for a withdrawal or a perceived defeat.”
Yes, as far as that goes. But as Frances Fitzgerald adds in Fire in the Lake: the Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam:
“… by the beginning of 1968 … the American war effort had, then, become almost entirely solipsistic: the U. S. government was trying to save “American prestige” for Americans alone, to convince itself of American superiority.”
These days, those “managing” our militarized government’s solipsistic search for self-absolution prefer the word “exceptionalism,” but President Vladimir Putin of Russia has correctly reminded us that they really mean “superiority” — theirs over the rest of us.
The even more frightening info is later in the piece. Sorry for multiple posts but this site is acting very strangely and it’s difficult/impossible to post.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/12/obama-nsa-review-surveillance-changes
A review panel created by President Obama to guide reforms to US government surveillance did not discuss any changes to the National Security Agency’s controversial activities at its first meeting, according to two participants.
The panel, which met for the first time this week in the Truman Room of the White House conference center, was touted by Obama in August as a way for the government to consider readjusting its surveillance practices after hearing outsiders’ concerns.
But two attendees of the Monday meeting said the discussion was dominated by the interests of major technology firms, and the session did not address making any substantive changes to the controversial mass collection of Americans’ phone data and foreigners’ internet communications, which can include conversations with Americans.
Robert Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and an attendee, told the Guardian the he “did not hear much discussion” of changes to the bulk surveillance activities.
“My fear is it’s a simulacrum of meaningful reform,” said Sascha Meinrath, a vice president of the New America Foundation, an influential Washington think tank, and the director of the Open Technology Institute, who also attended. “Its function is to bleed off pressure, without getting to the meaningful reform.”
Would someone please retrieve my comment. It is an excerpt from the latest story on the NSA panel that Obama set up. Civil rights groups were excluded. There was difficulty telling the govt. from the corporate players. It’s at the Guardian.
Old joke. A guy goes in to see the doctor and says: “Doctor, it hurts when ti do this.” Replies the doctor: “Then don’t do that.”
Get it, President Obama? Get it?
pdm,
You want it short and sweet? OK:
“Wherever the German soldier plants his boot, there he must remain.”
Substitute “U..S.” for “German” in the old imperial Third Reich slogan and I think you can figure out the rest.
Reblogged this on .
New low at the Turley political blog (any resemblance to a law blog has pretty much evaporated. Oddly, it is the GBs that have the most interesting and thought-provoking posts.). First it was Alex Jones and Prison Wars. Now it is CNS as an actual Turley source. I await the day Prof Turley announces his campaign as a Tea Party candidate.