The United States lost six more soldiers in Afghanistan when a Taliban terrorist rammed a foot patrol with an explosive-laden motorbike. One of those killed was already familiar to many lawyers. Air Force Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen was one of the first openly gay service members to come forward after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in 2011. She was among a true “band of brothers” who represented the very best of this country in its diversity and patriotism. Vorderbruggen shows how gay and lesbian personnel continue to step forward to put themselves in peril in defense of their fellow citizens — even those who have long fought their effort to achieve equal rights.
Among her comrades killed in the attack was also Air National Guardsman Joseph Lemm, 45, a 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department. During his deployment, an Italian market in the Bronx would send him cookies and candies to remind him of home.
Also killed was Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa, 31, of Coram, New York. Bonacasa was a careerist and was on his fourth tour abroad. He left a wife and 5 year old daughter.
Also killed was Chester McBride, assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Detachment 405, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. McBride was a star football player at his high school in Georgia and joined the Air Force after graduating from Savannah State University.
Staff Sergeant Peter Taub, 30, of Philadelphia, was married with a 3-year-old son, and was expecting a second child to be born next summer. He was assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Detachment 816, at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Staff Sgt. Michael A. Cinco, 28, of Mercedes, Texas, assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, 11th Field Investigations Squadron, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas.
Major Vorderbruggen had served as a special agent with the Office of Special Investigations in various bases. Vorderbruggen and her civilian wife, Heather Lamb, were married in June of 2012, and were raising a son who is not yet five.
The unit was a snapshot of the United States and shows the strength that is found in our diversity and equality. Each of these brave people will be missed not only by their grieving families but the nation as a whole.
‘Eye for an eye’
When the Zionist U.S. Government bombs and murders people in other countries it creates terrorists. When the Zionist U.S. Government bombs and murders their families the families want justice, revenge. I understand why they want to murder Americans there. I can see why they want to come to come here and murder Americans. The U.S. military = present day Nazis
According to U.S. and International Law all the U.S. / Israeli invasions are Wars of Aggression, War Crimes
These are the same crimes the Nazis committed
Washington, DC = Nazi Berlin
http://buenavistamall.com/AmericanNazi.jpg
The haters express no empathy for the families of these brave soldiers. They only have vitriol for the US, and those who point out their self loathing.
Once Bin Laden thanked America for assistance in fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, he decided to thank America once more by attacking its embassies, its military, and its Twin Towers.
Bin Laden, the self-appoionted Holy Man of Islamic terrorism, decided that the Middle East needed to be purged of his former beneficiaries.
That was a real shock, given the open, multicultural country where he same from, which continues to honor real religious freedom,freedom of speech, etc.
Bin Laden was banished from Saudi Arabia, given that he was too extreme for the even the “tolerant” Saudi government?
Bin Laden’s highjinks with the 1993 WTC attack, the 1998 U.S. Embassy attacks, and the 2000 attack on the Cole drew a very muted response from the U.S. After the 9-11 attacks, America got serious, for a while at least, about going after Al Queda, their ***hole buddies and hosts, The Taliban, both of whom happened to have enjoyed a mostly unencumbered holiday in Afghanistan.
Just for anyone who may have forgotten, that’s why we invaded Afghanistan. I’ m not at all interested in our British expert who claimed that Bin Laden “was never in Afghanistan”, or the loons on this thread trying to ” clear” Bin Laden, and say it was either “Silverman”, “Zionists”, Hollywood Special effects, or whatever. I lost all patience with these whackos who’ve been flooding the comments section here.
For any serious readers, what was the appropriate response to 9-11? Why do you think we went there? If we leave, what do you think will happen?
Absent the loons, maybe there’s a serious discussion in this somewhere.
Tom, the appropriate response to 9/11 was obviously to invade Iraq!
Wasn’t it?
Which led directly to the death of the people featured on this thread.
So I say, right move!
@nckspinelli, I love my country. I support veterans. I do not support what my country has turned into. I don’t support the never ending wars my country has been in for the last 51 years. I don’t support the corporations who make their living off of the armaments they sell to my government. I pray that my countrymen will wake up and realize they’re being played by the MIC.
@Nick Spinelli
1, December 23, 2015 at 9:52 pm
“This post attracted the Hate America ilk. I pray for the families of these brave Americans.”
Book ’em, Nicko. Anybody who doesn’t love the US Military-Industrial Complex and its wars of aggression obviously hates the continental US, its purple mountain majesties, and its 325 million people.
Have another beer.
Nick Spinelli
1, December 23, 2015 at 9:52 pm
This post attracted the Hate America ilk. I pray for the families of these brave Americans.
————————————–
May He save them from the love of those, like you, who support sending them to illegal wars then forget them when they return broken.
It’s been reported that about 8000 veterans committed suicide, in light of that, one is immoral to even utter any support for a system that sheds the blood of Americans in order to line up the pockets of the few.
This post attracted the Hate America ilk. I pray for the families of these brave Americans.
In addition to the many horrific physical wounds sustained by US veterans, those who survived combat must deal with the psychological wounds of war. The following was written by Marine Captain Timothy Kudo, a graduate student at New York University, who deployed to Iraq in 2009 and to Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011:
“Many veterans are unable to reconcile such actions [as they take] in war with the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” When they come home from an environment where killing is not only accepted but is a metric of success, the transition to one where killing is wrong can be incomprehensible.
“This incongruity can have devastating effects. After more than 10 years of war, the military lost more active-duty members last year to suicide than to enemy fire. More worrisome, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that one in five Americans who commit suicide is a veteran, despite the fact that veterans make up just 13 percent of the population. [According to the VA, 22 veterans commit suicide every day].
“While I don’t know why individual veterans resort to suicide, I can say that the ethical damage of war may be worse than the physical injuries we sustain. To properly wage war, you have to recalibrate your moral compass. Once you return from the battlefield, it is difficult or impossible to repair it. (emphasis added)
“VA has started calling this problem ‘moral injury,’ but that’s as deceptive a euphemism as ‘collateral damage.’ This isn’t the kind of injury you recover from with rest, physical therapy and pain medication. War makes us killers. We must confront this horror directly if we’re to be honest about the true costs of war.
“I didn’t return from Afghanistan as the same person. My personality is the same, or at least close enough, but I’m no longer the ‘good’ person I once thought I was. There’s nothing that can change that; it’s impossible to forget what happened, and the only people who can forgive me are dead.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-killed-people-in-afghanistan-was-i-right-or-wrong/2013/01/25/c0b0d5a6-60ff-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html
I am very sorry for the loss of these courageous soldiers. I honor their sacrifice. God bless those who serve in our military.
“If a veteran is in a tough place, are dozens, if not hundreds of programs, charities, etc that do provide support. (In the U.S. anyway.) While there may be some that slip through the cracks, overall thus country takes excellent care of its veterans.” From a Veteran with 13 years’ service.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueAskReddit/comments/3bn6mo/is_it_wrong_to_not_support_soldiers_if_you_dont/
well all the same we dont need to jingoize the armed forces mercs we dont need to insult them. they are indeed cannon fodder. i hope they understand this.
speaking of phony opposition forces, i read that Sy Hersh reports the joint chiefs shared intel iwth Assad to try and target ISIS. They must not have heard from Sen McCain about the “moderate syrian rebels.”
the dialectic is clear. the US instigates civil wars to destabilize other countries that it wants eliminated as national threats. the resulting chaos leads to failed states. US then uses false flags and mass media lies to justify invasions to corner the strategic locations and resources.
Its all here folks, written curiously before 9-11. Thank the clever Jewish american neoconservatives and their Israeli allies for helping the poohbahs foment this grand strategy to “take over the world!” Bwahahaha Darth Cheney gloats.
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=project_for_the_new_american_century
to be fair, the CIA WASP dudes had used this strategy many times before in past decades, back when they used to run the show. Snicker, snicker.
Remember what Christ said: you can’t serve both God and Mammon. That means if you don’t serve God, you will serve mammon.
“Thank an ACLU attorney for protecting your freedoms.”
“These are mercs. Calling them patriots is excessive.”
“We had to destroy the country in order to save it..”
“The way to stifle the war mongering in America is bring back the draft.”
Thank you all for these comments.
My country was not founded on the principle of fighting endless wars.
Merriam-Webster
_________
husband
noun | hus·band | \ˈhəz-bənd\
Simple Definition of husband
Popularity: Top 30% of words
1
: a married man : the man someone is married to
_________
wife
noun |\ˈwīf\
Simple Definition of wife
1
: a married woman : the woman someone is married to
@JT
“The United States lost six more soldiers in Afghanistan when a Taliban terrorist rammed a foot patrol with an explosive-laden motorbike.”
“Taliban terrorist”?
It’s unarguably tragic that six more US soldiers (bringing the deplorable total to over 2,300 since 2001) have lost their lives in Afghanistan, and so is the loss of Afghani life during the same period from the immoral and illegal bombing and invasion of their country.
“During the war in Afghanistan (2001–present), over 26,000 civilian deaths due to war-related violence have been documented;[1] 29,900 civilians have been wounded.[1] Over 91,000 Afghans, including civilians, soldiers and militants, are recorded to have been killed in the conflict, and the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may include an additional 360,000 people.[1] These numbers do not include those who have died in Pakistan.
“The war, launched by the United States as ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ in 2001, began with an initial air campaign that almost immediately prompted concerns over the number of Afghan civilians being killed[2] as well as international protests.
“With civilian deaths from airstrikes rising again in recent years,[3] the number of Afghan civilians being killed by foreign military operations has led to mounting tension between the foreign countries and the government of Afghanistan. In May 2007, President Hamid Karzai summoned foreign military commanders to warn them of the consequences of further Afghan civilian deaths.[4]
“The civilian losses are a continuation of the extremely high civilian losses experienced during the Soviet War in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and the three periods of civil war following it: 1989–1992, 1992–1996, and 1996–2001.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29
~~~
“The U.N. Charter provides that all member states must settle their international disputes by peaceful means, and no nation can use military force except in self-defense or when authorized by the Security Council. After the 9/11 attacks, the council passed two resolutions, neither of which authorized the use of military force in Afghanistan.
“Resolutions 1368 and 1373 condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and ordered the freezing of assets; the criminalizing of terrorist activity; the prevention of the commission of and support for terrorist attacks; and the taking of necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist activity, including the sharing of information. In addition, it urged ratification and enforcement of the international conventions against terrorism.
“The invasion of Afghanistan was not legitimate self-defense under article 51 of the charter because the attacks on Sept. 11 were criminal attacks, not ‘armed attacks’ by another country. Afghanistan did not attack the United States. In fact, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, there was not an imminent threat of an armed attack on the United States after Sept. 11, or Bush would not have waited three weeks before initiating his October 2001 bombing campaign.
“The necessity for self-defense must be ‘instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.’ This classic principle of self-defense in international law has been affirmed by the Nuremberg Tribunal and the U.N. General Assembly. (emphasis added)
“Bush’s justification for attacking Afghanistan was that it was harboring Osama bin Laden and training terrorists. Iranians could have made the same argument to attack the United States after they overthrew the vicious Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1979 and he was given safe haven in the United States.
“The people in Latin American countries whose dictators were trained in torture techniques at the School of the Americas could likewise have attacked the torture training facility in Fort Benning, Georgia, under that specious rationale. (my emphasis)
“Those who conspired to hijack airplanes and kill thousands of people on 9/11 are guilty of crimes against humanity. They must be identified and brought to justice in accordance with the law. But retaliation by invading Afghanistan is not the answer and will only lead to the deaths of more of our troops and Afghans.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/93473/afghanistan%3A_the_other_illegal_war
I agree with John Smith. The way to stifle the war mongering in America is bring back the draft.
If the government can carve themselves out of Obamacare, do you not think they would do the same with the draft?
Two thumbs up to Joseph Jones. If we bring back the draft and everyone’s loved one has to join, U.S. wars will end pretty quickly.
We had to destroy the country in order to save it..
and yes there is no way the US imperial regime could continue its wars of aggression if we were relying on conscription, the citizens heer would not allow it. we now have an all mercenary force. to me mercenary is not an insult, but it is an adjective. if the boot fits wear it.
JJ and DutchJim called it. These are mercs. Calling them patriots is excessive. Many of the vets I know appreciated the professional aspects of service and have no part of idiotic jingoism.
As for the lesbian, she lived like a man and died like one.