Mullen expects casualties to rise in Afghanistan

[The Straight Story]

Mullen expects casualties to rise in Afghanistan

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – The nation's highest-ranking military officer told soldiers and Marines Monday that the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown in the last three years and he expects casualties to rise next year as additional U.S. troops pour into the war.

"This is the most dangerous time I've seen growing up the last four decades in uniform," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told about 1,000 Marines at Camp Lejeune.

Many attending Mullen's talks at Camp Lejeune and Fort Campbell, Ky., will be sent to Afghanistan in President Barack Obama's plan announced last week.

After the first of the year, the Marines will begin sending an additional 6,200 from Lejeune and Camp Pendleton, Calif., the Pentagon announced Monday. The Army will also begin sending in the first of its forces in the spring — a training brigade with about 3,400 soldiers from Fort Drum, N.Y. Three brigades from Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division are also heading to Afghanistan and about 4,100 support forces from various places will deploy early.

"We are not winning, which means we are losing and as we are losing, the message traffic out there to (insurgency) recruits keeps getting better and better and more keep coming," Mullen said. "That's why we need the 30,000 and in particular, and you are the lead on this, getting in there this year, over the next 12 months, almost in lightning bolt fashion."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091207/ap_on_re_us/us_us_afghanistan_mullen

[polly7]

1. I think the more the Afghani people realize what this occupation is about, the worse it will get.

Just like Iraq.



"We have strategic interests in South Asia that should not be measured in terms of finite times," said Gen. James L. Jones, the president's national security adviser, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're going to be in the region for a long time."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/07

and ......... way down at the bottom:

Administration officials on Sunday were also asked about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Qaeda network and the reason that the United States entered the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

Mr. Gates said it had been "years" since the United States had had reliable intelligence about Mr. bin Laden, but he said it was still the assumption of American intelligence agencies that he was hiding in North Waziristan, in Pakistan. General Jones said that Mr. bin Laden was believed to cross the border into Afghanistan occasionally, but he gave no further details about American assessments of his location.

[ashling]

2. In other words,

this is a black hole

[spanone]

3. d u h

there is nothing to win admiral. nothing.

[unhappycamper]

4. No shit? Really?

American deaths in Afghanistan by (December) year:

2001 --> 4
2o02 --> 8
2003 --> 1
2o04 --> 2
2005 --> 4
2o06 --> 4
2007 --> 9
2o08 --> 27
2009 --> 4

http://icasualties.org/oef/

[spanone]

6. ...

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year

Year US UK Other Total
2001 12 0 0 12
2002 49 3 17 69
2003 48 0 9 57
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 302 100 87 489
Total 932 237 367 1536

[doc03]

5. Of course they will, the casualties went up in Iraq

immediately following the surge and they also went up following the earlier surge in Afghanistan this year. If you take the fight to the enemy you will get more casualties than if you stay hunkered down in a bunker. The casualties went up when we invaded Normandy, imagine the casualties we would have had if we would have invaded Japan. The Russians weren't too happy with us sitting in England while they lost 30 million people and of course our casualties went up when we invaded Normandy.