US forces in Afghanistan ‘should expect up to 500 casualties a month’

US forces in Afghanistan should brace themselves for up to 500 casualties a month this year, a senior retired American general has warned.

The forecast comes from General Barry McCaffrey, formerly the most decorated general in the US Army, who has conducted field assessments of the US military performance in Afghanistan at the request of the US military since 2003.

His assessment projects that US forces can expect to lose between 300 and 500 soldiers a month, either killed or wounded, this year, rising to a peak during the summer months. US military casualties during 2009 were 305 killed and 2,102 injured up to December 20. More than half of those injured have not been able to return to service.

(read full article here)
www.timesonline.co.uk...

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Absolute insanity!! Has anyone figured out why we are occupying Afghanistan....

Is this occupation to protect our freedoms or is it to protect the poppy fields...

I was watching c-span the other day and they had a journalist follow a group of soliders in a mountain division group around a village they were positioned in. There was no fighting at all. All they did was take surveys on farming production. One part they had was there were a bunch of soliders and civilians in a mosque and they were talking about a bomb that went off a few days earlier next to the mosque and the top ranking officer said that his soliders are not going to do anything about it unless the civilians helped them out finding the person that did it. They all basically said no and dont really care. Everyone just threw up their hands and said f it pretty much. I dont really know whats going on over there anymore.

reply to post by rainfall


It doesn't have anything to do with YOUR freedom. Your freedom is more under attack from your Government i.e Patriot Act, Legal system. The Taliban are not attcking the troops to hit America directly, they are trying to force them out to impose their will on and control the Afghani people i.e Islamic Law.

A loss at that rate would obviously cause alot of political strife for the Obama administration. The U.K can expect to lose alot of troops as well putting more pressure on Brown and any succsessor administration to pull out.

I envisage a Vietnam equlivent situation. The U.S, U.K and other NATO forces will pull out claiming they have built up the forces of the Afghanis sufficiently, and 6 months later the Taliban will sweep the country and regain control.

The U.S/U.K will put up with it as there will be a tacit agreement that terrorists will not be harboured there. And any that do will be attacked by the Taliban and information on them will be passed on to western intelligence agencies, to launch their own attacks.

reply to post by rainfall


500 - so we just sit casually by and see that figure?

That is 500 PEOPLE DEAD PER MONTH.

So, are you still sitting and thinking "oh well"??????

I am appalled.

And I am appalled at warfare and I am sick and tired of it.

500 a month equals 6000 a year. I dont really see how anyone can support this. What progress have we made? Higher casualties is one. Thats about all. Oh and making more people angry at the us. Those 2 things are the only progress Ive seen. Definantly not the good type of progress either. I guess the goverment calls this succesful progress. Might as well just do what the white house says.

I have seen this General talking before and he generally seems to know what he is talking about most of the time. Having said that, he is way off on his estimate of 500 killed per month IMO. It will not happen, forget it, not possible for the US to lose that many per month in Afganistan.

What it the highest death toll for the US in one month since 2001? I am sure the average is 25 or so. So magically it will jump to 500? That is just crazy talk.

You know, 1 death is 1 too many - be it American or foreign That is a lot of people grieving.

End war now.

Originally posted by learningtofly
reply to post by rainfall

 

500 - so we just sit casually by and see that figure?

That is 500 PEOPLE DEAD PER MONTH.

So, are you still sitting and thinking "oh well"??????

I am appalled.

And I am appalled at warfare and I am sick and tired of it.

I am appalled that the idiot soldiers just keep following these insane orders..
When are these spineless blind grunts going to say, NO MORE...

No more occupying and terrorizing foreign countries that had nothing to do with what the Bush/Cheney criminal cabal got away with on 9-11...

When are the soldiers going to say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH....

reply to post by rainfall


omg, rain, I am crying here.

The soldiers cannot help it - it is the fault of the government - those people who sit back there, and do not care about people dying.

That is the US government.

reply to post by learningtofly


Hi learningtofly,

Sorry that you're crying but that fact is that if the soldiers would say I'm not going to do this illegal stuff anymore, the war would come to an end..

Don't blame tptb for the deaths of the troops....the troops are just as much responsible.

500 dead in a month ROFL. That's a skirmish.

At the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, over 6,500 people were killed over a 76 hour period on an island of just ONE SQUARE MILE. An entire Marine division was bled white. THAT is war. Afghanistan is a mere training exercise.

reply to post by ChrisF231


I couldn't agree more! Plus, although we may not agree with the reasons why we are at "war", we are and have to face that fact. And the # 1 result of war? Death + Injury (whether physical or psychological). You can't expect to send troupes to a conflict and not have casualties... It's simply impossible.

Far be it from me a rank newbie here to bring sanity to this discussion, but there is a great deal of selective reading going on here. Nobody, the general included, is suggesting that there will be 300-500 deaths a month. If you read closely it says"up too 500 casualties" and further along "lose between 300 and 500 soldiers a month, either killed or wounded". Key words here being "either killed or wounded". Furthermore, if you take 2009's casualty rate, which according to the article is 305 killed and 2,102 wounded, for a total of 2,407 casualties, and divide that by the number of months, you get a casualty rate of about 200 per month. We are talking a pretty significant increase at the high end, but again that represents total dead or wounded. If you take the average monthly deaths for 2009, which is about 25, and then increase it by the factor mentioned in the article, you are talking 37-62 or so deaths a month. This is certainly a high number, but several orders of magnitude less than 300-500!

Originally posted by Common Sense says...
What it the highest death toll for the US in one month since 2001? I am sure the average is 25 or so. So magically it will jump to 500? That is just crazy talk.

Casualties /= deaths.

They said half the casualties will not be able to return to battle. So half the casualties are probably not life threatening if treated prompty. The rest are more serious, tramatic brain injuries, loss of limb, lost an eye etc.

Perhaps 10% of the casualty number will be deaths.

reply to post by rainfall

I am appalled that the idiot soldiers just keep following these insane orders..
When are these spineless blind grunts going to say, NO MORE...

Is it really necessary to insult the troops my friend?

You expect our troops to unilaterally decide that the order to go to war is unlawful, to rebel against the government that gave them that order.

Based on what grounds?

Originally posted by rainfall
I am appalled that the idiot soldiers just keep following these insane orders..
When are these spineless blind grunts going to say, NO MORE...

I am appalled at what you are saying about our soldiers. I bet most of them have more integrity and love of their country than you do, regardless of the situation they have been put in. I wish it could be arranged that you are locked in a barrack full of the "spineless blind grunt" spec-ops for an hour or two and lecture them on how they suck.

Originally posted by jam321

Is it really necessary to insult the troops my friend?

You expect our troops to unilaterally decide that the order to go to war is unlawful, to rebel against the government that gave them that order.

Based on what grounds?

Sorry jam,

I guess you're right.....they should keep following orders to kill innocent people.....I mean, they're only doing their job......what was I thinking.

Originally posted by rainfall
I guess you're right.....they should keep following orders to kill innocent people.....I mean, they're only doing their job......what was I thinking.

Innocent people? You consider the Taliban innocent people? Great care, almost too great in my opinion, is taken by American forces to avoid killing innocent people. The Taliban certainly doesn't care about killing innocent people. If you consider the Taliban "innocent people" then I suggest you move to Northwest Pakistan and try living under their regime and see how you like it.

reply to post by rainfall


Maybe you are right. But tell me on what legal grounds should US forces refuse to listen to their commander in chief?

they should keep following orders to kill innocent people.....I mean, they're only doing their job......what was I thinking.

Are you just as passionate when terrorists kill innocent people?

The first 6 months of 2009

Insurgent roadside bombings and suicide bombings were blamed for 595 deaths or 59 percent of the casualties. In many cases, civilians were killed during attacks on occupation military targets. American and NATO forces drive convoys through residential areas and have established bases inside Afghan towns and villages in order to prevent them coming under the direct control of the Taliban.

The occupation forces killed 310 of the civilian deaths recorded by UNAMA, or 30.5 percent. “Unknown” or unconfirmed parties were held responsible for the remaining 108 fatalities, or 10.5 percent.

www.wsws.org...

Originally posted by triples

If you consider the Taliban "innocent people" then I suggest you move to Northwest Pakistan and try living under their regime and see how you like it.

I would love to move to Pakistan but seems the U.S. troops are slaughtering innocent people there too....

www.abovetopsecret.com...