5 US-led soldiers killed in Afghan war

What I'm asking for is real, I'm asking for all those patriots to come pial up and tell me if they have the guts to go and tell the families of these individuals who have been sacrificed for nothing, to go and tell them their kids, their dads, their brothers, their sisters, their aunties, their uncles, their cousins, their moms have been sacrificed for absolutely nothing.

Those patriots who scream Sempa fi, or what ever damn they call it, I dare you to go to the five families and tell them the cause which these people died for.

Can anyone handle it?

Is there anyone who still believe it is Osama bin Laden? Is there anyone? Come forwards.

"Five US-led soldiers have been killed in an attack on an Afghan army base in eastern Afghanistan amid a surge in attacks against foreign troops in the country."

Source

Saturday's causality brings to 125 the number of NATO-led soldiers who have been killed since the beginning of this year in Afghanistan.

Source

This is just the beginning of the fighting season. I'm asking all those patriots in ATS who brag about soldiers sacrificing their lives for what ever reason in Afghanistan to volunteer, to tell the families of those sacrificed soldiers for the causes their kids, their moms/dads, their husband/wives, their brothers/sisters, their cousin/nieces died for.

Don't forget to record it and post it on ATS.

I'm sick of their fake patriotism, they need to be real and actually do something based on their patriotism. The time is now, I ask all of them to take this challenge, the fighting season is coming up, take your stance, either fight, or do the least, be the messenger.

Ok, but tell us why? Why should we???? All the people that are over there now have CHOSEN to be in the Armed Services. Nobody put a gun to their head, and made them join. Unlike when my old man was in Vietnam, and the Section he lead consisted of him (a Corporal, hence him being a Section Commander, and Regular Army), his 2IC (a Lance Corporal, also Regular Army), and the other 8 being national servicemen (conscripts). And from what my old man has told me, the last month they were in Vietnam, he did ALOT of things to protect his men, which could have gotten him at least 10-15 years in a Military Prison, just because he didnt want guys that didnt chose to be there, killed.

So please, OP, why should we feel sorry for those that were sent overseas when they chose to join the services VOLUNTARILY, and they are now dead??? Yes, I feel sorry for those that have died overseas whilst in service, and I respect their decision to join, because I have seen what going to a war can do first hand, but please, inform me why the hell it us up to US to go and inform the families, when we didnt force them to join????

reply to post by TerribleTeam2


I'm asking those who defend these wars, hence patriots.

I'm sick of them defending these wars, but not doing anything, not even having the guts to volunteer in informing the families of the deceased.

It angers me, why defend the un-defend-able...

The reality is, you have NO CLUE why each soldier fights. Are you so naive to believe every soldier is fighting for OUR freedom or government? Let me let you in on a little piece of information since you obviously haven't interviewed too many soldiers...

We fight for our own personal reasons.

Also, I have told my Aunt how my cousin was killed in Iraq. He died doing what most people like yourself who have no balls will never do. He fought for what he believed in.

Originally posted by TerribleTeam2
Ok, but tell us why? Why should we???? All the people that are over there now have CHOSEN to be in the Armed Services. Nobody put a gun to their head, and made them join. Unlike when my old man was in Vietnam, and the Section he lead consisted of him (a Corporal, hence him being a Section Commander, and Regular Army), his 2IC (a Lance Corporal, also Regular Army), and the other 8 being national servicemen (conscripts). And from what my old man has told me, the last month they were in Vietnam, he did ALOT of things to protect his men, which could have gotten him at least 10-15 years in a Military Prison, just because he didnt want guys that didnt chose to be there, killed.

So please, OP, why should we feel sorry for those that were sent overseas when they chose to join the services VOLUNTARILY, and they are now dead??? Yes, I feel sorry for those that have died overseas whilst in service, and I respect their decision to join, because I have seen what going to a war can do first hand, but please, inform me why the hell it us up to US to go and inform the families, when we didnt force them to join????

I don't think it's so much the fact that these guys have chosen to be over there, more why are they over there. Are you seriously suggesting that everyone signs up in order to be part of an occupation force? I would suggest that the majority sign up in order to defend their country if required, but not part of an occupation force.

How many of the people who make the decision to remain in Afghanistan have sons or daughters on the front line? These are lambs to the slaughter, trying to protect some damn oil/gas pipe and keeping the the supply of poppy's going.

I found a photo today of how these pawns are transported to the dusty hell that is Afghanistan.

reply to post by LoverBoy


Exactly LoverBoy. There are those out there that have no idea, but will still rail against EVERY Servicemember, no matter how many facts are put in front of them, and no matter what they claim to "know" is proven wrong.

I call to disregard these types, and take each Servicemember on their own merits. Simple as that.

Originally posted by LoverBoy
The reality is, you have NO CLUE why each soldier fights. Are you so naive to believe every soldier is fighting for OUR freedom or government? Let me let you in on a little piece of information since you obviously haven't interviewed too many soldiers...

We fight for our own personal reasons.

Also, I have told my Aunt how my cousin was killed in Iraq. He died doing what most people like yourself who have no balls will never do. He fought for what he believed in.

Tell us what he believed in, please do tell us.
I have been waiting to hear what patriots like you have to say, and here is my chance.

reply to post by Cobaltic1978


No, I am CERTAIN that the majority of them don't chose to join to be part of an Occupying Force, but the fact is, EVERY SINGLE SOLDIER HAS LAWS TO PROTECT THEM. And that includes what constitutes an Invading Force, etc. They could have denied going in, and based their arguments on Military Law, and the Geneva Conventions, but they didn't. And yes, I am putting Aussie soldiers in this too. I don't like the fact that they went there because of "Little" Johnny Howard, the gutless wonder, but they had the choice, which was backed up by law, and the chose NOT to use the laws to get themselves in situations they shouldnt have been in. Harsh, I know, and hard because you are trained to follow the rest of your Battalion, but EVERYONE has a choice. Simple as that.

reply to post by P3ACE0WAR


We both believed in taking a tyrant away from power. Someone who slaughtered thousands of innocent women and children. Everyone lived in fear. We were treated like kings from Iraqi women and men whom we saved. We provided these people with new homes, markets, and shopping centers. We fought for what we believed in and you will never be able to take that from anyone.

Were not patriots, were soldiers. Understand now?

Not only a muzzie appologist but a key board tough guy, wow, who would have thought?
I served, and am proud of my service, something you'll never be able to take away from me, or be able to say you did. Enjoy your comforts and your ability to spout nonsense..........you're welcome. If you're not an American, be sure and thank a service member from your country.........

Originally posted by LoverBoy
reply to post by P3ACE0WAR

 

We both believed in taking a tyrant away from power. Someone who slaughtered thousands of innocent women and children. Everyone lived in fear. We were treated like kings from Iraqi women and men whom we saved. We provided these people with new homes, markets, and shopping centers. We fought for what we believed in and you will never be able to take that from anyone.

"March 19 marks the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a nation that had no weapons of mass destruction and was not involved in the 9/11 attacks.

It was sold to the American public as a war to defend our nation and free the Iraqi people.

US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz said our soldiers would be greeted as liberators and that Iraqi oil money would pay for the reconstruction.

Vice president Dick Cheney said the military effort would take "weeks rather than months". And assistant defence secretary Ken Adelman predicted that "liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk".

Eight years on, it's time to look back at that "cakewalk".

4,400 US soldiers lost

More than 4,400 Americans have died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq – more than the 3,000 killed on 9/11.

Over 32,000 US soldiers have been seriously wounded, many kept alive thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. But those numbers don't tell the half of it.

Stanford University and Naval Postgraduate School researchers who examined the delayed onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) found that by 2023 the rate of PTSD among Iraq war veterans could rise to as high as 35 per cent.

And for the second year in row, more soldiers committed suicide in 2010 than died in combat, a tragic but predictable human reaction to being asked to kill – and watching your friends be killed.

Bankrupting the nation

In 2008, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University's Linda Blimes put the cost of the Iraq war at roughly $3tn, or about 60 times what the Bush administration first said the invasion would cost.

While a staggering figure, Stiglitz and Blimes now say that their estimate "was, if anything, too low".

In an update published last fall in The Washington Post, they note that the war not only drove up the federal debt, but helped drive the skyrocketing oil prices that contributed to the crashing of the global economy.

According to the National Priorities Project, the money the US government spent destroying Iraq could have provided annual salaries for 12.5 million teachers or paid the annual healthcare costs for 167 million Americans.

When elected officials tell us our nation is bankrupt, we should tell them to bring our war dollars home.

Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis

The people who have suffered the most from the Iraq "cakewalk" are Iraqi citizens.

For an invasion sold as an act of liberation and of "profound morality" by propagandists like Jeffrey Goldberg, the US and its allies sure managed to kill a staggering number of those they were liberating.

The organisation Iraq Body Count (IBC) has documented at least 99,900 violent civilian deaths as a direct result of the US-led invasion.

But that's an extremely conservative estimate based largely on deaths reported in Western media, an approach bound to undercount the massive death toll from the invasion.

Indeed, as WikiLeaks revealed last October, the US government covered up the violent killings of more than 15,000 Iraqi civilians – killings that weren't reported by any Western paper which amounted to roughly 20 per cent of IBC's official count at the time.

Unfortunately, the number of dead Iraqis is likely a lot higher than IBC's count.

A 2006 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University published in the Lancet medical journal found that in just over three years there were 654,965 "excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war", with Iraq's death rate more than doubling due to gunfire – the leading cause of mortality – as well as lack of medicine and clean water.

Then a 2008 analysis by British polling firm Opinion Research Business estimated "that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003".

Power still out

Thirteen years of bombings and sanctions crippled the infrastructure and basic services of what was once a wealthy country.

Then came the 2003 invasion, which destroyed electrical plants, sewage systems, water treatment facilities, hospitals and more.

Eight years later, the living conditions in Iraqi are worse than under Saddam Hussein, with the country plagued by a continued lack of electricity, clean water, medical care and security.

Iraqis wonder why - after the most powerful country in the world invaded and spent billions on reconstruction - they are still living in the dark.

Millions fled their homes

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, since 2003 "more than 4.7 million Iraqis have fled their homes, many in dire need of humanitarian care" – hardly an endorsement of life in the "liberated" nation.

Many Iraqis fled to Iran, Jordan and Syria, while roughly 1.5 million fled to other parts of Iraq, the majority of whom "have found no solutions to their plight", according to the UN.

In the aftermath, millions will never be able to return.

Forced into prostitution

Women in Iraq have been particularly hit by the invasion and occupation. The Iraqi government estimates there are up to 3 million widows in Iraq today.

Meanwhile, violence against women – including honour killings, rape and kidnapping – has increased, forcing many to remain at home and limiting employment and educational opportunities, according to a new Freedom House report.

"A deep feeling of injustice and powerlessness sometimes leads women to believe that the only escape is suicide," the report notes.

Many Iraqi women who fled to neighbouring countries have found themselves unable to feed their children.

Just to make ends meet, tens of thousands of them – including girls 13 and under – have been forced into prostitution, particularly in Syria.

"From what I've seen, 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," one refugee told The New York Times. "If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."

Poisoning Iraqi society

The US military dropped thousands of bombs across Iraq laced with depleted uranium, the radioactive waste produced from manufacturing nuclear fuel.

Valued by the military for its density and ability to ignite upon impact, depleted uranium bombs continue to kill years after they've been dropped.

In Fallujah, which was bombarded more than anywhere else in Iraq, British researchers uncovered a massive increase in infant mortality and rates of cancer, with the latter exceeding "those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," according to The Independent.

And it's not just Fallujah facing a cancer epidemic. Al Jazeera reports that in the central Iraq province of Babil, reported cancer cases rose from 500 in 2004 to 7,000 in 2008.

And in Basra, the last 15 years have seen childhood leukemia rate more than double, according to a study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health.

Trading one strongman for another

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. Yet his worst crimes, including the 1980 invasion of Iran, came when he was backed by the US government, which was well aware of his penchant for torture and extrajudicial killings – talents American officials were fine with as as he was slaughtering Iranians.

Now, his US-backed successor, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, is torturing and killing those who speak out against his rule. All he hasn't done is invade that other, not-yet-liberated member of the "Axis of Evil".

Inspired by the mass actions that took down US-backed strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to protest the al-Maliki government – only to be greeted with live ammunition.

On February 27, more than 29 protesters, including a 14-year-old boy, were gunned down by the Maliki-run security forces in Iraq.

Meanwhile, four journalists in Baghdad report that they, along with hundreds of protesters, were "blindfolded, handcuffed, beaten and threatened with execution" for being insufficiently pro-regime.

The charges of abuse come after WikiLeaks revealed further evidence that Maliki has been using the power of the state – and Shia death squads – to torture and murder his political opponents.

Life in the new Iraq isn't a whole lot different than life under Saddam. Given the protests sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, it seems invasions and foreign military occupations just aren't as effective as nonviolent protest at promoting reform.

Recruitment ad for al-Qaeda

When it wasn't completely sold as a humanitarian mission, the Bush administration cast the war on Iraq as a response to the 9/11 terror attacks, scaring the American public into submission with vials of faux-anthrax and concocted tales about Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda.

Yet, as US intelligence agencies recognised after the invasion, "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse", in the words of one American official.

Indeed, there was no better recruitment ad for terrorists than the images the Bush administration and its allies providing foreign troops who were destroying Iraqi society.

And there's no better way to create a committed enemy than to kill someone's family - or in the case of Abu Ghraib, to humiliate and torture – sometimes to death – an innocent loved one.

Rewarding war criminals

Once you get past all the rationalisations, the invasion of Iraq was just like any other war. It necessitated teaching young men and women to believe that it's morally acceptable to take kill.

And a 2007 army investigation spurred by the massacre of two dozen Iraqi civilians in Haditha said as much.

"Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as US lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes," wrote Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell in the report.

People typically don't want to kill other human beings. They must be conditioned to dehumanise the enemy and believe that murdering is not just okay - but also just.

Basic training involves destroying a person's ability to empathise with the "other" for the good of the nation (or rather, its rulers). But that ability doesn't just suddenly reemerge when the war is over. And unfortunately, that's evidenced by the alarming incidents of domestic violence committed by returning veterans.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq continues to affect lives after veterans of the war rejoin civilian life as police officers and husbands, as foremen and fathers. The lesson that violence is an acceptable means to achieve one's ends is not one soon forgotten.

But violence isn't just legitimised at base camp; it's legitimised by the Obama administration's failure to hold accountable those who took the country into an illegal war of aggression.

Those war criminals – the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and Karl Rove – are all enjoying successful book tours and reaping hefty speaking fees, while the man who allegedly exposed war crimes, Bradley Manning, is behind bars being tortured.

There's a lesson there – one that doesn't speak well for our system of government. And it suggests that our political establishment will continue to drag us into wars of choice in the future. After all, they won't be fighting or paying the consequences of combat.

On this shameful anniversary, let's not forget that despite president Obama's promise to leave Iraq, the US still has 50,000 troops there, thousands of private mercenaries and dozens of military bases, with generals not-so-subtly hinting at a permanent presence.

We should demand the president close those bases and bring the troops home. We should prosecute those responsible for sending them. And we should apologise to the Iraqi people for the misery the US government has wrought.

The damage of war has been done. But the US must begin making amends to Iraq by leaving."

english.aljazeera.net...-169654591

reply to post by LoverBoy

"Also, I have told my Aunt how my cousin was killed in Iraq. He died doing what most people like yourself who have no balls will never do. He fought for what he believed in."


yes normal people dont have the balls to bust into a home of an innocent and shoot up women and children for nothing, then take pictures to hold onto for trophies. i have a cousin that visited from his little trip overseas and it disgusted me when he took out pictures and started bragging about all the slaughtered people. what kills me most is that he went from one of the sweetest kindest kids i know and now i see him as a monster. its so inhuman and sickening. im sorry to hear ur cousin died and im sure his reason for fighting was a damn good one to him. but just because soldiers have the balls to do it doesnt mean they are doing it right. if they were they most likely still wouldnt be fighting out there. seems to me they may be making it worse...but it IS their decision to go and fight for no reason at all.

Yeah, cause we know all US troops do that..............
Seems generalizing comes easy to muzzie apologists.............something they absolutey hat ewhen discussing their political system, um, excuse me "religion".



As a point to the OP...........seems those families might ought to be upset with the muzzies that killed them, rather than the US. You know, the ones who actually caused their deaths.

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
Yeah, cause we know all US troops do that..............

Seems generalizing comes easy to muzzie apologists.............something they absolutey hat ewhen discussing their political system, um, excuse me "religion".

Your racist comments resembles the actions of this American soldiers, he probably thought the teen was merely a Muzzie, and therefore deserved to get raped and her family deserved to get massacred.

A 21-year-old American soldier — later discharged for a mental disorder — has been charged with raping a 15-year-old girl, then shooting and killing her — along with her mother, father and young sister. Josh White of The Washington Post tells Madeleine Brand about the incident.

www.npr.org...

reply to post by P3ACE0WAR


The political group known as muslims isn't one race, but label away....it's truey showing your own bias and bigotry. Of course all US troops do this everyday in your mind huh? Shall we explore the rape, murder, tortue and beheadings performed by some of these animals following the "religion" of peace, or do you have an excuse for that as well? I mean, we don't even have to use innocent foreigners as examples, how about other muzzies treated this way........see to some, it would seem it's all they know.

reply to post by adifferentbreed

so what ur saying is two wrong DO make a right? because they do it to us we should do it to them....now ur just playing like children fighting over a toy. even kids nowadays have better sense than that. defend it all you want ur just a different breed of their flocking sheep....baaaaaaaaaa.

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
reply to post by P3ACE0WAR

 

The political group known as muslims isn't one race, but label away....it's truey showing your own bias and bigotry. Of course all US troops do this everyday in your mind huh? Shall we explore the rape, murder, tortue and beheadings performed by some of these animals following the "religion" of peace, or do you have an excuse for that as well? I mean, we don't even have to use innocent foreigners as examples, how about other muzzies treated this way........see to some, it would seem it's all they know.

Please spare me your Muzzie racist comments, unlike you who regard all Muslims as animals, I don't think Americans are bad at all, I simply have absolutely no shred of respect for your government. I'm not racist, nor am I prejudice. I don't hate Christians due to some rapists who molested little kids, I don't hate Americans due to the over 100,000 rapes which occurs every year, those are problems which exists in every human civilization, but I surely don't think Americans are animals.

Sorry mate, I'm not racist, nor prejudice.

I don't know what kind of a person you but if I was an American, I surely wouldn't want you to be one.

Originally posted by onetd4u28
reply to post by adifferentbreed

 

so what ur saying is two wrong DO make a right? because they do it to us we should do it to them....now ur just playing like children fighting over a toy. even kids nowadays have better sense than that. defend it all you want ur just a different breed of their flocking sheep....baaaaaaaaaa.

When did I say two wrongs make it right?

I don't even know which one of my post you are replying to. US troops are in Afghanistan, an invading force, those American kids are dying for absolutely no reason, kids who are too poor to survive in the harsh capitalistic society therefore misused by the military, and recruited then fed B.S. to go and kill people who they don't even know.

I want patriots who defend the cause for these wars to go to the parents of these kids and tell them there kids are dead, and also tell them why.

I'm sick of the B.S.

reply to post by P3ACE0WAR


Info

If you act like an animal, Ill look at you like one.