United States casualties in Afghanistan top 1,500

That's kind of the boat I'm in as well. And Memorial Day kind of brought it all to light with me...went to a local Vietnam Memorial for the service they have every year in my town. I wonder if, 40 years down the road, they are going to have little memorial parks and statues for this military action we are currently in.

As for the Vietnam service in my town (town of about 5,000 people). Every year it seems like the crowd gets smaller and smaller...both those that come for the service and the vets that come to honor their brothers. I wish people could put down the barbeque tongs for an hour or so and come out to pay their respects.

 

I think with the economy in the state that it's in, the war has taken a back seat. It only seems to make the news when a local gets killed.

I have so much respect for the troops over there, but I'm at the point where I wonder if we're doing any good over there anymore.

 

Good friend of mine did two tours (both in Iraq). He used to be the kind of guy that would do anything for you...one of those quiet guys you knew you could count on if you were having problems. Now he just wants everyone to leave him alone. He has PTSD, I have no doubt about it. He can't sleep and his marriage is falling apart (and he and his wife's first baby is due in September) and the government's response has been a shame. They gave him the name of a counselor he can go to and a check for $17,000. It was kind of like "Thanks for your service, here is some money." Meanwhile the guy cannot sleep in the same bed as his wife because he throws punches in his sleep.

 

Yeah right. I bet you still own your 60's protest sandals. It's a discussion on web site. We are not at a Memorial Day service with protest signs.

It's time to bring the troops home. The escalating total of deaths is not a sign that I want to see.

With comments like this it's time to leave Karzai on his own:

"President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said Tuesday that if airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties continue, “we will be forced to take unilateral action.”

 

I didn't say I didn't like it then. I feel as if people in the media (and others, such as you) treat casualty counts like rushing yardage or RBI, or use milestones related to numbers of deaths as a club to promote your point of view. It's deplorable to me either way.

 

Once upon a time, that was referred to as cutting and running. I wonder what changed.

 

Maybe the history of Viet Nam and the 58,000 who did not come home.

 

If you are that shallow and ignorant, nothing I can say will change your mind. But I would love for you to show me where I have used the number of U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq of Afghanistan like "rushing yardage" or "RBI." I am promoting no point of view, just discussing this on the day and the day after on which it is most appropriate to discuss. Not everyone plays these games like you. The only thing deplorable is your jumping in this thread and throwing around unfounded accusations with impunity. How is this, show your work. Let's see my using these numbers as mere statistics. I said that 1,500 really affected me for some reason, and not because it is an arbitrary number...but because that is 1,500 families without a loved one there to eat their friggin hot dogs and hamburgers with them. And for you to come on here and make a statement like that is cowardly.

 

I'm happy about that, and I'm not suggesting that we haven't done any good, but I think we have more important things to worry about right now.

Things are never going to be OK over there. We could probably justify having troops over there for the next couple decades, but we're not in a position to be able to police the world anymore.

 

I seem to recall Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and nearly every GOP politician using "Cut and Run" in an awful lot of speeches around 2003-2004.

It was almost ridiculous. You'd read a report on a speech they would give, and the report would always include those three words.

 

I would like to see our troops come home and all resources put to rebuilding Joplin and Tuscaloosa.

 

Well, that "good" we've done won't mean much if we pull out and the Taliban promptly sweeps back into power. All the gains we've made over the last decade could easily be swept away in the blink of an eye if Karzai's forces can't fight off the Taliban on their own, and everything I've read indicates they're not even close.

And this war ending with those fuckers re-taking the country would be viewed as the greatest victory for Radical Islam in ..well, EVER. Much of the world would take it as proof that they can beat the mighty American war machine. God only knows how many radicalized recruits from around the world that news would draw. God only knows the impact that news could have on internal politics of other Middle East countries with a simmering radical elements.

Maybe we should just pack up and go home. But people advocating that position need to be clear about what it likely means. It doesn't mean things stay the way they are now, it doesn't even necessarily mean they go back to how they were in 2001, it means they could easily get worse than ever before.