29 Aug
United States Wars, News and Casualties
United States Wars, News and Casualties
NYT: War Without End, Read Article>>
In the Vietnam era, stories like this and television reporting on the war contributed to the end of the Vietnam War in a time frame of much less than 17 years.
As deployment of the last 17 years only came to a sub set of young people, and TV and news rarely covered the searing violence of war, eschewing such content for minor content (Kardashians, Tweets, outrageous behavior), the daily violence and futility went “off stage”.
One is invited to read the daily post, “United States Wars, News and Casualties” and then watch the daily news on the U.S. TV Media.
The absence of U.S. War News is atrocious.
We need this daily report of our wars in our face………..Daily.
The McGlynn
Damn The War Criminals,Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld Wolfowitz, Powell and Blair from England.
How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.
The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.
Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry.
We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!
The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.
The McGlynn
War News
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BBC: Yemen conflict: UN experts detail possible war crimes by all parties
Coalition air strikes have caused most direct civilian casualties Reuters
Three million people have been displaced by the conflict Reuters
UN human rights experts believe war crimes may have been committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen.
In their first such report, they allege Yemeni government forces, the Saudi-led coalition backing them, and the rebel Houthi movement have made little effort to minimise civilian casualties.
They point to attacks on residential areas in which thousands have died.
The warring parties are also accused of arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and recruiting children.
The experts will present their report to the UN Human Rights Council next month………..The so-called Group of Experts note that coalition air strikes have caused most direct civilian casualties, and that they have hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and medical facilities.
The report says they “have reasonable grounds to believe that individuals in the government of Yemen and the coalition may have conducted attacks in violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution that may amount to war crimes”.
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NYT: Opinion Why Are U.S. Bombs Killing Civilians in Yemen?
The United States, by providing weapons and support to the Saudi-led coalition waging indiscriminate war in Yemen, shares in the blame.
The top American air commander in the Middle East voiced frustration in an interview last week over the murderously incompetent Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen. Though welcome, his sentiment was far too mild. It should have been more like horror — and shame over American complicity in what a new United Nations report views as criminal carnage.
Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies intervened in Yemen more than three years ago to rout Iran-backed Shiite rebels who had driven the internationally recognized government out of the capital and into Saudi exile. As the conflict has dragged on, the rebels have also been accused of atrocities, but the United Nations body and human rights groups say it is the Saudi-led air war that has done the most to turn an already impoverished country into a humanitarian nightmare and an indiscriminate killing field.
Again and again, Saudi-led airstrikes have struck civilian targets, slaughtering innumerable innocents. Last Friday, the United Nations said the coalition killed at least 22 children and four women as they fled a battle zone. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 9, a coalition air assault struck a school bus, killing dozens of children. Countless more civilians have been killed by bombs at markets, weddings, funerals — more than 6,500 by the official count, but certainly many, many more. Millions more civilians are suffering from shortages of food and medical care.
That’s the horror. The shame: The bomb that annihilated the school bus and its young passengers was American. According to CNN, it was a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb sold to Saudi Arabia in an approved arms deal — similar to the bomb that devastated a funeral hall in October 2016, in which 155 people were killed. After that, then-President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia. The ban was overturned by the Trump administration in March 2017.
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REU: Thousands of Syrians start returning to Daraya: state media
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Thousands of Syrians began returning to Daraya on Tuesday, state media said, for the first time since government forces clawed back the Damascus suburb from rebels two years ago.
People carry their belongings before being evacuated from the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya, after an agreement reached on Thursday between rebels and Syria’s army, in this handout picture provided by SANA on August 26, 2016. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
The town was one of the major centers of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and suffered massive damage during the fighting, forcing most of its people to leave.
Assad’s military and its allies regained control of Daraya after years of bitter siege and bombing. Many who did not want to live under state rule left along with rebel fighters under a surrender deal in August 2016.
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REU: Eight killed in car bomb attack at Iraqi checkpoint
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed and 12 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpoint in western Iraq, the local mayor said on Wednesday.
The attacker drove a car rigged with explosives into the checkpoint in Qaim district, which was jointly manned by the army and Shi’ite militias, mayor Ahmed al-Mehlawy told Reuters.
Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, he said.
Qaim lies 300 km (185 miles) west of Baghdad in the Sunni province of Anbar.
Mehlawy said five militiamen and three civilians were killed.
The Iraqi military put its initial death toll at seven.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Islamic State militants operate in the area.
Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December, dislodging the group from all the territory it held after its self-proclaimed caliphate, which also encompassed part of Syria, collapsed earlier in 2017.
The group’s fighters have since then waged a campaign of kidnappings and killings.
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REU: U.S., Syrian security officials met in Damascus: official, report
Beirut (Reuters) – A U.S. delegation including security and intelligence officials visited Damascus in June and met Syria’s security chief, an official in the regional alliance backing President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar reported that the U.S. delegation had held a four-hour meeting with security chief Ali Mamlouk near Damascus international airport.
Asked about the reports, two senior U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was an “ongoing dialogue with members of the Assad regime” about driving Islamic State from Syria, Damascus’ stockpile and use of chemical weapons, including chlorine, and the fate of journalist Austin Tice, who officials believe Damascus or its allies are holding………………..With military backing from Russia and Iran, Assad has recovered control of swathes of lost Syrian territory over the last two years and appears militarily unassailable.
U.S. forces have been fighting in Syria as part of the coalition against Islamic State, helping Kurdish-led militias to capture Raqqa and other parts of northern and eastern Syria.
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REU: U.N. invites U.S. and allies for Syria talks next month
GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has invited the United States and six other countries for talks in Geneva next month, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday, as the United Nations continues its push for a new Syrian constitution.
He plans to meet senior representatives from the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany, France and Egypt on Sept. 14, two days after he receives officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran for previously announced talks.
“This is going to be an opportunity to discuss the way ahead on the political process,” U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said.
A U.S. State Department official said the United States would be represented by James Jeffrey, the newly minted special representative for Syria, and Joel Rayburn, the administration’s special envoy for Syria.
De Mistura is tasked with forming a committee of Syrian citizens to draw up the new constitution, after receiving nominations from the Syrian government and the opposition.
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REU: Mattis signals U.S. to keep up support for Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military signaled on Tuesday it would continue its assistance to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, even as it acknowledged U.S. support was not “unconditional” amid mounting concern about the war’s toll on civilians.
Saudi Arabia is leading a Western-backed alliance of Sunni Muslim Arab states trying to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Iran-aligned Houthis in 2015.
The United States and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance. Human rights groups have criticized them over coalition air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.
A Saudi-led coalition air strike that hit a bus earlier this month killed dozens of children, sparking outrage from U.N. officials. Saudi Arabia has said it will investigate the attack.
Mattis dispatched a three-star general to Saudi Arabia after that incident, and told reporters on Tuesday the United States recognized such mistakes were tragic. But he added: “We haven’t seen any callous disregard by the people we’re working with.”
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36 militants killed, wounded in Ghazni airstrikes and ground operations
By Khaama Press on 29 Aug 2018 12:25pm .
At least thirty six militants were killed wounded during the airstrikes and ground operations in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast in a statement said a clash took place between the armed forces and the militants during the ongoing Nejat operations in Loya and Kochnai Arzoo areas of the province, leaving at least seven militants dead.
The statement further added that the Afghan Air Force also carried out airstrikes in Khado khel adn Mehri areas of Andar district and Maincha area of Qarabagh district, leaving at least 18 militants dead and 8 others wounded.
According to 203rd Thunder Corps, a hatchback type vehicle, a 4×4 vehicle, two motorcycles, 5 Ak-47 rifles, a rocket launcher, and two Humvee armored personnel carriers were also destroyed during the airstrikes.
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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Taylor J. Galvin, 34, from Spokane, Washington, died Aug. 20, 2018, in Baghdad, Iraq, as a result of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed in Sinjar, Ninevah Province, Iraq. The incident is under investigation.
Galvin was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Staff Sgt. Reymund Rarogal Transfiguracion, 36, from Waikoloa, Hawaii, died Aug. 12, 2018, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near him while he was conducting combat patrol operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.
Transfiguracion was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
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