22 Sep
United States Wars, News and Casualties
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
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Friday that the fight against famine is being lost in Yemen, which is already facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with 75 percent of its 29 million people in need of assistance.
Mark Lowcock called the situation “bleak” and told the Security Council it “has deteriorated in an alarming way in recent weeks.”
“We may now be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country,” he said. “We are already seeing pockets of famine-like conditions, including cases where people are eating leaves.”
Lowcock said two recent developments threaten to overwhelm the aid operation — a “dramatic economic collapse” that has reduced the value of Yemen’s currency by some 30 percent, and intensified fighting around the Red Sea port of Hodeida, which is key to deliveries of food, medicine and other vital supplies.
The conflict in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Houthi Shiite rebels, which toppled the internationally recognized government. A Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed over 10,000 people and sparked a cholera epidemic.
Lowcock said that during the first six months of this year, the United Nations and humanitarian groups provided assistance to more than 8 million of the most vulnerable Yemenis who don’t know where their next meal will come. That is a dramatic expansion from 2017, when food was reaching 3 million people a month.
Because almost all Yemenis rely on imported food, Lowcock said, the currency depreciation “translates directly into a sharp increase in the price of food for some 10 million Yemenis” who aren’t getting enough food but aren’t part of the aid operation. There has also been an “unprecedented increases” in the price of fuel, he said.
In addition, Lowcock said, intensified fighting in recent weeks around Hodeida is “choking the lifeline” for getting aid to those in need.
GENEVA — Saudi Arabia and allied states balked at efforts to renew work by U.N.-backed “eminent experts” investigating human rights violations in Yemen, setting up a possible diplomatic showdown with some Western countries over scrutiny of a 3-1/2-year war that has killed thousands of civilians and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The standoff comes just three weeks after the experts issued a scathing report saying the governments of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could be responsible for war crimes amid fighting between a Saudi-led coalition that supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government and Shiite rebels aligned with Iran, known as Houthis.
Before a late Thursday deadline at the Human Rights Council, the “Arab Group” led by Tunisia floated a resolution calling for “capacity building and technical assistance” to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, but no extended mandate for the experts……………….The coalition, which has received military hardware and support from the United States, Britain and France, has been criticized for airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties.
Dozens dead, state media says, after two gunmen open fire on Revolutionary Guard in Ahvaz
Gunmen have attacked a military parade in the south-west Iranian city of Ahvaz, killing 24 people and wounding 53, state media has said.
The IRNA news agency reported that the wounded included a woman and a child.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, blamed regional countries and their “US masters” for the attack and said Iran would “respond swiftly and decisively in defence of Iranian lives”. He said children and journalists were casualties in the attack.
In the tweet, Zarif said the gunmen were “terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime”. He did not immediately elaborate. However, Arab separatist groups have previously attacked oil pipelines in the region.
Earlier reports on Saturday described the assailants as Takfiri, a term previously used to describe Islamic State.
The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said two gunmen on a motorcycle wearing khaki uniforms carried out the attack.
Police in the Shirin Tagab district blamed the Taliban for planting a mine in the area, which fell into the group’s control last week.
The children were playing near a police station when the explosion happened, witnesses said.
They are said to be aged between six and 12 years old.
Afghan outlet Tolo News reports that two of the wounded have lost limbs. They were taken to hospital in a critical condition.
There has been no comment from the Taliban.
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey will soon conduct joint patrols with U.S. forces in the strategic northern Syrian town of Manbij, once a stronghold of the Islamic State group, a top Turkish official said on Friday.
The announcement came as Turkey’s Defense Ministry said in a Friday statement that the borders of Idlib’s demilitarized zone were determined in a meeting with their Russian counterparts during a three-day meeting.
This week’s agreement between Russia and Turkey to set up a demilitarized zone around Syria’s northwestern Idlib province to separate government forces from rebels averted a government offensive on the last major opposition stronghold in the country.
The Syrian government and Turkey-backed opposition groups welcomed the Russian-Turkish agreement, which calls for setting up the demilitarized zone by mid-October. Jihadi groups, including al-Qaida-linked fighters, rejected the deal saying they will not withdraw from the demilitarized zone.
Ibrahim Kalin, Turkey’s presidential spokesman, said Turkish armed forces and intelligence agencies were coordinating with their Russia counterparts to determine how to remove terror groups from the demilitarized zone, or “pacify” them.
He said all necessary steps would be taken to ensure no terror elements remain in the area or near Turkey’s border be it “through persuasion, by pacifying, or other methods.” Kalin added that the goal is to protect civilians in Idlib as well as the moderate opposition to ensure they are part of the political process to resolve the Syrian crisis.
PUL-I-KUMRI, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents killed so many Afghan security forces in 2016, an average of 22 a day, that by the following year the Afghan and American governments decided to keep battlefield death tolls secret.
It’s much worse now. The daily fatalities among Afghan soldiers and policemen were more than double that last week: roughly 57 a day.
Seventeen years after the United States went to war in Afghanistan, the Taliban is gaining momentum, seizing territory, and killing Afghan security forces in record numbers.
Last week was especially bad, with more than 400 killed, according to an account by diplomats. But even the average numbers in recent months — from 30 to 40 a day, according to senior Afghan officials — represent a substantial upswing from two years ago and appear unsustainable in a country that has been shattered by decades of war.
Relatives mourning in Baghlan Province last month next to the coffins of police officers who were killed in a Taliban attack.CreditReuters
The growing losses have made recruiting fresh soldiers more important than ever, but also harder than ever. Most days at the Afghan Army’s recruitment center in Helmand, the southern province that has seen the war’s worst fighting, there are only two or three applicants, said Abdul Qudous, the center’s head.
“Sometimes we don’t see any recruits for weeks,” he said. “People don’t want to join the army any more because the casualties are too high.”
This is not just a matter of lives lost, which reverberate through families already traumatized by decades of war. It is also a sign that the stalemate between the Taliban and government forces is tipping in the insurgents’ favor. Throughout this year, the Taliban have owned the initiative against government forces who have been spread thin and rooted to the defensive. The security forces have repeatedly had to call on the small American contingent here — and its considerable air power — to rescue them from trouble.
By Khaama Press on 22 Sep 2018 12:01pm .
Several children were killed or wounded in an explosion triggered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
According to local security officials, the incident has taken place in the vicinity of Kohsar area in Sherin Tagab district.
The district criminal investigation department chief Ghulam Ali confirmed the incident and said at least seven children were killed and four others were wounded in the explosion.
However, another source says at least eight children have lost their lives in the explosion and six others have sustained injuries.
No individual or group including the Taliban militants has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident.
By Khaama Press on 22 Sep 2018 11:09am .
Unknown gunmen attacked a military parade in southwestern Ahwaz city of Iran amid fears the attack has left several people dead or wounded.
The incident took place earlier today as the Iranian forces were marking the anniversary of the beginning of 1980-88 war with Iraq.
There are no are no reports available regarding the exact number of people killed or wounded during the attack.
Iran’s ISNA news agency reports that the attack was carried out by two gunmen riding a motorcycle who fled the area after opening fire on the armed forces.
the Iranian officials are saying at least 9 soldiers were killed in the attack and at least 20 others including a child were wounded.
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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Bolyard, 42, from Thornton, West Virginia, died Sept. 3, 2018, of wounds sustained from small arms fire in Logar Province, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.
Bolyard was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, Fort Benning, Georgia.
Care for Veterans:
PTSD: National Center for PTSDPTSD Care for Veterans, Military, and FamiliesSee Help for Veterans with PTSD to learn how to enroll for VA health care and get an assessment.
All VA Medical Centers provide PTSD care, as well as many VA clinics.Some VA’s have programs specializing in PTSD treatment. Use the VA PTSD Program Locator to find a PTSD program.
If you are a war Veteran, find a Vet Center to help with the transition from military to civilian life.
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