19 Oct
United States Wars, News and Casualties
United States Wars, News and Casualties
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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.
Damn The WarCriminals,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 McGlynn
War News
ALJ: Iraqi security: Camps for displaced are being closed
Iraqi government closes IDP camps but there’s concern about where the people there are being sent.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reports from Baghdad.
The Iraqi government has begun closing camps for the thousands of internally displaced persons who fled their homes as a result of the war.
But aid workers say security forces are forcibly returning civilians to unsafe areas in the Anbar province.
AP: UNICEF warns against Yemen’s economic crisis, violence
CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations children’s agency says Yemen’s economic crisis and the relentless violence at a key Red Sea port city risks leaving millions of children and families without food, clean water and sanitation.
UNICEF says water and sewage services face the risk of collapse due soaring fuel prices affected by the local currency plunge.
It warned in Thursday’s statement that families are unable to afford basic food items and that the number of 18.5 million people who are unsure of where their next meal is coming from may soon dramatically increase.
The agency also says the violence in the port city of Hodeida threatens choking off essential aid. Yemen’s war has been raging for more than three years, spawning what the U.N. says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Read full story »
REU: Turkey, Russia, Germany, France to discuss Syria in Istanbul on October 27: Erdogan spokesman
ANKARA (Reuters) – A four-way summit between the leaders of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France on the conflict in Syria will be held in Istanbul on Oct. 27, the spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday.
Ibrahim Kalin said the latest developments in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province and the political process for the resolution of the conflict would be discussed at the summit, adding that the sides would aim to coordinate joint efforts, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
GUARD: Kandahar election postponed after police chief’s killing
Election commissioners recommend suspension after Abdul Raziq shot dead
Saturday’s parliamentary election in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar has been postponed for a week following the assassination of the powerful local police chief.
The national security council approved the recommendation by the Afghan electoral commission on Friday, dealing a severe blow to an election process already bedevilled by security threats as well as technical and organisational problems.
The primary target in Thursday’s attack was Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar police chief and the most influential man in the south. The Kandahar provincial spy chief, Abdul Momin, was also killed, and the governor, Zalmai Wesa, and a regional army commander, Nabi Elham, were fighting for their lives in hospital, officials said.
Raziq was a controversial figure, dogged by accusations of serious human rights abuses. Last year, the UN called for him to be prosecuted over allegations of torture and enforced disappearances.
Yet he was also considered a bulwark against insurgents, was supported by US forces and was credited with security improvements in recent years. His death risks destabilising southern Afghanistan at a time of huge political uncertainty.
Read full story »
AP: UN official: Syria has withdrawn controversial property law
GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. humanitarian aid official said Thursday that Syria’s government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled the country’s civil war, calling it a good sign that “diplomacy can win — even in Syria.”
Jan Egeland said he was told of the decision by Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Egeland also said Assad’s government has agreed to allow convoys of aid to enter the desolate Rukban area near Syria’s border with Jordan. He said the U.N. and its partners haven’t gotten access since January to the area where up to 50,000 civilians have been stuck for months, calling it one of Syria’s most “desperate places.”
Egeland, who heads aid issues in the office of U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, but whose day job is leading the Norwegian Refugee Council, also confirmed he will leave the U.N. post in November. He spoke a day after de Mistura told the U.N. Security Council that he himself is leaving for “personal” reasons.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert heaped praise on de Mistura, saying he had worked tirelessly to try to end the Syria crisis. She said his aim to “finally convene” a committee to write a new Syrian constitution in the final weeks of his tenure would mark an “important step forward in the political process.”
Speaking after a U.N. “humanitarian task force” meeting in Geneva, Egeland said Russia reiterated assurances it had made earlier regarding Syria’s so-called “Law 10? having been withdrawn. Under the law, residents have just 30 days to prove that they own property in redevelopment zones in order to receive shares in the projects, otherwise the ownership will be transferred to the local government.
The law has been seen as a major impediment to the possible return of millions of Syrian refugees and internally displaced people who fled their homes in Syria’s 7 ½-year war, which has left at least 400,000 people dead. Syrian officials have insisted the law will not result in the confiscation of property, but is aimed at proving and organizing ownership to combat alleged forgery of documents in rebel-held areas.
Read full story »
AP: Over 20,000 newly displaced people in northern Yemen
CAIRO (AP) — An international relief agency says that a new wave of displaced persons has hit a northern Yemeni city after fighting surged between forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition and their rival Houthi rebels.
Doctors Without Borders also said Wednesday that in the northern Yemeni city of Abs the agency treated over 360 civilians wounded in the cross-fire in August and September. The number amounts to nearly 40 percent of all the wounded in 2018.
The influx of nearly 20,000 newly displaced people is a result of intense battles raging in a district close to the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border called Bani Hassan, around 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Abs, the agency said.
The agency said those who make it to Abs arrive “too late for us to save their lives.”
Read full story »
NYT: Former General Says UK-US Military Cooperation Under Threat
The McGlynn: To Gen. David Petraeus BULLSHIT!
LONDON — The former commander of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan warned Friday that the United States’ military cooperation with the U.K. could be threatened by the growing use of human rights laws to target British soldiers.
Writing in the Times of London, retired Gen. David Petraeus says the European Court of Human Rights is increasingly extending domestic human rights legislation to the battlefield. This has led to British soldiers being charged with human rights abuses — sometimes decades after the events in question.
“The current ‘fog of law’ may undermine the operational effectiveness of British troops engaged in multinational coalitions,” he wrote. “The very special relationship between our two militaries, which has been built over decades of serving together in the hardest tests of battle, could be put at risk by the present situation.”
He said Britain’s fighting capacity will be reduced if it can’t reform the legal framework under which it operates.
He said the United States has not had to deal with situations such as that of Northern Ireland, which he said was marked by “the relentless and seemingly unending pursuit of veterans from the 1970s.”
“No court, and especially no international court, can force our authorities to subject U.S. personnel to the legal processes that have confronted some British soldiers and veterans in recent years,” he wrote.
Britain’s political and military establishment has expressed concern in recent years over allegations of abuse by U.K. troops in war zones. Britain’s 2003-2009 military deployment in southern Iraq, for example, spawned multiple allegations of torture and abuse.
Some of the claims have also proven to be true. Nicholas Mercer, the army’s chief legal adviser in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, said last year that the Ministry of Defense had paid 20 million pounds ($29 million) to settle 326 abuse cases.
Read full story »
NYT: A Look at Afghanistan’s Parliamentary Elections on Saturday
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan is holding parliamentary elections on Saturday despite deep security concerns and ongoing fighting in as many as 20 out of the country’s 34 provinces.
The vote comes amid a particularly vicious campaign by the Taliban and the Islamic State group, which have been staging near-daily attacks. Besides the security challenges, there have also been concerns over the transparency of the vote and for the first time, the election commission has equipped polling stations with biometric identification systems.
Here is a look at the elections, the figures and key issues in the vote:………………..
VIOLENCE AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
There have been deadly attacks against candidates and campaign rallies, both by the Taliban and Islamic States militants. Since the 20-day campaign period began, at least two candidates and over 34 civilians have been killed in such attacks, including suicide bombings, motorcycle bombs and drive-by shootings. In the run-up to campaigning, five candidates were killed and two were abducted, their fates unknown. Also, Afghan security forces accidentally killed three bodyguards of an independent candidate during a raid on a house near his residence. On Thursday, at least two senior Kandahar provincial officials were killed by one of their own guards during a meeting to discuss security ahead of the vote.
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TALIBAN WARNINGS
The Taliban, who have been fighting Afghan and NATO forces for more than 17 years, have condemned the elections and warned candidates and Afghan security forces they would be targeted. They have also warned teachers and students not to participate in the elections and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers.
Read full story »
Three suspects arrested in connection to deadly Kandahar incident
By Khaama Press on 19 Oct 2018 2:24pm .
At least three people have been arrested in connection to the deadly incident in southern Kandahar province that left the Police Chief and Intelligence Chief of the province dead.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) in a short statement confirmed that three suspects have been identified and arrested in connection to the incident.
The statement further added that the detained individuals are in the custody of the security forces and an investigation is underway.
No further details have been given in this regard and the identities of the detained individuals.
The Police Chief of Kandahar Gen. Abdul Raziq and Intelligence Chief of the province Gen. Abdul Momin Hussain Khel lost their lives in the incident on Thursday.
Read the full article…
ALJ: Assad’s strategic use of ISIL made his victory in Syria possible
The Syrian regime used groups like ISIL and al-Qaeda to undermine the opposition and seize territory.
On Sunday, Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate based in Syria’s Idlib, signalled that it might abide by the terms of a September 17 deal between Russia and Turkey to prevent a Syrian government offensive on the rebel-held province. However, only a day later, the group missed a deadline to remove its fighters from a planned buffer zone around the province set in the Russia – Turkey deal. “We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution,” HTS said in a statement.
Syrian authorities were quick to express their dissatisfaction. In a news conference on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said the national army was deployed near Idlib, ready to attack if the rebels didn’t withdraw. “After Idlib, our target is east of the Euphrates,” the minister added, referring to territory held by predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the US. His statement echoed earlier comments by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the Russia-Turkey agreement over Idlib was only “a temporary measure“, and that the province will eventually return to the Syrian state. Assad and Moallem’s comments signalling a military offensive on Idlib came despite assurances by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that no further major military actions are planned in the region.
Its vocal objection to the presence of al-Qaeda affiliated fighters in Idlib notwithstanding, the Syrian government has a long history of using groups similar to HTS – whose predecessor, al-Nusra Front, was designated a terrorist organisation by the US, the UK, France, Russia, Turkey, Iran and the UN among others – strategically to undermine the opposition and seize territory. In fact, they used such groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) chief among them, for political and military leverage quite frequently throughout Syria’s eight-year civil war.
Recent Casualties:
Color Denotes Today’s Confirmation
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operations Resolute Support and Freedom’s Sentinel.
Spc. James A. Slape, 23, from Morehead City, North Carolina, died Oct. 4, 2018, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as a result of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. The incident is under investigation.
Slape was assigned to 60th Troop Command, North Carolina Army National Guard, Washington, North Carolina.
War Casualties By Name
Iraqi Freedom >>
Afghanistan >>
Desert Storm>>
Viet Nam >>
Korea >>
Total Dollar Cost of Wars Since 2001>>
Cost of War in Iraq>>
Cost of War in Afghanistan>>
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.
Call the 24/7 Veteran Combat Call Center1-877-WAR-VETS (1-877-927-8387) to talk to another combat Veteran.DoD’s Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) 24/7 Outreach Center for Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury provides information and helps locate resources.
Call 1-866-966-1020 or email resources@dcoeoutreach.orgMilitary OneSourceCall 24/7 for counseling and many resources 1-800-342-9647.Need further assistance? Get Help with VA PTSD Care
A Walk Through Arlington
Originally Published In 2007
The McGlynn
