Remembering Afghanistan: In honor of the soldier I had a discussion

[izzybeans]

with today, I want to ask this question, since it was his biggest concern. Do we know what is going on in Afghanistan?

Frankly, I see limited information on the war currently. The soldiers there are starting to sense that war is forgotten. For instance I have no clue how many soldiers have and are dieing there. What is the nature of the conflict now? I'm not sure.

[enigma000]

1. Afghanistan has passed from public interest

Its been supplanted by news from New Orleans, and Texas, and Iraq. Not to mention trouble in Gaza, German elections etc. etc.

I catch some information from antiwar.com

As well, I found a good blog or two at:

http://www.blogsofwar.com/hot_spot_afghanistan

Or for a more combat oriented view:

http://www.militaryspot.com/afghanistan.htm

Hope this helps.

[izzybeans]

5. Right, but his concern was that when he asked his classmates

what was the biggest issue in the past five years, not one of them said Afganistan. Several mentioned 911 and then Iraq, but they were conflating what he believes to be the real war on terror is with Iraq. He didn't understand it. I didn't have the heart to tell him about the propaganda his classmates had been force fed while he was away.

[DrDebug]

2. Afghanistan has been forgotten

231 died in Afghanistan and 583 wounded ( http://icasualties.org/oef/ )

As gathered from wiki and some googling:

Number of troops (some figures are 5-6 months old, so it may have changed)
US: 18,000
Canada: 2,500
United Kingdom: 1,800
Germany: 2,250
Australia: 300 SAS
and many other countries with unknown number of troops according to wikipedia.

All in all at least 25,000 troops.

Civilian deaths: 20,000-50,000 (Guardian). US press says less than 2,000

Current state: Continued unrest in the rural areas. Warlords managed to gain control of the areas outside of the capital and running it in feudalistic manner. Opium production is back to pre-Taliban levels again, so that's the only success upto now.

[izzybeans]

3. Forgotten is correct. This gentlemen lost 35 members in his

unit. I was shocked and he stood firm, 35. He was there for onlyu 6 and 1/2 months and I would say is showing early signs of PTSD.

I told him, well it goes to show how important the war on terror must be, not very...and he just shrugged his shoulders. It was heartbreaking to talk to this guy. He just wanted people to remember if only for a moment. So I asked his question here. I got two responses. In the 2 or so hours since I posted this. Sign o' the times.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I don't know any details on it., but when people bring up

"the war in Iraq" I always add "and Afghanistan".

[DrDebug]

8. Compared to the other tragedies it's the smallest

I'm sorry to hear that he lost 35 of his friends. A couple of days ago we had a similar talk about Haiti. It is a forgotten war as well. There are undoubtly many more conflicts which have been neglected and forgotten.

Afghanistan is far away. We can't relate to that country. It might as well be on a different planet. Don't blame the rest for overlooking it, because more than 300 are going to die in the next day in Texas and people's hearts are with them, because they can relate to them.

A lot of soldiers will return with PTSD, because a war is not just physical it is messing up your mind as well. Just like we are being messed by just observing it in the forms of letters, they are getting the full dose by images. Remember the people of Afghanistan as well. Sure it was a chaotic country.

Sure you wouldn't like to be there, but also remember that during the 60s and 70s it was known as a very friendly country and the visitors were greeted with open arms. That was before the wars started to destroy it and polarized the people and the religion. The last 25 years the country has been hell on earth. And only because some politicians in countries far away wanted to play a proxy war...

This quote is for Bush, since he calls himself a Christian:

"Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
- Matthew 25:40

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. Not forgotten by those who

use other sources than MSM, but a person has to be interested & actually hunt for information. I haven't seen anything on the nightly news for ever except for the election.

best

[enigma000]

7. Its a forgotten front a vast war

First Afghanistan, then Iraq, tomorrow Syria?, next year Iran? I can't see this stopping anytime soon - not in this Presidential administration or even the next.

In WWII there were campaigns that were off the radar: Burma, North Africa, Yugoslavia. These were overshadowed by the grand battles on the Eastern Front, the invasion of Normandy & the aftermath, the Pacific War.

The Afghan campaign has been forgotten but all but a few.