American Troops in Afghanistan.

[SIMPLYB1980]

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/05/american-troops-in-afghanistan/

"(AP) – Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said Sunday.

The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war. President Barack Obama has invited a bipartisan group of congressional leaders to the White House on Tuesday to confer about the eroding war in Afghanistan.

The meeting comes at a pivotal time as the war is about to roll into its ninth year. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration would brief leaders from both parties and key committee chairmen.

The debate over whether to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan is a major element of the strategy overhaul that senior administration policy advisers will consider this week as they gather for at least two top-level meetings on the evolving direction in the war."


During a patrol with U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, Navy Corpsman HM3 Nicholas Rudy, of Oakwood, Ohio, applies a dressing to an Afghan boy’s injured foot, at the request of the boy’s father, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[laststeamtrain]

1. Caption Contest.

"Look up. Look down. Look at my thumb. Gee, you're dumb."

"Here's a band-aid kid but excuse me I have to go kill your family now. See ya."

"Hey look, my thumb looks just like Dick Cheney."

[SIMPLYB1980]

3. Having fun?

US Marines from Fox Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines guard an Afghan man found traveling with nearly 50 lbs of Opium on his motorcycle during a routine patrol in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on September 28, 2009. The US Marines subsequently searched the mans house netting a discovery of approximately 200 lbs of opium in total. (DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images)

[SIMPLYB1980]

4. "Law and Order is hard work"

But we do have allies.

U.S. Marine squad leader Sgt. Matthew Duquette, of Warrenville, Ill., with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, right, seen with an officer of the Afghan National Civil Order Police during a joint patrol in an area frequented by Taliban militants, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[lazer47]

5. Why don't you try and make fun of somebody other than,

A Combat Medic,, they save more lives than you ever will,,

[SIMPLYB1980]

6. Thank you.

:patriot:

[laststeamtrain]

7. Because I didn't want to. n/t.

[SIMPLYB1980]

8. "Supplies FTW!"

This Sept. 17, 2009 photo shows Special Forces soldiers moving to claim bundles of supplies dropped from a plane as the parachutes billow in the breeze near the town of Nili in Day Kundi province, Afghanistan. The team is among only a few U.S. troops to live among Afghans, but there will likely be more. The hope is to push Special Forces teams into villages throughout Afghanistan, giving them the mission of rebuilding and training Afghan police and soldiers rather than hunting insurgents. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

[laststeamtrain]

9. "Sufflex ZQY!"

Ying yang heliotrope bird shit doodah ringo zipper lounge chair. The skull glare of Venus is on the half-shell.

Your posts are going over my head. I probably should be glad for that.

Here's an interesting idea: More & more Americans are starting to realize that the military establishment is the biggest 'welfare queen' that ever existed.

If we cut the military budget & ended corporate welfare we'd have money to rebuild the infra-structure of the USA.
You know, no more bridges falling into rivers during rush hour, for instance?(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge)

Or universal health care, like all the other industrialized nations have.

Support the troops. Get them home. Being pro-foreign adventurism is just dumb.

[SIMPLYB1980]

10. "Don't worry I won't let the terroists kill you and your family."

U.S. Marine Pfc. Travis Preciado, of Oregon City, Ore., with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, sits with Afghan children during a patrol in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[laststeamtrain]

11. Thanks, buddy. Back at you.

If non-interventionists like me prevail there'll be far fewer terrorists.

Then we'll raise tariffs on imported goods...,etc.

The real terrorists are on Wall St. Everybody knows that (unfortunately not true. Some of us know that, though).

It'd be cool to see the Marines roust some board rooms, shoot 'em while they run, as Jr. Walker put it.

[SIMPLYB1980]

12. "Taking a break from killing babies"

:sarcasm: Does that caption meet your approval?

Inside a small patrol base, U.S. Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, play cards the morning after a night patrol, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
:patriot:

[proteus_lives]

17. Have fun calling a combat medic a murderer.

Asshole. :puke:

[laststeamtrain]

21. What good does calling me an asshole do, you dumb sack of shit? n/t.

[SIMPLYB1980]

23. Take a look at your sig pic.

Oh the irony!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[proteus_lives]

32. I'm simply calling it like I see it.

You made an asshole statement and you're acting like a asshole.

Your defensiveness indicates you know I'm right.

[SIMPLYB1980]

2. ...

Following a firefight with Taliban militants, a U.S. Marine searches a home as his squad checked for signs of their enemy while also working to establish a friendly rapport with local residents in a contested area of Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. A joint patrol of Marines and Afghan Army came under fire from Taliban militants, but leaving no U.S. casualties. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

[Orwellian_Ghost]

13. Geez

I thought this stuff went away with John Wayne. You still believin' this crap?

The US Troops are there for the pipelines and to protect/further the interests of global capital. Don't believe it? Watch where they go when the dust settles. Why do they end up with other "security forces" right on the energy corridors?

[SIMPLYB1980]

14. LoL! It's my favorite hater.

:patriot: :popcorn:



An Afghan child is vaccinated against polio during a polio eradication campaign in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2009. Around 7.7 million Afghan children are going to be vaccinated in a three days of a polio vaccination drive, launched by Afghan Health Ministry with the cooperation of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund in the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) #

[Orwellian_Ghost]

15. How about a post

where the cowboys arrive to save the village in white hats.

[SIMPLYB1980]

16. O.K.

[proteus_lives]

19. "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPR108kwNo4

[SIMPLYB1980]

20. +100

:patriot:

[proteus_lives]

18. Screw the haters 1980.

Some people are determined to eat ashes and wear sack--clothes.

Despite the overall confusion about where the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is going, US troops still can do good on the ground level.

:hi:

[bigtree]

26. just asserting that the 'troops can do good'

. . . is no substitute for a sound military policy. Troops can 'do good' in many other places outside of Afghanistan, but this administration and others have shied away from committing them for 'good' reasons. In the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, it has been shown, repeatedly, by intelligence agency reports and others that there is a counterproductive effect to the mere presence of American troops in the region, much more of one from their offensive activity against whatever population the military defines as 'enemy'.

This post (and others similar) is an insinuation that DU has something against the troops other than their offensive mission. That's proven to be a crock so many times here as to make any debate over it boring and redundant. So the poster cares for the troops - So do most folks protesting their deployment to Afghanistan.

So the poster believes they are 'protecting us'. The poster has yet to outline in any coherent way just what they are supposed to be protecting us from in Afghanistan. The military has admitted that 'al-Qaeda' has been routed from the country for years. Most observers don't view the Taliban as any significant threat to the government there.There is a legitimate argument that there isn't anything in Afghanistan which threatens the U.S., any more that any other 'threat' which may exist to the U.S from 'al-Qaeda' anywhere else in the world (Sudan, Somalia, New Jersey etc.)

The poster has yet to explain why it it's essential to our national security that our military forces remain in Afghanistan.Even if that argument had been made by these photos and captions provided, there is a credible counter argument favored by a majority of Americans that our nation has no business (or need, or constitutional right) in pushing Afghans around with our military to effect that security. A majority has said that they don't even believe in the effectiveness of such a strategy. It's interesting to see the same sort of fearmongering from this Afghan war supporter that we were treated to from the last bunch in the WH. It would be nice if the poster would make the case about this 'threat' perceived while acknowledging the merits of the ongoing counter-debate over the escalation.

These anecdotal portraits from the conflict don't reflect any of that at all. It's fine to have a supporting point of view, but it shouldn't be assumed that everyone in disagreement with the mission there is somehow against the troops. To me, the most effective way to support them would be to pull them back from a flawed mission, instead of just assuming that their competence in battle is the end-all-beat-all to the debate over the efficacy of the mission they've been tasked with.

[TwilightGardener]

22. Thanks for the pics. Vast, vast majority of our troops are good people.

[SIMPLYB1980]

24. Yes they are and I appreciate all they do for us.

:thumbsup:

Edited to add.


During a firefight with Taliban militants U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan Christie, of Washington, Ind. with 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines sprints down an irrigation canal to a location to launch his rocket in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. Taliban militants attacked the Marines on patrol using assault rifles, medium machine guns, and snipers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) #

[L0oniX]

25. Hmmm ...all this time I thought our military was designed to kill and blow up stuff.

I had no idea they are humanitarian. Oh yea ...I was born yesterday too!

[SIMPLYB1980]

27. They have been humanitarians for a long time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade

"The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first such crisis that resulted in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under their control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city.

In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. The over 4,000 tons per day required by Berlin during the airlift totaled, for example, over ten times the volume that the encircled German 6th Army required six years earlier at the Battle of Stalingrad. The United States Air Force, Royal Air Force, and other Commonwealth nations flew over 200,000 flights providing 13,000 tons of food daily to Berlin in an operation lasting almost a year.<1> By the spring of 1949, the effort was clearly succeeding, and by April the airlift was delivering more cargo than had previously flowed into the city by rail.

The success of the Airlift was humiliating to the Soviets, who had repeatedly claimed it could never work. When it became clear that it did work, the blockade was lifted in May. One lasting legacy of the Airlift is the three airports in the former western zones of the city, which served as the primary gateways to Berlin for another fifty years."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCeFe6qrUA2J6TpqBUjMoyp8nthAD9B60VOO0

PADANG, Indonesia — The U.S. military is ramping up aid to victims of a deadly earthquake that made hundreds of thousands homeless on Sumatra island — its largest relief operation in Muslim-majority Indonesia since the 2004 tsunami.

Two Navy ships were expected to arrive Wednesday or Thursday, along with a USAID flight with 50 tons of emergency relief, said U.S. Rear Adm. Richard Landolt. A supply ship has also been cleared to begin operations with four helicopters large enough to carry 30-40 people or equipment to areas that cannot be reached by land, he said.

The expansion of the U.S. mission, with as many as 600 troops, comes as efforts shift from the search for survivors to providing relief to villages that have been cut off by massive landslides generated by last Wednesday's magnitude-7.6 quake.

[SIMPLYB1980]

28. "The Germans Are Coming"

German soldiers partol in Mazar-i-Sharif on October 16, 2009. More than 4000 German troops are serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanstan. (MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images) #

:hide:

[SIMPLYB1980]

29. "Better to see it than Ignore it."

A horse-drawn caisson carries the remains of Army Capt. Ronald G. Luce, Jr., who was with 20th Special Forces Group, walking behind is widow Kendahl Shoemaker, and daughter Carle E. Luce, during funeral services at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. Luce, 27, of Fayetteville, N.C., was killed Aug. 2 by a roadside bomb in Qole Gerdsar, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) #

[SIMPLYB1980]

30. "Suicide bombers kill there own people"

Rescue workers recover a body at the scene of a suicide bombing on October 8, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The explosion left 12 people dead and over 60 injured during what local authorities say was a targeted attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. (David Goldman/Getty Images) #

[SIMPLYB1980]

31. "Helping to heal"

Why do terrorist kill their own people? I think they are cowards.

Haji Abdul Hamid rests after his physical therapy session using his new prosthetics at the Handicapped International clinic inside the Mirwais hospital compound October 11, 2009 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Haji lost both of his legs from a IED blast along a road in Helmand over a year ago. He was injured while riding on his motorcycle along with his brother-in-law who was killed. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

[SIMPLYB1980]

33. Kick for the hell of it.

:patriot: