Re-reported, compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
Holiday casualties, costs, critics and loss; obstructionists, deniers, debaters and liars ─ U.S. theaters of WAR
Casualty sites reporting
April 4, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 159] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 1 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,775 – 104,481, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,387 U.S., 4,705 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,034 U.S., 1,713 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
Who permits and who prohibits criticism?
Who is allowed to criticize and who is protected from criticism?
War costs
Warmongers’ kin
Roughly, 120,000 foreign troops occupy Afghanistan, a figure scheduled to reach close to 150,000 by year’s end. U.S. deployment by the summer will have risen from about 34,000 personnel when Obama took office last year to 100,000, according to Al Jazeera reports at the end of March and start of April.
Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops have launched a massive offensive in southern Afghanistan. This is the largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan total approximately 113,000. Another estimated 40,000 troops will descend on Afghanistan in the coming months.
March 29, 2010
Afghanistan
U.S. president Barack Obama during a six-hour surprise visit last Sunday in Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai and called on that country to crack down on corruption and promote the rule of law.
March 31, 2010
Afghanistan
Seventeen people died and 45 suffered injuries on Wednesday when a bomb concealed on a bicycle exploded in a crowded village market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand where farmers had gathered to receive free seeds from government officials. Eight children were among the casualties.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
An estimated five Afghan troops died on Friday in the northern Kunduz province when German soldiers opened fire on Afghans attempting to support other troops involved in heavy fighting with suspected Taliban. A German central command statement confirmed the incident on Saturday. Three German soldiers had been killed when forces on a bridge-building, mine-clearing mission had been ambushed by around 200 Taliban fighters. Since 2001, 22 German soldiers have died in the fighting in Afghanistan, 138 suffered wounds. Fifteen thousand German troops are on the ground; amidst German citizens’ resistance to sending more troops to Afghanistan, 800 or more are scheduled to be deployed. A German general has said that the NATO force in Afghanistan was planning, for later this year, an offensive against the Taliban in Kunduz.
April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged on Thursday that there had been widespread fraud in his country’s most recent presidential and provincial council elections, but “‘Afghans did not do this fraud,’” he said; “‘the foreigners did this fraud.… Foreigners will make excuses [and] do not want us to have a parliamentary election… They want parliament to be weakened and battered and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective.’”
Karzai singled out Peter Galbraith for having organized the fraud and fed details to the international media in an attempt to blacken his name. The United Nations allegedly dismissed Galbraith after he criticized the UN for failing to do enough to combat voter fraud in Afghanistan. Karzai’s accusatory comments on Thursday, following U.S. President Barack Obama’s accusations of Afghan corruption, prompted angry reactions from Afghan rivals and international diplomats. In a telephone call on Friday with the U.S. Secretary of State, Karzai reportedly explained remarks accusing foreign diplomats and the United Nations of organizing massive fraud during last year’s presidential election.
April 4, 2010
Afghanistan
United States forces in Afghanistan are planning, for later this year, a major military attack on Kandahar. This Taliban-controlled province is home to more than two million people. Al Jazeera reporter David Chater travelled to Kandahar to hear what people think about the planned U.S. military operation. His report found “Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive.”
April 4, 2010
Iraq
Thirty people died and 224 suffered wounds when a series of three car bombings occurred today close to Iranian, German and Egyptian embassies across Baghdad. Hours before Sunday’s blasts, Iraq’s Green Zone, hosting many international agencies and government buildings in the capital, came under mortar fire. Outside Baghdad, more casualties occurred: three people died and 25 suffered wounds when a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul. Alleged targets were Law enforcement.
April 5, 2010
Pakistan [update]
More than 30 people died and 100 suffered wounds today when a series of bombs exploded across Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Bombs went off first at a political rally in the Lower Dir district town of Timargarah, then near the U.S. consulate in the main city of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar.…
Pakistani Taliban representative Azam Tariq, announcing his group’s responsibility for the attack in which six people died, said, ‘Americans are our enemies …We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks.’ Four attackers and two security people died in that attack.…
Pakistan’s intelligence agency headquarters at Peshawar, close to which security forces today were reported firing their weapons, had been bombed in November of 2009…In the past three years, more than 3,150 people have died in bomb attacks in Pakistan.
April 2, 2010
Pakistan
Pakistan’s attorney-general Anwar Mansoor resigned on Friday over what he termed the government’s obstruction of Supreme Court orders to investigate the president for corruption.
The country’s parliament is currently debating a piece of legislation that will reduce the presidency to a ceremonial role. Submitted to parliament’s lower house (or the national assembly) on Friday, the bill aims to transfer powers from President Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The measure known as the 18th Amendment Bill is, according to Gilani, “‘unprecedented’” in Pakistan history. The legislation seeks to reverse constitutional changes adopted by former military ruler (President) Pervez Musharraf.
April 2, 2010
Palestine
Claiming to be responding to rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli planes and helicopters on Friday launched a string of air attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the wounded were three Palestinian children. Palestinian medical sources reported at least seven missiles targeted various sites in Gaza. Hamas blamed the Israelis for escalating tensions. Four Friday air attacks destroyed two caravans near the town of Khan Younis; a fifth missile hit and set on fire a cheese factory in Gaza City; the head of Palestinian emergency services in Gaza reported that the Palestinian children hit by flying glass were ages two, four and 11.
Two Israeli soldiers and two armed Palestinians died in clashes when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza. On Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager died when Israeli troops fired on protesters near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.
Sources and notes
“Obama urges progress in Afghanistan,” March 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201032816319310458.html
“Afghan farmers die in suicide blast,” March 31, 2020, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201033173331654531.html
“German troops kill Afghan soldiers,” April 3, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010437573466607.html
“Karzai calls Clinton on fraud charge,” April 3, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201043448184706.html
“Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/04/201044132439731261.html
“Baghdad hit by deadly triple blasts,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104483114169984.html
“Bill seeks to curb Zardari’s powers,” April 2, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104284045747391.html
“Israeli air raids wound children,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042155550920415.html
“Deadly blasts rock Pakistan,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010458464129649.html
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