The U.S. Army has released new statistics indicating a record number of suicides occurred in the month of June. (click title to entry - thank you)
C0IN is not a legitimate strategy to any war. It causes conflict within the soldier. Any soldier should have a 'clear strategy' and that is not happening. I am not blaming anyone in the military, not even the Secretary of Defense. COIN was a 'last chance effort' for a failed war strategy to allow a President to stay in office. It was a 'think tank' answer, not one centered on the mental health of soldiers. The military has simply been doing its job. It is time to speak truth to power. The soldiers need to come home.
...NATO says five of its troops have been killed in improvised-bomb attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Three soldiers died in separate attacks Saturday, and NATO officials said a single explosion killed two others on Friday.
Two of the casualties were British troops fighting in Helmand province; two others were identified as Americans, and NATO did not disclose the nationality of the person killed in the third fatal bombing on Saturday.
Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (or IEDs), are a major cause of troop deaths in Afghanistan....
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Four-NATO-Troops-Killed-in-Afghanistan-98662424.html
...U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves Washington Saturday on a week-long, four-nation, trip to South and East Asia. She will attend the Kabul conference aimed at shoring up the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.
Clinton will join foreign ministers from dozens of countries from around the world including neighboring Iran at the Kabul conference.
It is the largest international meeting in Afghanistan since the 1970's and is intended to generate support for Mr. Karzai's plans to build security and good governance, and reintegrate reconcilable elements of the Taliban into government security forces.
The United States has supported the Afghan leader's effort to try to draw from the battlefield Taliban members who renounce violence and pledge allegiance to the government, but it has been less enthusiastic about efforts at talks with senior Taliban leaders....
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Clinton-Beginning-Trip-to-South-and-East-Asia-98634329.html
The Obstructionist Republicans. Our troops are just part of the 'NO Agenda' for the RNC.
...If Congress doesn’t act on the fiscal 2010 request for supplemental war funding, Defense Department employees may not get paid, Morrell said during a news conference.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is disappointed that Congress did not pass the supplemental spending bill before its Fourth of July break, Morrell told reporters.
“He’s very concerned about the predicament that puts us in,” he said. “And in order to assure that war operations are not interrupted, the services will now have to begin cash-flowing operating costs for war activities using their base budgets.” This means that the services will begin borrowing money from fourth-quarter accounts to pay for current obligations, but even that won’t be enough, he added.
“We project that certain Army and Marine Corps accounts will run dry in August,” Morrell said. “So we urgently need Congress to pass the supplemental before members leave town for the next break in August.”
In the meantime, he added, the department is obligated to begin planning what to do if Congress does not pass the spending measure. “Needless to say, all of this is extraordinarily disruptive to the department,” he said....
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=60024
