500: Deadly U.S. Milestone in Afghan War

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The New York Times

Not long after Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Blaskowski was killed by a sniper’s bullet last Sept. 23 in eastern Afghanistan, his mother received an e-mail message with a link to a video on the Internet. A television reporter happened to have been filming a story at Sergeant Blaskowski’s small mountain outpost when it came under fire and the sergeant was shot.

Since then, Sergeant Blaskowski’s parents, Cheryl and Terry Blaskowski of Cheboygan, Mich., have watched their 27-year-old son die over and over. Ms. Blaskowski has taken breaks from work to watch it on her computer, sometimes several times a day, studying her son’s last movements.

“Anything to be closer,” she said. “To see what could have been different, how it — ” the bullet — “happened to find him.”

For months, the Blaskowskis felt alone in watching their son die in an isolated and nearly forgotten war. And then, in June, the war in Afghanistan roared back into public view when American deaths from hostilities exceeded those in Iraq. In the face of an expanding threat from the Taliban, the conflict is becoming deadlier and much more violent for American troops, who three weeks ago reached their highest deployment levels ever, at 36,000.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/us/07afghan.html

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Farewell to Father Ethan Andrews, 9, was comforted at the burial of his father, Sergeant Andrews, by Maj. Tom Westall, at Arlington National Cemetery. Sergeant Andrews, raised on a farm in Solon, Me., had been assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron of the Air Force in Idaho.

[pansypoo53219]

1. looks like his mother.

behaves like her.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Hey, it's just a number ...

The parents who weep for their lost son or daughter, they're weeping for a number.

The children who will never know their mom or dad, well, they're just going to have to grow up without a number.

The friends and relatives of the deceased - what's their beef? So they're less one number the next time they get together.

All across America, people are grieving the loss of a number who they selfishly claim was important to them.

So a number won't ever see their baby, or watch them grow up. A number won't ever hold their spouse in the night and tell them how much they love them. A number won't show up at Christmas dinner with their family, or coach the local Little League team, or add their voice to their community's church choir. Somewhere there will be one less number to make a difference in someone's life, to be there when someone needs help, to hold out a hand to someone whose hand needs to be held.

What's the big deal? It's just a number. When are we going to start thinking in terms of real people, and not wallow in the loss of a number ... or two, or twenty, or five hundred - or more?

It's just a number.

[unhappycamper]

3. Yes, and the current

number in Afghanistan is five hundred sixty eight --> http://icasualties.org/oef/

[TaffyMoon]

4. Lot's of Canadians have died there also...