(6)Nato troops killed in Afghan push

[maddezmom]

Source: Al Jazeera

Nato troops killed in Afghan push



Mohammad Golab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, says the Nato-Afghan offensive has been '"successful" so far

Six Nato soldiers have been killed on the sixth day of a military offensive to gain control of a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

Thursday's deaths brought the number of allied troops killed since the joint Nato-Afghan offensive started last week to 11 Nato troops and one Afghan soldier.

The joint offensive in Marjah is the biggest since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and is being seen as a test for the strategy of Barack Obama, the US president, for reversing the rise of the Taliban while not harming civilians.

A US general said international forces had gained control of the main roads and markets in Marjah but fighting has raged elsewhere in the southern farming town.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201021925143887757.html

---

Nato casualties heavy in Marjah offensive
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6754b44a-1d2e-11df-b12e-00144feab49a.html

[Soylent Brice]

1. K&R

[MindandSoul]

2. Why is it that we say "NATO" troops, but American soldiers???

I assume that by saying "NATO" troops, it means that the soldiers that were killed were not American???
Usually, when they are Americans the media makes sure everyone knows. . .Am I wrong?

Personally, I'd like to know the nationality of ALL troops killed in the war! It might take away the mistaken belief that ONLY Americans are fighting this war!

[rabs]

3. One of the troops killed this week was from the Navajo Nation

Marine from Navajo Nation killed in Afghanistan
Feb. 18, 2010 06:30 PM
Associated Press

WINDOW ROCK - A Marine from the small Navajo community of Rock Point, Ariz., has died in Afghanistan.

The remains of 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Alejandro Yazzie arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Thursday.

The Defense Department says Yazzie died on Tuesday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. That's the site of a major offensive by U.S. and Afghan forces against the Taliban.

He was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

A spokesman for the Navajo Nation president says 11 Navajos serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan have been killed.

Tribal officials say Yazzie was a 2004 graduate of Rock Point High School and is survived by his parents, three brothers, a sister and his grandmother.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

-----------------
There was also a military funeral in Santa Fe yesterday for an Albuquerque soldier who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan a few days ago. He was 20 years old.

[MindandSoul]

7. Thank you for that information! I think the dead soldiers deserve to be recognize individually

for who they are, not just as a "team" member!

[TexasObserver]

4. Recommend, with commentary.

Sometimes I go for days unable to think about this war. I try to make myself look at it, though, as much as it reminds me of my bitterness and sense of futility as the Vietnam war dragged on after we knew it was a lost cause that never should have been.

The only things these two wars have done are:

*kill thousands of American soldiers, and maim tens of thousands of them

*kill hundreds of thousands of citizens of other countries, many of them non hostiles

*destroyed the infra structure of one country

*created mercenaries funded by the US government and answerable to no one

*alienated Muslims worldwide

*cost us trillions of dollars we didn't have and couldn't afford

*given the war party a chance to test their new war materiel

[Arctic Dave]

5. I agree with you. In the end, this entire endeavor will mean nothing to no one

except for the people in the broken countries we left behind in a vengeful rage.

[TexasObserver]

6. Think of the lingering anger of defeated Confederates.

It's been almost 150 years since the South was defeated by the Union in the Civil War, and even though the South's action was effectively "home terrorism" and maintained to perpetrate a culture that was socially deficient, the descendants of such domestic terrorists often retain the bitterness of the long since invaded and defeated.

Even people who were in the wrong resent being invaded and occupied, and those of Afghanistan and Iraq are no different. We have created a wedge between the US and Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rank stupidity, as foreign policy goes.