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Where Do You Think Our Troops Are Tonight?
by James Glaser
I was searching the web looking for information about casualty reports from Afghanistan, and was surprised with what I found on the Department of Defense web page. You can look for yourself at www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf and see what I found. The Defense Department gives figures of casualties from both Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom. That second one would be Afghanistan. What caught my eye was in the fine print after the casualty tables. Operation Iraqi Freedom includes casualties that occurred on or after March 19, 2003 in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Operation Enduring Freedom (Other Locations), includes casualties that occurred in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen. I had no idea that we were taking casualties in this many countries and by the way, where the heck is Seychelles? Troops in Kenya and Ethiopia? I guess our American media has been dropping the ball when it comes to covering our troops overseas. Just how would you feel if your son or daughter was killed defending America in a place like Djibouti or Eritrea, and no one even knew we were in a war there? |
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