Posted on 09/11/2013 2:37:46 AM PDT by markomalley
Twelve years ago today, nineteen al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners and flew them into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
In the war that Congress authorized against al Qaeda only three days after that attack, the vast majority of the U.S. casualties have occurred in the last four and a half years during the presidency of Barack Obama.
In fact, according to the CNSNews.com database of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, 73 percent of all U.S. Afghan War casualties have occurred since Jan. 20, 2009 when Obama was inaugurated.
On Sept. 14, 2011, Congress approved a resolution authorizing the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
By October 2001, U.S. forces were engaged in Afghanistan, seeking to remove al Qaeda from the sanctuary it had used there to launch the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.
Since then, most of the leaders and participants in the 9/11 terrorist attacks have been killed or captured. But the United States not only remains at war in Afghanistan, it continues to suffer significant casualties there.
In total, 2,144 U.S. military personnel have given their lives fighting in and around Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
1,575 of the U.S. military personnel who have sacrificed their lives in this cause were killed during the presidency of Barack Obama.
That means 73 percent of the casualties in the Afghan War have happened on Barack Obama’s watch.
Under President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2008, 569 U.S. military personnel were killed in and around Afghanistan fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom.
So far this year, during the twelfth year of the Afghan War, 91 U.S. military personnel have given their lives in Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense reported 17 casualties in May and 18 in June--the two deadliest months for U.S. troops in Afghanistan so far this year. Typically, the summer months from June to September are the deadliest for U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.
Among the 91 U.S. casualties reported so far this year, all but 9 have been combat-related.
During the now 12-year-long Afghan War, the four deadliest years for U.S. troops were also the four years of Obama’s first term.
Total U.S. Combat Deaths in Afghanistan
2001: 5
2002: 30
2003: 31
2004: 49
2005: 94
2006: 87
2007: 111
2008: 151
2009: 303
2010: 497
2011: 494
2012: 294
2013: 91 (From Jan. 1, 2013 to Sept. 10, 2013)
Obama also has presided over the top five deadliest months of the war, which include: August 2011, when there were 71 deaths; July 2010, when there were 65 deaths; June 2010, when there were 60 deaths; October 2009, when there were 58 deaths; and August 2010, when there were 55 deaths.
On Feb. 17, 2009, less than a month after taking office, President Obama announced the deployment of 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, fulfilling his campaign promise to shift U.S. military forces to Afghanistan.
During a speech to cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA), at West Point, on Dec. 1, 2009, President Obama announced an additional increase of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. The president stated that “it is in our vital interest” to send the additional troops.
The CNSNews.com database of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan is based on official Department of Defense casualty announcements, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) information and media accounts.
With the exception of four U.S. military personnel who died in ships supporting missions in Afghanistan and 12 who died in Pakistan, the database does not include U.S. military personnel supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in other areas of the world.
(Operation Enduring Freedom’s main battlefield is in Afghanistan but it includes smaller military operations in the Philippines, the Horn of Africa, Caribbean, and Trans Sahara, as well as support operations from aircraft carriers and other U.S. vessels.)
The relative proportion of casualties under Bush vs. Obama is not as important as Bush's catastrophic decision not to pursue victory in our war with Arabia and Pakistan.
Everything follows from that, all the meaningless sacrifice, the catastrophic loss of irreplaceable heroes, the trillions wasted, and, of course, the electoral disasters that followed.
Too bad, too bad - oh, too bad.
The enemy always know when you’re on the run with your tail between your legs - they hit you harder. They also know that when you announce your plans in detail to evacuate, they hit you harder.
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And where is the MSM indignation?
Where are the body counts on the front of daily newspapers?
Where is code pink, cindy crazy Sheehan and all the other anti war libs?
Oh, that’s right, this Marxist punk is supported by the buttheds in that media.
OK, so now Obama is ACTUALLY getting people killed...
IMPEACH THIS IDIOT NOW!!!
Thanks markomalley.
Mr. niteowl77
Notice no body count like in the “good old” Bush days....
These oxygen thieves need to take a hike...forever.
My son is there. This is his fourth trip to the ME. 9/11 has taken my son away from me and their Father away from my grandchildren for over 4 years and yet the great and powerful Obama wants us to fight FOR the very people responsible for these loses. Words cannot express my anger with such an evil man.
It doesn’t take them long to figure out how to game your ROE, either, and that changed when Duh-1 got in.
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