Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A Bloody Milestone

The death of US soldier number 2,000 in Afghanistan happened this weekend, and it looks like another "green on blue" killing.

A possible insider attack has claimed the life of America’s 2,000th soldier to die in Afghanistan. The shooting reportedly took place Saturday evening in Afghanistan’s volatile Wardak Province at a checkpoint run by the Afghan Army.

While initial reports indicated that the incident was likely an insider attack, international military officials now say insurgent fire may have been involved. The incident left one NATO soldier presumed to be American dead, along with a civilian contractor, and three Afghan soldiers. Afghan and international military authorities are now investigating the incident.

If confirmed as an insider attack, the incident is likely to carry particular significance beyond being the 2,000th American soldier killed in the nearly 11-year conflict. Though violence has fallen here with US troops seeing consistent drops in fatalities starting last year, the war continues to claim lives and this latest spate of insider killings presents a challenge that has so far eluded US and NATO efforts to solve the problem. 

We still have a long way to go to get out of Afghanistan.  And for countless thousands here in America and abroad, we'll never fully be "out of Afghanistan".

A generation of soldiers will have been to the sandbox.  None came home the same.  Some didn't come home at all.  Something I'll never forgive Dubya and his cadre for, that's for sure.

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