As Americans are focused on the impact of the government shutdown and anxious about the consequences of yet another upcoming political debacle on the debt limit, we hardly noticed that four more Americans were killed in Afghanistan over the weekend, including an Army nurse — she was only 25 — in “the coalition’s worst loss of life in a single episode since June.”
As we have been preoccupied with Syria and so many other international and domestic “developments,” and since hitting the “2,000 casualties mark” a few months ago, we hardly keep track anymore of the additional numbers of Americans who continue to die in that now-almost-forgotten war. As of Tuesday, Oct. 8, at least 2,147 U.S. military have been killed in Afghanistan.
So far this year, 106 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan.
Similarly, we hardly noticed that Monday, October 7, marked the 12th anniversary of the insertion of those brave Special Forces into Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom with the mission to catch and bring to justice those responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
As we assume that our troops will be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, we easily forget that we still have 54,000 American troops fighting and sometimes dying in that country.
It is precisely because of the blood we have shed and continue to shed in Afghanistan and the treasure we have spent — and wasted — there, especially as our own nation continues to struggle financially and as we approach our own debt limit, that it is so difficult to ignore the statements that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has made and continues to make about those very same sacrifices.
In the past, Karzai has slandered and accused our troops and our country of colluding with the Taliban “to sow fears in order to prolong the presence of international troops in Afghanistan.”
He also revealed his real allegiances and loyalties when he declared, “God forbid, if ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan.”
Just a few days ago, in an interview with the BBC that has gone pretty much unnoticed because of our other preoccupations, Karzai criticized NATO for “failing to bring stability to Afghanistan in over a decade there,” according to the BBC. “On the security front the entire NATO exercise was one that caused Afghanistan a lot of suffering, a lot of loss of life, and no gains because the country is not secure,” Karzai said.
Given the well-publicized greed, graft and corruption rampant at the highest levels of the Afghan government; given the failure of their own military and security forces to come up to speed after twelve years of support and training; given the despicable crimes committed against young boys by wealthy and prominent Afghans and by members of Afghanistan’s security forces; given the continuing violence against women right under the noses of the Afghan authorities and, most of all, given the number of U.S. troops that have been murdered in so-called “green-on-blue” attacks by the very same Afghan security forces who we are helping, training and fighting alongside, I would say, paraphrasing Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr’s reaction to Karzai’s accusations, “We have fought too hard and shed too much blood over the past 12 years to even entertain the notion that the failure is ours.”
But that is just me. American and Americans right now are too preoccupied with the shameful Washington politics. Too preoccupied to even notice the names of those four Americans killed in Afghanistan. The latest casualties in a war we are continuing to fight for Mr. Karzai, notwithstanding his criticism and ingratitude.
Those casualties are:
1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, of San Diego, Calif., assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25, of Carlisle, Pa., assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
Sgt. Joseph M. Peters, 24, of Springfield, Mo., assigned to the 5th Military Police Battalion, Vicenza, Italy.
Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Ore., assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Fort Benning, Ga.
Lead image: A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey provides security as it flies over the water near Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Oct. 2, 2013. Coalition forces visited Kajaki to tour the dam’s facilities. DoD Photo
