Among US forces on active duty, the suicide rate this year is the highest since the invasion of Afghanistan a decade ago, according to the Associated Press. In the first 155 days of this year, 154 active-duty troops took their own lives, an increase of 18 percent over the same period last year. At the rate of one suicide a day, fifty percent more US soldiers have taken their own lives this year than have been died in combat in Afghanistan.
Mr. Gates particularly has warned against a “hollowing out” of the military, a not-so-implicit criticism of the $400 billion Mr. Obama has announced that he intends to cut from Pentagon accounts. This reduction would come on top of the roughly $178 billion already being excised by the Gates team.
In this July 19, 2010, file photo U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, who took charge of U.S. and NATO military operations in Afghanistan in July, waits to greet Rothschild Operative Hillary Clinton at Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan.
At least 858 U.S. soldiers have died in the Afghanistan war since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. That equals 60 percent of the 1,427 American soldiers killed so far in the 10-year war in that country.
In March 2011, there were 26 U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan, including 4 non-combat related fatalities. That brought the total combat and non-combat deaths for 2011 (January, February, and March) to 70. Those fatalities include 57 combat-related deaths and 13 non-combat deaths.
Of the 858 U.S. deaths since Obama’s inauguration, 791 have been combat-related. This means that for the 1,241 combat-related deaths that occ
Despite a Pentagon denial that Defense Department officials directly lobbied members of Congress to kill funding for an F-35 fighter engine, at least one lawmaker is keeping the issue alive.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee chairman, on Friday provided Defense Secretary Robert Gates information he claims may show that Pentagon officials illegally lobbied members.
