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There was a picture w/ this on CNN.com.I would never post it, but it was upsetting to say the least. I guess there is video too

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four U.S. Marines were killed Monday in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a military official for the American-led coalition said.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said a quick reaction force found the Marines' bodies after they failed to report to their commanders at a predetermined time.

"After we've notified the families, I think we're going to be a little more forthcoming on what happened up there," Kimmitt said.

A Marine Corps official identified one of the dead as Staff Sgt. Marvin Best, 33, of Prosser, Washington. He was based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. The other three were from a different base and have not yet been identified.

:(

A videotape delivered to Associated Press Television News showed four Marines in uniform lying dead in what appeared to be a walled compound in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad. One of the Americans was slumped in the corner of a wall.

The bodies had no flak vests ? mandatory for U.S. troops in contested areas ? and at least one was missing a boot. One fieldpack was left open next to a body as if the attackers had looted the dead before fleeing.
 
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Report: U.S. Soldier Held Hostage Killed

The killing of Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, was reported by Arab television, which aired a videotape showing a blindfolded man identified by his captors as Maupin sitting on the ground.

Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. The station did not broadcast the killing.

The U.S. military said it could not immediately confirm whether the man shown in the murky videotape was indeed Maupin. Maj. Willie Harris, spokesman for the Army's 88th Regional Readiness Command, said the videotape is being analyzed by the Defense Department

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Several U.S. Marines were killed and wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as their Humvee passed by in Baghdad on Tuesday morning, according to U.S. troops on the scene.

The improvised explosive device hit the lead vehicle in a Marine convoy, resulting in "a few wounded and killed in action," according to a U.S. soldier who was supervising the removal of the damaged Humvee.

A Marine who was there to guard the area also told reporters "some Marines" were killed in the attack.

The Humvee -- with flattened tires, a crumpled front end and blood splattered inside -- was hooked up to a military tow truck and hauled away Tuesday morning.
 
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Although Matt Maupin's death hasn't been officially confirmed, I think it's pretty a sure thing that he was the soldier in the videotape being shot.

Maupin is from my area and it has been so sad to see the ups and down his family and friends have been through in the 80+ days he's been held captive. I remember how very happy they were when he was sgown on videotape a few days after his convoy was attacked. They were so relieved just to know he was alive. I know I even felt a bit of elation then, because he still had a chance to get out of it alive. I think it was almost inevitable that he was killed, but it is still very sad.

You know I don't believe his life is inherently any more important than that of the rest of the war dead, but learning about him and his family makes his death seem all the more poignant. Perhaps if everyone realized that every person, on every side of every war has family, friends, well, just a life to lead, people who depend on that person, people who care about that person.... Ahhh...I'd like to think it would make the "powers that be" think even harder before getting into situations using force, but I just do not think that is going to happen.... I guess I'll just have to get used to it.
 
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents fired mortar rounds at a headquarters used by U.S. troops and Iraqi forces in the city of Samarra on Thursday, destroying the building and killing four U.S. soldiers, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi guardsman was also killed and a fifth U.S. soldier was unaccounted for. Twenty other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the 10:30 a.m. attack, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, the spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division. U.S. troops secured the area around the collapsed building.
 
http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript325_full_print.html

Wow. I can't believe noone is reporting these kind of numbers. Such a waste of lives. :sad:

MITCHELL: How do you figure out the human "cost" of war?

Sometimes, it's brutally obvious when the wounded scramble out of a tank hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Two marines were injured in this attack. One lost his right eye.

The Pentagon keeps a close watch on the grim tally in Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest figures: 922 killed. 5,457 wounded in action. And the press reports those numbers.

But there's another figure neither the Pentagon nor the press are talking about ? the more than 11,000 soldiers coming home disabled, injured, sick who aren't on the Pentagon's casualty list because the military says they weren't injured in combat.
 
Scarletwine said:
http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript325_full_print.html

Wow. I can't believe noone is reporting these kind of numbers. Such a waste of lives. :sad:

MITCHELL: How do you figure out the human "cost" of war?

Sometimes, it's brutally obvious when the wounded scramble out of a tank hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Two marines were injured in this attack. One lost his right eye.

The Pentagon keeps a close watch on the grim tally in Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest figures: 922 killed. 5,457 wounded in action. And the press reports those numbers.

But there's another figure neither the Pentagon nor the press are talking about ? the more than 11,000 soldiers coming home disabled, injured, sick who aren't on the Pentagon's casualty list because the military says they weren't injured in combat.
Click to expand...

I have been told this thread has been reserved for simply respecting those that have lost their lives. It was not meant for political debate. If you want to argue about the numbers or whether this war or any war is justified, please start a new thread.
 
Scarletwine said:
You take me out of context. I was concerned about the number of wounded that was in the article.
Click to expand...

The article is a political and debatable one as were your comments such as "Wow. I can't believe noone is reporting these kind of numbers. Such a waste of lives."

It is my understanding that this is not appropriate for this thread which is why I won't respond to it in this thread.
 
I'm sure we all agree that every single man of the 922 killed. 5,457 wounded in action and >11,000 :ohmy: disabled or wounded (not in action) are worth being mentioned in this thread.
I'm sure that Scarletwine wanted to show the respect to these people by mentioning all of them here.
So do i now, it's not important if you think this war is worth it or not, we all can show all the respect they deserve to these Men and Women.
 
July 9 2004- 1, 000


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier has died of wounds he suffered in fighting in Baghdad late Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The death brings coalition deaths -- both hostile and non-hostile -- since the start of the war to 1,000. U.S. military deaths now total 880, with 657 of them by hostile fire.

The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, AP reported.
 
Klaus said:
I'm sure we all agree that every single man of the 922 killed. 5,457 wounded in action and >11,000 :ohmy: disabled or wounded (not in action) are worth being mentioned in this thread.
I'm sure that Scarletwine wanted to show the respect to these people by mentioning all of them here.
So do i now, it's not important if you think this war is worth it or not, we all can show all the respect they deserve to these Men and Women.
Click to expand...

Klaus,

My point was that information including "certain numbers", "the article", and various comments made in the post were controversial, debatable, and political. This thread is suppost to be devoid of those things. By and large, most people have succeeded in keeping their post "non-political" and non-controversial and I think that is good and in keeping with the theme of the thread which is simply one to respect the soldiers, not to talk about the war, what one thinks of the war or bring in other controversial topics and things.
 
Insurgents killed three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian in separate attacks, and a militant group threatening to kill its Filipino hostage extended until Tuesday its deadline for Manila to agree to withdraw peacekeepers early.

On Sunday afternoon, a roadside bomb exploded as U.S. patrol passed in Samarra, a hotbed of violence 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, the military said.

Earlier, a U.S. convoy was attacked in Beiji, 90 miles south of the northern city of Mosul. After a roadside bomb exploded, an enemy vehicle raced toward the convoy and fired at the soldiers, who shot back and killed the driver, the military said.

A soldier and a civilian traveling behind the patrol were killed. A second soldier was injured and evacuated. Thick black smoke enveloped the area from an oil tanker set ablaze in the attack.

The deaths came a day after four U.S. Marines were killed in a vehicle accident near Camp Fallujah in western Iraq. At least 875 service members have died since the military operations in Iraq began last year, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Of those, at least 651 died as a result of hostile action.
 
The death toll of U.S. forces in Iraq since the start of the war in rose to 900 early Wednesday, when a roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad, killing one U.S. 1st Infantry Division soldier.

Maj. Neal O'Brien of the 1st Infantry Division said the most recent soldier killed was on patrol in a Bradley fighting vehicle in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, when the bomb detonated shortly after midnight Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the military said that two U.S. Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Anbar Province, a Sunni-dominated area west of Baghdad. The Marines were killed in separate incidents while conducting "security operations;" one soldier was killed Monday, and a second died Monday of wounds.

A count by The Associated Press put the number of American soldiers killed since the war began at 900. Counts of the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq vary, with some already exceeding the 900 figure.

The Pentagon's latest casualty update, released Tuesday, put the death toll at 893 service members, plus two civilian Defense Department employees. There have been five military personnel reported killed since the last Pentagon update.
 
The current death toll do to Hostile Fire is 669, for US forces.
 
I didn't want to start a new thread soooo...
This starts off as a negative article on the DOD, but I loved the remarkable work being done by veterans and veterans wives to assist the severely wounded, so please don't attack me for the beginning.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6652.htm

At Walter Reed, most often the first stop in the United States for soldiers in need of extensive medical treatment, VA social workers have been meeting with injured soldiers and their families about healthcare benefits since last summer.

"This is really a new idea. Before, we would wait for new veterans to knock on our door. Now we are going out to find them," said Xiomara Telfer, one of the social workers who is spending time with patients at Walter Reed.

But the VA program is still small ? a handful of social workers at Walter Reed and a few Army medical centers. Telfer and others say that, judging by their experiences, problems with delayed paychecks, confusion about benefits and entitlements are rife.

"There are holes we are trying to plug," said Dr. Michael J. Kussman, acting deputy under secretary for health for the veterans health administration of the VA. "The flow of information from the Department of Defense to the VA is something that both agencies are working hard on improving. We're trying to raise the bar."

The VA has not allocated any money for the effort; the social workers it has assigned were already on staff. The Army's program ? called the Disabled Soldier Support System ? is run by fewer than 10 people on a budget of $1 million this fiscal year.

It was born when Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then the Army's vice chief of staff, visited recovering soldiers at Walter Reed and was struck by their anxiety and confusion about what lay ahead. Since it was started last fall, the program's small staff has been able to reach out to nearly 200 severely wounded soldiers.

Crammed into a crowded office suite in Rosslyn, Va., staff members spend much of their time struggling to locate wounded soldiers who have been discharged.

The Army doesn't keep track of their addresses, and the Veterans Administration doesn't keep track of their disability status in a way that would help pinpoint those most in need. To fill in the gaps, employees have gotten creative ? combing through newspaper articles and databases to locate the most seriously wounded former soldiers and get them help.

Working under banners that say "Army Families Are Special," and "We Love Our Troops," two women, both wives of soldiers, take 60 calls a day from wounded soldiers seeking help. One spent four months unraveling a problem that had prevented a soldier who lost a limb in the war from getting paid for six months.

Another got a former soldier who lost both legs and his sight into Braille classes. The young man had been sitting at home since getting out of the hospital, depressed and confused. Now he is working with the VA to build a home that meets his physical needs.

"We really pushed ourselves into this guy's life. We knew he needed help," said Col. Jacqueline E. Cumbo, director of the program. "We'll continue to follow this service member until he says, 'I no longer need your services.' This is not a one-time shot."

Flowers said he was proud of the program's initial successes but acknowledged it was only a beginning. "It is not enough," he said. "This just has to grow."
 
A portrait of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo lies on the front porch of his father, Carlos Arredondo, in Hollywood, Fla.,Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 as part of a simple memorial to the Marine killed in Iraq . As Marine officials tried to tell his father of the death, his father became devastated and lashed out by setting the Marine's van on fire, burning himself in the process.

capt.fljc10208270403.marine_killed_father_burned_fljc102.jpg


Names of the Dead

Published: August 27, 2004

The Department of Defense has identified 966 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:

ARREDONDO, Alexander S., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Randolph, Mass., First Marine Expeditionary Force.

DAVIS, Donald N., 42, Staff Sgt., Army Reserves; Saginaw, Mich.; 660th Transportation Company.

LUGO, Jacob R., 21, Lance Cpl., Marines; Flower Mound, Tex.; First Marine Division.
 
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Sad stuff and I do feel very sorry for the families. Let's hope the American government finally finds some sanity and brings them all home. And let's hope that the Dutch government does the same with our soldiers.
 
Bringing all the troops home would be insanity, 1000 casualites is a sad thing but it is by no means large for a millitary operation of this magnitude over this period of time. Finish the mission and their deaths will have been for a purpose, not just wasted.
 
I have to agree with a_wanderer here.
Once the war in iraq started there was no easy exit-option left.
If the US would leave Iraq now chances are high that people like al sadr would take over the country and we would see something rising like the post-shah iran.
And we all know how difficult and time intensive it is for that country to make his steps into a democratic direction
 
Oh, if we pulled the troops out of Iraq right now, there would be a theocracy there in a month. God knows what would happen in the Sunni triangle as they would oppose an al-Sadr political bid. These people do not want a Shi'ite theocracy, and they'd really fight it.
 
Please take debates to another thread.

This thread has been reserved for commemoration of lives lost in the war, and only that.

Thank you.
 
A US army captain quoted by Associated Press says said the American soldier was killed by small arms fire when militants attacked troops carrying out routine patrols in Sadr City.

Separate roadside bombs a day earlier killed three American soldiers in Baghdad, the US military said on Tuesday.

A fourth soldier died in a blast near Mosul in a blast on the same day.

The attacks bring the number of Americans killed in Iraq in the last 24 hours to 11.
Click to expand...
:sad:
 
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:19 p.m. ET Sept. 7,
2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As U.S. forces again battled insurgents loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed 1,000 on Tuesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

The grim milestone was surpassed after a spike in fighting that has killed 14 U.S. service members in the past two days.

Two soldiers died in fighting Tuesday with militiamen loyal to al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City in clashes that killed at least 36 people and wounded 203 others, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.

Five other Americans died Tuesday in separate attacks, most of them in the Baghdad area, bringing the U.S. death toll from the past two days to 13.

Since the war began in March of last year, 998 U.S. troops and three civilian contractors have been killed while working for the Defense Department. The tally was compiled by the AP based on Defense Department records, the AP’s reporting from Iraq and reports from soldiers’ families. The total includes deaths from hostile and non-hostile causes.
 
Saturday, September 25, 2004 7:37 AM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four U.S. Marines and at least seven Iraqis were killed in overnight fighting in the city of Falluja and the surrounding al Anbar province.

The Marines, from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were killed Friday in three separate incidents while "conducting security and stability operations," the U.S. military said
 
And please don't forget the near 20,000 Iraqi civilians killed in this war. They are humans on the same exact level as those young men and women who've lost their lives in service. And do you think the people of the continent of Africa grieve any less for their dead, the 6,500 people who disappear every day due to AIDS? Are the 42,000 Chechen schoolchildren murdered during the First and Second Wars there any less human than the massacred Russian schoolchildren? Do their parents grieve any less for them? I am not attempting to bring politics into this thread...but please consider the thousands of people dying every day in silence, whose names we'll never know. Because (yes, I'm using a Bono stock-quote) if we really valued human life equally throughout the world, this thread would be so long, we'd all commit suicide. So many people die everyday. I do agree it's sad that these young lives are being wasted so needlessly, though.
 
VertigoGal said:
And please don't forget the near 20,000 Iraqi civilians killed in this war. They are humans on the same exact level as those young men and women who've lost their lives in service. And do you think the people of the continent of Africa grieve any less for their dead, the 6,500 people who disappear every day due to AIDS? Are the 42,000 Chechen schoolchildren murdered during the First and Second Wars there any less human than the massacred Russian schoolchildren? Do their parents grieve any less for them? I am not attempting to bring politics into this thread...but please consider the thousands of people dying every day in silence, whose names we'll never know. Because (yes, I'm using a Bono stock-quote) if we really valued human life equally throughout the world, this thread would be so long, we'd all commit suicide. So many people die everyday. I do agree it's sad that these young lives are being wasted so needlessly, though.
Click to expand...

This thread is RESERVED specifically for the men and women of the United States military who have been killed in the war. It is a thread to honor their service!

This is not a thread for politics or other global disasters. It is not a thread for your thoughts on the war, or whether you think someone's life has been wasted or not. It is a thread to honor the men and women of the military who have been killed in the war!

There are other threads that discuss politics and the issues you brought up, or you can start your own thread.
 
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