U.S. Fatalities Cross the 1,000 Mark In Afghanistan

With the death of an unnamed servicemember in a roadside bomb attack today, the number of U.S. dead in Afghanistan has crossed the 1,000 mark.

The Associated Press announced the figure it culled from its own count. Using different counting methods, Icasualties.org crossed the grim statistic last week and set the number at 1,007 deaths as of this afternoon. Both figures tally the number of servicemembers who died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, including personnel injured there but who later died overseas at facilities such as Walter Reed and Landstuhl Medical Centers. The difference between the tallies only underscores the difficulty in tracking casualties.

According to the Department of Defense, Operation Enduring Freedom has suffered a total of 1,076 fatalities, 791 of them in combat. The larger figure also includes deaths in Guantánamo Bay, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen. The tally from the entire theater crossed the 1,000 milestone back in February.

A little over a week from today, on June 7, the operation will mark its 104th month, making it the longest war in U.S. history.

Counting Afghanistan Casualties…Through 15 Other Countries

Although several news outlets spent the day barking about the Afghanistan death toll crossing the 1,000 mark, the truth is that casualty counting is a little more complicated. Icasualties.org is where the media are grabbing that 1,000 figure. The Web site does report that that the death toll in “Operation Enduring Freedom” has crossed that many deaths, but with one caveat: “U.S. fatalities In and Around Afghanistan remain under this benchmark.”

Clicking one more link will take you to their actual toll for Afghanistan (including neighboring Pakistan and Uzbekistan), which is still 70 shy of the millennium mark. The rest of the servicemembers died in such far away countries as Cuba (Guantánamo Bay), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

Some have asked me why I care where they died, as it’s still one war. True, but that’s 15 other countries where our relatives, friends and neighbors are dying in this worldwide war. It may not bring them back to notice the details, but it underscores how absurdly spread out the war machine has gotten. And for what purpose?