One thing I have not understood about these wars is that so many of the soldiers and Marines have been "deployed" multiple times. I have met many serving Marines who have been deployed 3-4 or more times--some with a turnaround time of 3-4 months. The real "cost" of these wars is this human cost which we and the service men and women who have been there/done that will be paying for the 2 generations--even assuming that there are no wars for the next 50 years.

You've got it right.

Well done and George Carlin's take is priceless... check out Bill Hick's take on the same war... same message different angle.

NO KIDDING. The real outrage is why people are so shocked. War does permanent damage to people, and they are trained to kill. It was a horrible tragedy. I am not justifying it in any way. But I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

ps, at least in WWII theyknew we were right; in these wars they have to wonder if it is even worth it

I had every intention of writing an almost identical post when I signed on to OS just now. It occurred to me yesterday how predictable this guy's breakdown was when I was in Target trying to shop. The store was testing/working on their fire alarm, the most ear-piercing sound I have ever heard in life. By the sixth "test" I was ready to find whoever was causing that pain in my ears and beat the crap out of him/her. And that was just after 10 minutes! The blood of those 16 people is splattered all over the U.S. government...period.

Lezlie

I agree that SSgt. Bales should be incarcerated, but I don't know about for life. First, he needs to be treated for his mental issues and know that his own life does matter, which it seems the military is still able to make wounded personnel feel like they DON'T count for anything except as a body.

If he was that far gone that this was the ONLY way he had to get attention, I find THAT to be the tragic part. Those 16 people in Afghanistan would not have died this way if the Army and the military in general would get off of their fat-assed high horses and realize that THEIR actions have definite and intense consequences. I am sick and tired of the military sucking up over half of the GDP in this country, for low bid and no bid contracts with no oversight to go to contractors who feel justified in doing as little work as possible for as much money as they can get, and leaving the enlisted personnel to suffer the consequences with no recourse for betterment of their situation. Yes, they volunteered but as you say, recruiters don't tell the whole truth; they say what is needed to get someone to sign on the line.

All you have to do is see the photos and hear the stories to know that the military needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. They have lost their mission.

The US policy of so many re-deployments ad-nauseum is a scandal.
r.

so damn right Scanner
HUGGGGGGGGGGG

Yes. You are right. The real culprit IS us. We make little or no effort to keep our kids out of the military even though we KNOW for certain that it will warp their minds - even if they're not sent to war - their minds will be pumped full of war propaganda and the idea that killing others is OK when it is ordained by our "leaders". This will be instilled in them deeply. Heck, right here on OS we have bloggers who have served in the military and who are "proud" of having done so!! They do not even recognize how they've been brainwashed. Until "we, the people" put an end to this, it won't ever stop. Those who profit so greatly by war won't ever let it stop.

Scanner, thanks for the great post about this and it does remind me of so many times in history when those in seats of power continue on their merry way despite their reckless policies. The day George Carlin passed on was a very sad day indeed!

"The human mind cannot work this way. I know absolutely knowing about psychiatry, nor am I a neurologist, but even an idiot like me knows you can't keep sending these brave soldiers into harms ways every other year."

Do you know what they call the person who finished last in their class in medical school? Doctor.

My friend, you aren't the idiot. We have two problems at the top, one is a large group of sociopathic freaks. It's some sort of defect and they're more like animals than humans . The other is people who think they know everything when they know next to nothing. The military gets the worst of everything and that includes medical care. As a former Marine I experienced that personally, and often.

Who knows what the percentage of doctors making grave mistakes every day is. They assume because they're doctors they have the right answers, every day they make mistakes and arrogantly refuse to admit them or learn. That's simple incompetence. Only an incompetent idiot would have sent that man back into battle. Do no harm, pfttt.

We have the same problem with all these Ivy League economists who presume because they have a fancy degree they're intelligent and competent. Clearly most of those military neurologists and psychiatrists are stupid and incompetent, like the economists. It's that simple.

You're far more intelligent than many who have an education but no problem solving skills. You also have tremendous courage and stamina which is sadly lacking in many. We defer to titles and income levels, not actual behavior or results. Bad system.

Yes, the problem is us, we need to start demanding those who are defective or incompetent change, or we replace them. It will get worse until we as a people do.

[r] well done, scanner! the "War on Empathy" rather than the so-called Wars on Drugs or Terror or whatever (which are conveniently sold and exploited by the masters of the profiteering matrix to the masses) is the REAL horrifying war going on and being SUCCESSFUL. Good vs. evil. support the troops by supporting war has been a shameful but successful scam for decades. mass betrayal of the vulnerable young of America. Arthur Miller's play All My Sons puts it in context so well. more troops commit suicide it has been said (attempt or are successful) than are getting killed in combat. what a tragic message is being sent and STILL IGNORED by the addicts for war, who are lost to the power and control gamesmanship. if the only tool they see is a hammer (drones, weapons of mass destruction -- OURS) then everything becomes a nail. and as edmund burke says, when good people do nothing, then the world belongs to the sociopathic addicts who traded in their own humanity for grotesque ego-over-heart opportunism. Our troops volunteer for reasons of necessity or patriotism and are betrayed and asked to commit homicide for profit-making of a tiny group of oligarchs. Catch-22. The sane response to the horror of war is to go mad. to stay functioning is even deeper madness. when is the tipping point gonna happen? where is the anti-war movement in america? where is give diplomacy a chance and ending no fly zones (Orwellian anti-humanity bullshit) or cruel sanctions which is a media-minimizing slow war of impoverishing the most vulnerable in other countries. the opportunism of shock and awe, destabilizing countries and ruining infrastructures for imperialism. No electricity, no clean water, no health care, no education so the opportunistic 1 percenters can economically and environmentally rape civilizations. who gives a sh*t about human beings? we are captured as a country by amoral monsters. and they become deafer and deafer to us as we and the rest of the world become pawns in their games. awareness is a first step. stepping out of the bubble of collective narcissism -- of "my country right or wrong" cronyism. libby

Great post. It's beyond ridiculous that these men are pushed to these points. If the military and political powers-that-be expect the all-volunteer army to sustain a 10+ years war, then they need to stop assuming that these men and women are basically robots and can handle anything that is thrown at them. The other option is they can put their money where their mouth is/was, and use the all-volunteer as it was originally intended--as a peacetime back-up plan--and use the Selective Service to find soldiers. And if the dreaded "D" word (aka: the draft) makes their constituents freak out, then maybe starting two wars at the same time shouldn't be an option.

ps. McCain war-mongers today. he was broken by "them" and suffered long ago but he is dangerously broken still by having become a war addict himself! If you don't pass it back and recover SPIRITUALLY, you pass it forward to be inflicted on future generations. The tragic way of the world. That is what he is doing. Instead of challenging the patriarchy that puts the young in harm's way for profit and power he embraces it, joins up whole-heartedly with it. He's like a kid who has been abused as a child and who ends up abusing his own children. my take.

Scan... you are absolutely correct. For 13 years now I have been being treated for PTSD due to domestic violence and while there is no cure for it it has lessened over time. TIME is the one thing the military is NOT giving these young men and women... and TIME along with treatment for the symptoms is what they so desperately NEED.

We have military leaders who are (in MY opinion) dumber than a box of rocks and completely lacking in common sense sending the walking wounded back into a situation that is GUARANTEED to elicit a "flight of fight" response and then we wonder WHY they "flip out. "

I am so with you on this one, Scanner! From the moment I heard this story break I felt such deep sadness from understanding this man had been pushed too far. Yes, he does have to pay for his actions, but that punishment should include a great deal of therapy and treatment, if there even is enough to repair the damage this man has sustained at the hands of our war hungry gov't. He committed an antrocious act but he too is as much a victim. Those who kept sending him back for more tours of duty have all those families blood on their hands too. What will be their punishment?

Repeated deployments on this scale seems to have been a Bush (2) administration innovation, including repeated deployments of reserves. As far as I'm concerned, it is beyond unethical to abuse the people who volunteered while leaving everyone else alone. If you don't have enough people to run a war, your choices are:

1. Make military service more attractive in terms of benefits and/or money.

2. Reinstitute the draft.

3. Limit your military activity to your actual resources.

It's not that I'm a fan of the draft but I'm also not a fan of letting one or two classes do all our fighting for us. One of the reasons we got out of Vietnam is because a lot of people who were willing and able to exercise influence did so because they wanted their kids out. There aren't major antiwar protests because so many people who would ordinarily participate are completely insulated from the war. I would actually favor a form of universal service, not all of it military, with military having the shortest service and best benefits.

Fundamentally, Scanner, you're right: US Government policy led to this because we had no business even allowing a guy with that kind of background over there. That doesn't reduce his responsibility in the same sense that a poor inner city kid who sells drugs and commits violent crimes is responsible for his own actions, but his behavior is still predictable given his resources and so complaining about that which is predictable after having made the choice that these actions weren't worth the resources it would take to prevent them is hypocritical. If we play with fire and get burned, we have no right to blame the match.

The 'serve your country' mentality which has its place I know but it also is naive beyond belief. I know it's ingrained in US culture,schools,television etc but common sense has to surface at some point surely when you look at the way serving and especially veterans are treated?
This isn't meant to be 'the token Brit' knocking the US either. It's just we're not sold the same social crap unless it's an attack on our country or somewhere we perceive we still own.

This recent case with a US trooper won't be the last with the pressures they are under and it could be a Brit soldier next. Who knows? It's all wrong and predictable.
Good post Kenny. Rated with an Ug.

p.s.
Cuban cigar smokers are innocent.

we are nation of Enablers. if the govt doesnt do what we want, we have to fix it. we have no one else to blame. every other govt of the world spends far less money on defense, largely a fraction of what we spend. but we cannot control our "habit". clinton did manage to cut military significantly in mid 90s [and even balance the budget] but in retrospect it looks like an anomaly. but the public is unwilling to ask hard questions about our involvement eg 911. its a kind of nationwide stockholm syndrome. much more on war Inc & the US Warma$hine in my blog. yes corporate profit is a big part of the equation. its a nationwide addiction.

We never should have gone there. Any General worth his salt knew that war in Afghanistan is not winnable. Tribal people are not of one accord. I cannot believe what we have gotten ourselves into. These soldiers should not be re-deployed multiple times. Your post is spot on and says it all. We have created a teeming mass of unemployed broken vets. Now in addition of the cost of war, we have the cost of trying to bring back the broken. For this I cry. For this I am angry.
For this we will all suffer...somehow.

Amen to that. We don't give a damn about the poor, and that includes our soldiers. Great choice; Carlin was a true American prophet. R

Great, great post scanner. I'm sure a lot of us wondered what in hell he was still doing over there given his tours of duty, injuries and shocks to the system. If he didn't stand out as a loose cannon, then how many others must be on the verge? While I supported the Afghan invasion (though not the Iraqi one), I thought they should have called it a day after the fixed elections a couple of years ago. Now more than ever it seems apparent that foreign troops are doing more harm than good, by their presence as much as their actions. Excellent accompanying vid too.

I am no draft lover either, but this country should reinstitute it, for women as well as men, with no college deferments or Bush-type phony Reserve/National Guard bullshit. Tell me how long these wars would last then.~r

Thoth! Is that you? Use the code word, Dummy!

True that, Scan Man....!

Here is another interesting little piece from a couple year's back about PTSD and the suicide of a young soldier named Noah Pierce. I think it just helps to augment what you have brilliantly written here...

http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2008/fall/gilbertson-noah-pierce/

Well said.

"Violence is as American as Cherry Pie."

H. Rap Brown

"Don't tell me this is what they signed on for, that's bullshit." I am so tired of hearing that. [r]

If anyone doubts how much war can destroy a person, please read this link Pensive Person sent me. It will break your heart!

http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2008/fall/gilbertson-noah-pierce/

rated for George Carlin, and more.

This will never be a popular stance, but the draft ought to be brought back. The Military-Industrial complex ran into a buzz saw in Viet Nam. Going to an all volunteer military seemed attractive for a number of reasons; there would be no mother's marching in the streets protesting the U.S. government sending her son into harm's way for a dubious mission, for one thing. An all voluntary military made it much easier in general because, for the average American, war became something that affected someone else's son. No longer would we need to maintain a large army of draftees rotating into and out of active duty service. And, a large number of jobs could be privatized so that U.S. corporations could make even more money off of the U.S. taxpayer.
The effect of maintaining a small corps of career soldiers was that there were no replacements from the general population when it came to redeploy. Think about the situation before Desert Storm. Hundreds of thousands of troops went into and out of service during the Viet Nam era, but most spent only one tour in Viet Nam. Only the career military went back for 2 or 3 or 4 tours. The canon fodder tended to be draftees, not career soldiers. This is not to say career soldiers and marines weren't in combat situations, they were. My active duty service was 2 years with the first spent in Viet Nam. I couldn't be sent back again before my active duty responsibility was satisfied. My father was in WWII in Europe. He was in for the duration, but the duration was "only" 2 1/2 years for him. My brother served 6 months in Viet Nam as an airman electrician. The tours in Iraq and Afghanistan have been too long and come too often because our all volunteer professional army is too small. Returning to the draft would put "skin in the game" for average Americans and have the effect of making it harder for government and industry to get us into unjustified wars, and produce enough troops to prevent the current perpetual redeployment that grinds men and women up. R

This event has placed a mirror in front of our collective face as Americans.
Thanks you, Scanner, for having the guts and clarity to look inot the mirror and tell.
Very few here in the U.S. have been willing to accept the responsibility that this about us, not just about "him".

Scanner, you are one class act.

Rated.

yes.
Strongly agree with all of this Scanner.
Yet we continue to continue.
Wrong does not make right.
ever!!

The Great Satan R Us!

As posted on a similar blog post: "How many "bad apples" does a bad bushel make? How many bad bushels does a genocidal military make?"


-R-

i guess either the mayhem wasnt as up close & graphic
back in the day (ww2, korea)
which seems like nonsense to me,
or
guys these days are just too damn...human.

ww2 and korea guys came home to THE PROMISED LAND
OF PROSPERITY. the US in the 40's and 50's...
that must have alleviated their ptsd etc.

Now everything is a lie.

We all know it.
These brave fellows and gals go overseas to stand up
for something that MEANS something, and
of COURSE to be paid & taken care of.

Well, one still means something: america means something.
what does it mean?
untrammelled freedom of mind heart loins and thought.
nothing less.

A local Kabul newspaper (based on an investigation by the Afghan parliament) is reporting that it was actually 15-20 US troops who committed the massacre. The two villages are quite far apart, and two of the women were sexually assaulted prior to being murdered. It's impossible for a single individual to have done all this in an hour. See
http://www.aopnews.com/today.html

That last comment is interesting. I think there might be more to this story than is reported. You nailed this one Scanner. George Carlin had me slapping my knee here. War. Dam Dicks.

I agree with Dr Bramhall, the whole thing sounds a bit fishy. It could be that this was retaliation for what's been going on there lately. Ever since the Koran-burning incident, Afghani soliders and police have been taking pot shots at American troops and officials. Two US officers were killed recently when an Afghani colleague walked into their office and shot them. Leon Panetta was also targeted and nearly killed on his last trip there. These aren't the usual religiously inspired mullahs either, it's our allies. Very disturbing, very unstable situation. At any rate, that's the context in which this happened, and it's very hard to believe that had nothing to do with it.

RATED

Yeah, I think there's more to this, too, but we will probably never know, the way things have been covered up over there and in Iraq from the beginning...

-R-

If this is true, goddammit, and this administration covers it up I want everyone from Obama on down prosecuted. We, me, the American people are tired of fucking Head Games!!!!

You are right.

He obvioulsy got pushed too far, although I know people who have done that with no ill effect, if they are also very intense people, who can handle things most people can't even comprehend, much less do. For enlistees, that's pushing people really hard to go to four tours it seems like to me. Officer Corps, that's a different story, as that'a career choice under the current set-up, and they self-select.
One thing I would disagree with is that the military is actually an elite though, Enlisted to Officer Corps in terms of IQ, education, physical fitness, compared to cohort. On average, both Enlisted and the Officers have better life-opportunities than people in their own age cohort, if on average, for many the military is the best one, overall.

The Afghan Online Press? Come 0n: "a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing members of the Afghan parliament who were part of an investigation to probe the" citing members of what? Dr., come up with something better than that. That's bullshit.

Hmmm....





....seems very suspicious to me too.

I'm making a significant understatement in saying that there is an anti-US slant to that Afghan Online Press site. It would be hard to believe the veracity of a source with such an agenda. Again, an understatement.

"They signed up because there are no jobs and they are poor and want to go to college."

Exactly.

Humans are not cut out for modern war. Hand to hand scuffles...yes. But not this.

Excellent post. Thank you.

@palleson:

The Daily Beast and CNN reported the same thing:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/03/18/taliban-soldier-didn-t-act-alone.html#comments

Who knows what happens in a war, Truth is not only the first but the second and the third . . . and the last real casualty.
rate

We fail our military folk on so many levels, but this is beyond failing them - it's criminal.
This will change only when the rich and privileged can no longer opt themselves and their children out of the wars from which they profit so handsomely.

Scanner: So damn sad and so true. You've said it so well, there's nothing to add. Rated and shared.

My heart breaks for this man, his family, and all of his innocent victims.

Your so right on here....it is a mad mad world out there for our troops indeed.
(ˆ◡ˆ) ♥⋯ ❤ ⋯ ★

Interesting, well reasoned exposition.

It's worse than you think. This will only push Obama, et al into more troop WITHDRAWALS, so forget about the draft, that isn't going to happen. Every mother in this country with a teen age son would fight that one tooth and nail.

What will happen is exactly what happened when Bush I and Cheney were in office, we will pull out due to political pressure at home (not due to any victory there) so we have not only raped and pillaged Afghanistan and left a vacuum which the Taliban quickly filled, but we we are not at war with the Taliban, technically, we are at war with Al Qaeda, not the same thing at all.

Again, the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not the same, and everyone in the field admits Al Qaeda are no longer in Afghanistan (Pakistan is another story).

Re: slanted coverage on Afghan sites, they say the exact same thing about our sites, they are anti-Afghan, because who in their right mind would be pro-Afghan?

Greg Mortenson, that's who. And look at what happened to him, because the girls he educates wear scarves on their heads, and there is a large group of people in the U.S. who want to see his charity destroyed, just like they want to see all of Afghanistan destroyed.

These are the "Kill them all and let God sort them out," folks.

We are only destroying ourselves in the end, and taking half the world with us.

You are right. They are not signing up for this. Systems are heartless beasts, and once you get mired-- no mercy.

What drives me crazy is that these people who go off the deep end never seem to kill those who caused their torment. You'd think that if they snap they'd snap at those who caused them such intolerable misery.
Over and over again, we see the bullied kill those that didn't even bully them. Otherwise, as Lezlie says, it's predictable.

The reporting on this story is, as usual, at best incomplete at worst full of misleading propaganda put out by people with political power and agendas.

Soldiers just don't snap and there has to be more to it than that and the media shouldn't be rushing too much to come to conclusions or present propaganda on the subject. The impression that some people might get is that he snapped for no apparent reason which is the usual impression the media gives people.

It always turns up that there are signs ahead of time and this usually includes escalating violence and often indoctrination from early childhood. The attempt to make him seem like a model citizen that helps his neighbors son with disabilities is highly questionable as it has been presented to the public.

Even without full reporting on this incident other similar incidents have indicated that this isn't entirely isolated and it is the inevitable result of the process that we use to raise children and fight wars. the specific details aren't inevitable but that something like it will happen is inevitable which should be enough to indicate that we should stop fighting one war after another based on lies, assuming the many other reasons aren't good enough.

BTW if you check out the Open call author tag you'll see it only shows those that delete the plus sign and replace it with a space, which excludes your blog.

http://open.salon.com/topics/open+call/most_recent

Tragic and true, scanner. As Oscar Hammerstein said in his song in South Pacific, "you've got to be taught to hate and fear."

I also think about all of the children who have been "pressed" into service in some of these conflicts around the world. How can they come back to integrate into community while having had no chance to learn trades or skills?

Hi Scanner,
Yes that poor soldier looks like he's A-Wall, he's snapped. There are many many things people in everyday ordinary lives see and hear that drive them batty. Just imangine on the war fields, it has to be beyond the imaninations of most. Even the hard core police and detectives can't toughen up under certain circumstances. What is the matter with people is what is the matter with the whole system. The system is not truly set up for people to succede as much as it is set up for people to fail. It is the easiest of the two, I can't understand for the life of me, why some people aren't phased by criticism, others are not phased by racism, others are not phased by biased comments, and yet it's their whole pre-occupation. That is why Scanner there is a good and bad, and crossing those lines caused great problems to arise. It is more than fairness to ask our soldiers to go into areas where they know and yet actively put their lives on line in order to preserve the greater good of humanity. It takes a true hero to want to help those countries that are betrotted by tyranny and make great strides to behave in ways that are ignorant and brutal. I would hope that this example is used to help isolate those soldiers who know their mental capactiy has all but vanished to continue on with a so called "normal" life. I appreciate your attention to this matter.

Einstein once wrote: "Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which they were created"

So the big question is, if the problem is US, the solution cannot be of human intellectual origin. Where does that leave 'us' ? To the final frontier of human nature itself! http://www.energon.org.uk

Amen!

i do not condone war
afghanistan
iraq
nonsense
wars fought for gung-ho mofos in the conservative right
yet this tragedy
needs to unfold
no one knows why
this happened
speculation is a dangerous
mofo game

You need to re-read. I didn't say this man signed up for money, I have no idea why he signed up, My ESP broke last week. In the last paragraph, I was talking about all soldiers in general and only a couple of reasons why they signed up. This has nothing to do with that anyway. This was about culpability, not some shiny object reason someone would sign up. I volunteered to enlist when Vietnam was raging, just for the hell of it. I wasn't sent there, but there are a thousand reasons men and women enlist. Was there a thousand reasons he was sent there? Of course not, he was a warm body, period!

weighing-in, here. so many comments (not sure i agree/like them all), but wanted you to know i saw this. i feel beyond sad...

I suspect he's a token, like the lowly pfc's charged for Abu Ghraib. However, the crime is horrific. What are we still doing there? Not nation- building, for sure. Osama is dead and we're still spending billions in money and lives, for no damn good reason I can see.

Excellent post.

Scanner - I agree he was pushed too far. Now it is nothing but a lose - lose situation.

Great post!

We're thinking along the same lines today my friend. Whether its war or corruption---it really is all about us.

Nodding our heads quietly and letting it happen.

Which is why pieces like this are so important. It IS about US!

Excellent piece!

War is for other people. Not me. Not us.

Because only the "volunteers" now fight wars nobody gives a rat's ass. Old men would think twice if they knew their kid was gonna get 4 months training and get dumped in Kandahar.

r

As usual, Toritto's spot on with his comment.

GREAT post, ScanMan!


-R-

Agreed. The Carlin video is brilliant. This makes me sad and angry, sad and angry, sad and angry. Such a well worded piece. Thank you.

The real culprit is not only us and US but Israel, and instead of the US using diplomacy to really broker peace we are turning on the USWarMachine for Israel's and Zionism's self-serving agendas as well as our own imperialism and greed. It is one thing to be allied with a country, but Israel Firsters in this country are so much in control and have so much leverage with the government and the media ... the deep down animosity with the Arab and Islamic worlds is being conditioned in us, but it has a lot to do with Israeli (Zionist dominated) government group think and long time history. Do our kids dying, committing suicide, getting maimed know who is instigating the fight, pushing pushing pushing for more and more bloodbaths out of preemptive defensiveness (which is not really defensiveness at all)? Israel anger, American blood and other people's blood! We are helping to destroy or are trying to destroy (not quite done yet) all the pro-Palestinian countries in the Middle East. Are the Zionists or their American enablers or how many of their actual kids (I have no idea) are sacrificing their OWN lives for the Zionist agendas pressured effectively against the spineless politicians in DC and agendas never honestly highlighted in our big media! When has big media ever called out Israel as a rogue nation committing war crimes which it is and pushing us to commit more and more war crimes FOR THEM? And us codependently linked with that savage wilfullness, codependently accommodating and placating to the will of another country to sacrifice our own youth for them so sociopathically.

btw, Obama needs Israel to play nice and not enflame gas prices before the election. It is a way Israel can control him or even get rid of him, since the Iran War RANTING and PREPPING and sanctions will drive up gas prices and if many Americans don't think about the big picture of global genocides (sadly), they do notice the price of gas and that will have a big influence on their votes. fwiw libby

Beyond tragic and sad. I can't add anything that hasn't been said.

What a powerful piece, Dude. I agree with you 100%.

--r

interesting fact:
average # of combat hours for U.S. soldiers in WWII=10
Average # of combat hours for U.S. soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan=240

HGold, that is just un-fucking believable, damn!