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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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Troop Injuries Hit New High in Afghanistan

Taliban roadside bombs highly effective against US

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(Newser) – Injuries to US troops in Afghanistan have risen alarmingly in the last 3 months, as a Taliban offensive deploys deadlier roadside bombs aimed at American and other foreign forces. The rate of injury has surpassed that in Iraq during the heaviest fighting of the surge 2 years ago, the Washington Post reports. "It shows you how we are the targets and how effectively they are targeting us," says a Pentagon spokesman.

The IEDs being used by the Taliban are powerful enough to destroy even the Pentagon's most mine-resistant vehicles, prompting Defense Secretary Robert Gates to order thousands more support troops to Afghanistan to hunt and destroy roadside bombs. More than 1,000 troops have been injured in the last 3 months—a quarter of all the injuries sustained since the US-led invasion in 2001.

U.S. soldiers patrols a road which leads to the site where a road side bomb hit a U.S. vehicle in Mehtar Lam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Oct.25, 2009.
U.S. soldiers patrols a road which leads to the site where a road side bomb hit a U.S. vehicle in Mehtar Lam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Oct.25, 2009.   (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Afghan men gather near the wreckage of a passenger taxi after it was blown up in an explosion in Khogyani district of Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. A taxi carrying nine civilians hit a bomb buried in the road in eastern Afghanistan on...
Afghan men gather near the wreckage of a passenger taxi after it was blown up in an explosion in Khogyani district of Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009....   (AP Photo/ Rehmat Gul)
Wreckage of a passenger taxi lies on the road as Afghan men stand nearby in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.
Wreckage of a passenger taxi lies on the road as Afghan men stand nearby in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.   (AP Photo/ Rehmat Gul)
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13 comments
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cedarkey
Oct 31, 09 8:13 AM CDT
To bad we don't have a commander in chief. What we have is a liar and thief. Reply
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-3
IN RESPONSE:
RogerMohajir
Oct 31, 09 9:31 AM CDT
Too bad you don't have a point to state. What you have is venom and hate.
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0
IN RESPONSE:
jfcd
Oct 31, 09 3:05 PM CDT
cedar doesn't try to reason, all he does is lie and piss on. but don't worry, not the least, cause his opinion irrelevant is.
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-2
IN RESPONSE:
foodchain11
Oct 31, 09 6:25 PM CDT
This is just the dumbest argument in the world---oops--the USA, because everyone else in the world understands war better than we do. We have failed at every war afrter WWII and gues why? WE don't know what the F---- we're doing!!!! Ike did, the others do not!!!! Big bunch of stupid white men thinking they can shoot anything and win. Dumbest people ever. Watch an old sci-fi. Out we come with our guns----dhu then, duh now
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IN RESPONSE:
tran_tor
Nov 1, 09 10:29 AM CST
@foodchain11: unfortunately the only way to win in war it either to not get in it in the first place (most desirable by far) or to engage in total war, and destroy and kill everything/one on the enemy side. Just my opinion, but Genghis Kahn's tactics were so brutal, he often didn't have to fight as towns would simply surrender and comply.
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