How many countries are fighting in Afghanistan? how many lives lost?

I don’t know. Way too many.

http://icasualties.org/oef/

100’s of thousands die each day

Total fatalities, military and civilian, are estimated at 20,119 to date (note that the civilian figures are the subject of much dispute).

49 countries have participated in some capacity in “Operation Enduring Freedom”.

This article says that troops from 42 countries comprise the multinational combat forces in Afghanistan.

Military
Oct 2001 through Nov 10, 2009 – 1,515 coalition fatalities, from 24 countries
I haven’t found a count of Afghan military casualties, nor Taliban.

Afghan civilians
2009 – 2,021 deaths (as of October 31)
2008 – 2,118 deaths
2007 – 1,523 deaths
Before 2007, the UN was not systematically counting.

iCasualties.org: Operation Enduring Freedom

UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 2009 estimate

2007 and 2008 estimates

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Depressing, yet informative.

@jman in the war? I think your missed informed.

@willbrawn That’s what I was thinking. I think he means in the world. Which is completely irrelevant to this question.

Casualties from WW2

Casualties from Vietnam

Far more people die each year from disease, starvation, traffic accidents, etc than the casualties suffered in today’s war. The American people (for the most part) were far more supportive in previous wars where a great many more died than in today’s war.

The argument is that these lives are lost without purpose. A senseless mission… an aimless war. Well, even if it is (and you’d be hard pressed to find support for the war in print), I still believe their sacrifice means something. They died supporting a government that “we the people” elected. They died accomplishing a mission dictated to them by a government “we the people” elected.

I can tell you from personal experience that a large majority of soldiers are just following orders. They don’t know precisely why they are there. Nor do they know precisely what they are trying to accomplish. But they give everything they have to follow their orders and complete their mission. Perhaps it’s just something a civilian wouldn’t understand.

If any malcontent need be directed, it should be at the leadership (who sit in their ivory tower collecting 300–400k a year) who make the decisions.

However, it should tell you something that it’s not just the United States involved in the war. For what reason are all these other countries supporting our government’s cause? Is it simply because they are allies? Or do they support a cause that the general public doesn’t fully understand?

It gets a little shady (from my perspective) when people are willing to support the troops, but not their mission.

I’m not sure if I made a whole lot of sense with this post but.. my buttons just get pushed when people (who aren’t fighting in the war) complain about people dying (who are fighting in the war). These soldiers were not drafted. They were not forced to do what they do. They are volunteers. And they are some of the bravest, most noteworthy volunteers of our time.

I still think it rings true that an Army is “a body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of politicians.”