US Wounded in Afghanistan Nears Entire 2009 Toll

 

 

Estimated 2,000 US Troops Wounded Through Early July

With 2010 just scarcely halfway over, the record tolls of the Afghan War are coming fast and furious, pointing to yet another year that will be by far the worst on record for the international invasion force.

The current statistic relates to wounded soldiers in Afghanistan, with ABC News reporting an estimated 2,000 American soldiers have been wounded from the beginning of 2010 through July 3. The number is four times as many as were wounded in the same period in 2009 and nearly as many as were wounded in the entire year last year, which was itself the worst of the war.

In fact in the depths of winter Gen. Barry McCaffrey predicted that the United States should expect “500 casualties a month” by Summer, and while many people were appalled at this prediction, it seems he aimed a bit low, with June’s casualty figure for Americans running closer to 600 and July shaping up to be at least as bad.

Though the massive number of wounded rarely gets the attention that the death tolls in the war do (US deaths in 2010 are already 237, the second worst on record and easily on pass to pass the 317 killed in all of 2009), officials acknowledge that both figures are expected to continue to rise throughout the summer, leaving one to wonder if 500 casualties per month will not look like a gross underestimation by the time the first frost brings this season of the Afghan War to a close

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