Wednesday, May 28, 2014

"US Military in Afghanistan by the Numbers"

by Luis Martinez

Note: It surprised me this last memorial day when it surprised my friend when a 5K we were at listed a number of names that had been killed in military action this past year. He thought that nothing was happening in Afghanistan anymore. So when I saw this article, it stuck out at me.

The war in Afghanistan has been going on for 13 years. All troops are not supposed to pull out until 2016. This will have been one of the longest wars the United States has ever been a part of. It started in 2001 when the United States bombed Al Queda training camps.

Overall, there has been over 800,000 military that served for various time spans on very in Afghanistan. The peak of military serving at one time was 100,000 in 2010. There are currently 32,800 military service members in Afghanistan. The Obama administration is calling to reduce that to 9,800 by the end of this year. This number is supposed to be halved by 2015. All troops are supposed to be pulled by 2016.

The war cost 537.8 billion dollars.

2,184 died in the line of active duty in Afghanistan. 19,600 more were wounded.

Link and video can be found at ABCnews here

Katie Madel

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