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| India-Pakistan |
| Swat fighting more deadly than Iraqi insurgency |
| 2008-02-04 |
| More than two months after the Pakistani military launched an operation to clear the district of Swat in the Northwest Frontier Province, pockets of Taliban forces and safe havens remain. The Pakistani military and police have taken casualties far greater the combined US and Iraqi forces have fighting the insurgency in Iraq, according to an Interior Ministry report obtained by the Daily Times. The most telling information from the Interior Ministry's status report on Swat is the casualty data. The Pakistani security forces operating in the small district lost 195 soldiers, policemen, and Frontier Constabulary paramilitaries during the month of January alone. Data on December 2007 is not available. The Pakistani military has been keen to report the killing or capturing of Taliban forces in Swat, but has withheld data on military and police casualties. While hundreds of Taliban were reported killed or captured in January, only a small fraction of the security forces casualties were reported. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #3 Also neglected to be mentioned in the article - Our military is afforded the best available training, protection, medical evacuation, and treatment on earth...We enjoy the advantages of 24/7 aerial recon and air/fire support. Wounded soldiers have >90% survival rate and get to a hospital in 30-60 minutes. KIA rates don't prove anything - more people will die in motorcycle crashes if they don't wear a good helmet...it doesn't make their highway more dangerous! |
| Posted by: SamD 2008-02-04 17:04 |
| #2 This is simply untrue. The original article (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008story_3-2-2008_pg1_2) states the these casualties were from JAN 07-08. 13 months, not one. The US Military suffered 941 KIA and 6100 WIA in the same time frame. Iraqi Army and Security forces - over 1500 KIA. (globalsecurity and icasualties.org) The statement, "The Pakistani military and police have taken casualties far greater the combined US and Iraqi forces have fighting the insurgency in Iraq" is false by a vast margin. The headline - while I'm sure unintented as such - is misleading. A much more appropriate comparison would be the Swat and the Diyala Province (6800 sq mi / Pop of 1.27 million), home to 128 US (not including Iraqi ISF) casualties in the same time frame. Although I agree the region IS important and dangerous, I thought it was necessary to offer some persepctive - The stats don't back up the claim. |
| Posted by: SamD 2008-02-04 16:47 |
| #1 The cancer that lives in the brains of the great unwashed. The cure ? Cut off it's head. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2008-02-04 11:23 |