IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: American casualties total 500,000, counting injury and disease, writer claims

Here's an eye-popping number:

A blogger and writer claims American military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan now exceed 500,000. 

That's if you count certain injuries and diseases including mental illness that he alleges the Department of Defense doesn't include in its official combat-related casualty toll in an effort to soften U.S. military losses in the wars and win funding for them from the Congress.

For example, cases of traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as a result of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the official list of casualties. 

"Under this scheme, chronic injuries and many acute internal injuries such as hearing impairment, back injuries, mild traumatic brain injuries, mental health problems and a host of diseases suffered by personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are usually not counted as being war-related regardless of how debilitating they are," writes Matthew Nasuti in an article published on the Afghan news site and media organization Kabul Press. "They are either generally lumped into the category of 'non-hostile wounded' or simply not counted at all."

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QATAR: Snipers, grenades, and volleyball

 

Marines from Camp Pendleton are in the Qatar desert training with the Qatari military in an exercise called Eastern Maverick.

The exercise, involving the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Qatari soldiers, includes sniper training, grenade handling and the use of a Global Positioning System.

"They picked it up very quickly," said Lt. Jesus Mendez.

It's not all work. There was also time for a volleyball game.

"It's a good way to break down the barriers," said Qatari Maj. Adel Ali Al Saadi in an official statement released by the Marines.

— Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Marine Lt. Kyle Bibby tutors Qatari soldiers on patrolling. Credit: Marine Corps

OFF SOMALIA: U.S. Navy, Marines patrol for pirates, like the old days

The U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps made their international reputations in the early 19th century by fighting the Barbary pirates of North Africa.

Two centuries later, they've got a similar assignment: deterring the pirates that prey on merchant ships off the coast of Somalia.

Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., are now on the docking ship San Antonio, the flagship of Task Force 151, a mullti-national force assigned to patrol the Gulf of Aden to discourage and if necessary confront the pirates.

— Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: U.S. Military Sealift Command ship Tippecanoe replenishes the USS Mahan, guided missile destroyer assigned to Task Force 151. Credit: U.S. Navy

IRAQ: Slain Marines awarded Navy Cross

Two young Marines will be posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for stopping a terrorist attack on a Marine and Iraqi police outpost in Ramadi and saving dozens of lives, the Marine Corps announced today.

Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, of Sag Harbor, N.Y., and Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, of Burkeville, Va., were standing guard on April 22 when a truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives barreled toward the outpost's main gate.

Haerter and Yale, following Marine training, fired at the truck. As the truck rolled to a stop, it exploded, killing the pair, demolishing a nearby mosque and house, and leaving a crater 20 feet in diameter and 5  feet deep.

Security film showed that the two Marines never flinched as they continued to fire at the truck, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps. "Both Marines were killed still firing their weapons," said Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq.

Three Marines, eight Iraqi officers and 24 civilians -- all more than 100 yards from the blast -- were injured.  An additional 50 Marines and dozens of Iraqi police officers, in a barracks farther from the gate, were unhurt. 

"I have a son back home, and I know if that truck would've made it to where it was going -- I wouldn't be here today," Lance Cpl. Lawrence Tillery said after the attack. "Because of Lance Cpl. Haerter and Cpl. Yale, I will be able to see my son again. They gave me that opportunity."

AFGHANISTAN: Goodbye Fallouja, hello Kabul?

Nothing official has been said, but more and more Marines of all ranks are saying that their future is in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

Two facts are giving the rumor extra boost: The Bush administration is known to be retooling its Afghanistan strategy, and the Marines on Saturday will formally turn over security responsibility for Anbar province in Iraq to the Iraqis.

The Marines will stay in Iraq to help the Iraqi forces, but indications are that a drawdown is being planned, maybe by end of the year.

Marine brass, including the commandant, Gen. James Conway, have made no secret of their desire to get back to Afghanistan. This spring, two Marine units, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, and the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment from Twentynine Palms, were sent to Afghanistan for a seven-month deployment.

Few Marines feel a onetime deployment will be sufficient to thwart a resurgent Taliban and continue to train the Afghan forces. For the Marines from Camp Pendleton, a return to Afghanistan would represent an opportunity to complete some unfinished business.

Marines from the  base were the first conventional U.S. troops into Afghanistan in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, helping to topple the Taliban but missing a chance to kill or capture Osama bin Laden.

A return, of course, would not be casualty-free. In the past week, seven troops from Twentynine Palms have been killed.

--Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: Afghan tribal leaders gather recently, with Marines standing guard against insurgent attack.   Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN: Official Huggers greet Marines; "All my boys."

The Official Huggers had a busy day Tuesday as Marines from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing returned to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego.

The group, mostly mothers with sons and daughters in the Marine Corps, is determined that no Marine or sailor will return from Iraq, Afghanistan or a Western Pacific deployment without someone to greet them.

On Tuesday, it was Marines from Fighter Attack Squadron 232, an F/A-18 squadron.

For 10 of the last 14 months, the squadron has been deployed either in the Persian Gulf or aboard the carrier Nimitz off Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Guam. That none of the Official Huggers had a son or daughter in the squadron was unimportant.

"We're here for the guys who don't have families," said Joyce Orrell of Valley Center, whose son is undergoing training in Texas. "We don't ever want it to be like it was in Vietnam when guys came home and nobody was here.'

Brooke Pilkington of Colorado has two sons stationed at Twentynine Palms; Teresa Rush, who lives in Indiana, has a son in Fallouja. "When you hug these guys, it's like hugging your own son," she said.

Orrell agreed. "These are all my boys," she said.

— Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: From left, Joyce Orrell, Teresa Rush, and Brooke Pilkington. Credit: Tony Perry/Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Marine at job interview allegedly told of killing

Marine Sgt. Ryan G. Weemer, called back to active duty to face the charges, was charged Tuesday by the military with murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of a prisoner on Nov. 9, 2004.

The case began when Weemer, as part of an interview for a Secret Service job, allegedly mentioned killing prisoners in Fallouja.

Click here to read more.

— Tony Perry in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Photo: Marines conduct a search of a Fallouja home in a 2004 battle against insurgents. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

PERSIAN GULF: Knife fighting, prison style

For its program to teach Marines how to fight hand to hand, the Marine Corps studied all the classic martial arts disciplines and some new ones, like Israeli army tactics. It picked only the best and most lethal ways to dispatch an enemy when combat is to kill or be killed.

And for the best techniques in knife fighting, it chose the methods used by prisoners. A consultant had hundreds of hours of security tapes showing knife attacks in prison: stealthy, quick and deadly.

Now the Marines are teaching the same tactics in their McMap (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program), which starts in boot camp and continues throughout a Marine's career.

Knife fighting starts with a rush toward an enemy and a hand to his face or chest, then quick swipes with the knife to either side of the neck. Be aggressive and unapologetic. In the joint, it's called the "prison-yard rush"; in the Marine Corps, it's called "bull-dogging."

"It's a personal thing, if you're using a knife," said Sgt. Andrew Mulder, 23, of Sioux Falls, S.D., one of the Marines learning knife fighting and other skills while aboard the amphibious assault ship Tarawa in the Persian Gulf.

— Tony Perry on the Tarawa

Photo: An instructor shows a Marine how to kill with a knife. Credit: Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times